Miscellaneous Issues of lease and rent

2293. The property, which the lessor gives on lease should be identified. Hence, if it is none of the things whose transaction is made by weight (e.g. wheat), its weight should be specified. And if it is none of those things whose transaction is made by counting (e.g. eggs or currency coins), the number should be specified. And if it is like a horse or a sheep, the lessor should have a sight of it, or the lesser should inform him of its particulars.

2294. If land is given on lease for farming of barely or wheat and the like, and the produce of that very land is treated as its rent, the lease contract will not be valid.

2295. If a person has leased out something, he cannot claim its rent until he has delivered it. And if a person is hired to perform an act, he cannot claim wages until he has performed that act.

2296. If a lessor delivers the leased property, the lessee should pay the rent, even if he may not take the delivery, or may take its delivery, but may not utilize it till the end of the period of lease.

2297. If a person agrees to perform a task on a particular day against wages, and appears on that day to perform the task, the person who has hired him should pay him the wages, even if he may not assign that task to him.
For example, if a tailor is hired to sew a dress on a particular day, and he appears to do the work, the hirer should pay him the wages even if he may not provide him with the cloth to sew, irrespective of whether the tailor remains without work on that day or alternatively does his own or something else’s work.

2298. If it transpires after the expiry of the period of lease, that the lease contract was void, the lessee should give the usual rent of that thing to the owner of the property. For example, if a person takes a house on lease for one year on a rent of 1000 T. and learns later that the lease contract was void, and if the normal current rent of the house is 500 T., he should pay 500 T. And if its normal current rent is 2000 T., it is not necessary for the lessee to give him. And the same order applies, if it is known during the period of lease, that the lease contract is void in relation to the outstanding rent for the past period.

2299. If a thing taken by a person on lease is lost, and if he has not been negligent in looking after it nor extravagant in its use, he is not responsible for the loss. Also, if, for example, a cloth given to a tailor is damaged or destroyed, when the tailor has not been extravagant, and has also not shown negligence in taking care of it, he need not make any replacement.

2300. If an artisan loses the thing taken by him, he is responsible for it.

2301. If a butcher cuts off the head of an animal, and makes it Haraam, he must pay its price to its owner, regardless of whether he charged for slaughtering the animal or did it gratis.

2302. If a person takes an animal on hire, and specifies as to how much he will load on it, and if he puts a heavier load on it, and as a result, the animal dies or becomes defective, he is responsible for it. And even if the quantity of the load is not specified, and he puts an unusually heavier load on it with the result that the animal dies or becomes defective, the person concerned is responsible. And in both cases, he must pay extra rent than is usual.

2303. If a person gives an animal on hire so that fragile goods may be loaded on it, and the animal slips or trots and breaks the things, the owner of the animal is not responsible for it. However, if the owner beats the animal severely, or does something like it, as a result of which the animal falls down on the ground, and breaks the goods he is responsible.

2304. If a person circumcises a child, and as a consequence of it the child dies, or is injured, the person who circumcises is responsible if he has been careless or made a mistake, like having cut the flesh more than usual.
However, if he was not careless, or did not make any mistake, and the child dies due to circumcision, or sustains an injury, he will not be responsible, provided that he had not been consulted earlier about the possible injury.

2305. If a doctor gives medicines to a patient with his own hands, or injects or prescribes a medicine for him, and if the patient sustains harm or dies because of taking that medicine, the doctor is responsible. But if the doctor was not treating a patient, and he has only expressed his medical advice in a book or says that a particular medicine is good for a particular illness, and because of doing that a patient sustains harm or dies, the doctor is not liable.

2306. If a doctor tells a patient or his/her guardian: “if you sustain harm, I am not responsible,” and then exercises due precaution and care in the treatment, but the patient sustains harm or dies, the doctor is not responsible.

2307. The lessee and the lessor can cancel the lease contract with mutual consent. Also, if a condition was laid down in the lease contract that one or both of them would have the option to cancel the contract, they can cancel the contract as agreed.

2308. If the lessor or the lessee realizes that the has been cheated, if he did not notice at the time of making the lease contract that he was being cheated, he can cancel the lease contract. However, if a condition is laid down in the contract of lease, that even if the parties are cheated, they will not be entitled to cancel the contract, they cannot cancel it.

2309. If a person gives something on lease, and before he delivers it to the other party, it is usurped, the lessee can cancel the lease contract and take back whatever he has given to the lessor, or he may not cancel the lease contract, and take from the usurper rent at the usual rate, for the period the thing remained in his possession. Therefore, if a person takes an animal on lease for one month for 1500 T. and someone usurps if for ten days, and the usual rent for ten days is 1000 T., the lessee can take 1500 T. from the usurper.

2310. If a lessee hires something and after delivery someone usurps it from him, he cannot cancel the lease. He is entitled only to take rent of that thing from the usurper at the usual rate.

2311. If the lessor sells the property to the lessee before the expiry of the period of lese, the lease contract doe s not get cancelled, and the lessee should give the rent of the property to someone else.

2312. If before the commencement of the period of lease, the leased property gets so impaired that it cannot be utilized at all or in the manner agreed upon, the lease contract becomes void, and the money paid by the lessee will revert back to him. And if it is possible to utilize the property partly, the lessee can cancel the lease contract.

2313. If a person takes something on lease, and during the period of lease it becomes so impaired that it is not fit at all or for the required use, the remaining lease contract will be void, and the lessee can cancel the lease for the past period also. And for that period, he may pay usual rent.

2314. If a person leases out a house which has, for example two rooms, and one of those rooms is ruined and he gets it repaired, and its use does not get interrupted, then the lease does not become void, and the lessee cannot cancel the lease. However, if the repair takes too long, and its use is interrupted, then the lease will be invalid for that much period, and in this case, the lessee can cancel the whole lease; and in exchange of whatever use he may have made, he should pay a usual rent.

2315. If the lessor or the lessee dies, the lease contract does not become void. but if the house is not the property of the lessor, for example, another person made a will that as long as he (the lessor) is alive, the income derived from the house will be his property, and if he gives that house on lease, and dies before the expiry of the lease period, the lease contract becomes void from the time of his death.

2316. If an employer appoints a contractor to recruit laborers for him, and if the contractor pays the laborers less than what he receives for them from the employer, the excess he keeps is Haraam for him, and he should return it to the employer. And if the contractor is given a full contract by the employer, to complete a building, and is authorized to either construct it himself or give a sub-contract to another party, if he joins with the other party in doing some work, and then entrusting him to do the remaining work against lower payment than what he has collected from the employer, the surplus with him will be Halal for him.

2317. If a person, who dyes the clothes, agrees to dye a cloth with indigo, he has no right to claim any charges if he dyes it with something else. And if it causes harm to cloth, he is responsible.