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How is the inheritance of a house calculated where the ground floor was built by the father, then the male children built their own apartments on the upper floors at their own expense? Do the daughters have the right to claim their share in these apartments, or do they have a right to compensation for the male children's benefit from building their apartments above the ground floor?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The ground floor, built by the father, is an inheritance from him and should be divided among the heirs according to Islamic law. As for the apartments built by the children during their father's lifetime, with his permission but without him transferring ownership of the roof, these are considered a gratuitous loan (عاريّة) that terminates upon death. Whatever was built after the demise of the deceased, with the permission of the heirs, is also a gratuitous loan unless they transferred ownership of the roof. These rulings are applicable if the heirs acknowledge and agree upon them; otherwise, the matter reverts to the Sharia court.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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