Zakat on Rented-Out Houses

Question

Apart from the house used for our own residence and for the needs of the press, there are other houses whose rent is entered as income. And roughly about the same amount has to be paid as rent for other shops, which have to be taken on hire for the needs of the press. Moreover, the houses do not stay let throughout the year: sometimes they are let and sometimes they also stand empty, and it may be that one house stays let for the whole year — in any case, nothing is fixed.

Answer

Zakat is not wajib on these houses. If the money from their income reaches the amount of the nisab and a full year passes over it, zakat will be wajib on it, provided that it is free of basic needs (hawa’ij asliyya).

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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