Is it permissible for us to dispose of a house that has been mortgaged to us for over a hundred years by selling it, knowing that we do not know its owners, whose families haveقطع and become extinct from the area?

If you possess money and do not know its owners, you must exert your utmost effort to find them. If you despair of reaching them or their heirs, you should give it as charity on their behalf. This action is permissible due to necessity. If it is impossible to identify the owner of the money, it should be spent on the welfare of Muslims, according to the majority of scholars. This is similar to a situation where a person holds usurped goods, borrowed items, or deposits whose owners they have despaired of identifying; in such cases, they should give them as charity on behalf of the owners or spend them on the welfare of Muslims. As for real estate that cannot be utilized, it can be sold, the right taken, and the remainder given as charity on behalf of its owner. In the lands of the Two Holy Mosques, one must refer to the court, because the creditor cannot sell the mortgaged item without the debtor's permission; otherwise, it is the ruler who sells it.