Key Money

Question

In Mumbai people generally live as tenants in other people’s buildings, whom by law even the owner of the house cannot evict; he only has the right to collect rent. When needed, the tenants buy and sell among themselves, for very large sums, these dwellings that are not their property; here this sum is called “key money”.

Answer

The tenant has the right to give that house to another person at the same rent at which he himself took the house; but he has no right to collect from anyone more rent than he himself paid the owner of the house. However, if he has installed cupboards and the like in the house and made it fine, he has the right to recover as much as he has spent.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

Preview. The full text opens with JavaScript enabled.