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Fatwa CenterMother Wants to Gift House to Her Daughter Only
Question
Man has died leaving wife ,two sons and one daughter and has left a house in wife's name, nothing of the money left was ever shared by sons .Married daughter is living with the mother in father's house .Can the mother gift that house in her life to daughter saying that sons should give up their share as according to her daughter is more needy
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
We have already explained in Fatwa 91269 that if a gift is possessed by the person to whom it was given while the donor is still alive, and he disposes of it as if he was the owner, then it is an acceptable and valid gift, and it is considered as the property of the person to whom it was gifted.
Therefore, if your father had registered the house in the name of his wife as a gift and the wife possessed the house when her husband was still alive, then the house became her property, and hence, she may gift it to her daughter as long as there is a reason of favoring one child over the other; the reason here is that the daughter is poor and needs a house to reside in. The sons have no right to ask their share in the house as it is not an inheritance which their father had left.
However, if the house was registered in the wife's name for a particular reason but was not intended as a gift to her, or if it was gifted to her but she did not possess the house while her husband was still alive and was not able to act on the house as if she was the owner, then the house is for all the heirs, among whom are the sons, after the death of her husband. In this case, she has no right to register the house in the name of her daughter and prevent the other heirs from their share even if the daughter is poor and the sons are rich.
Allah Knows best.
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