Our firm provides estate division services in accordance with the provisions of Islamic Sharia and the applicable laws governing the distribution of a deceased person’s estate among the heirs. Our lawyers handle inheritance matters with care and work to have the division carried out fairly and in an orderly manner. Our services include applying for the legal heirship certificate through the Ministry of Justice’s Estates platform, identifying estate assets and liabilities, calculating the heirs’ shares, preparing division agreements and following up on their documentation, and representing heirs in judicial division where there is a dispute.
Disputes Among Heirs and How the Regulations Address Them
Disagreements may arise among heirs over the division of the estate or over its management before division. The table below sets out the most common forms of these disputes and how the regulations address them. The handling of each case varies according to its facts and supporting documents.
| Type of dispute | Treatment under the regulations | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| An heir refuses an amicable division | Any co-owner may file a division claim seeking their share. The court may appoint an expert to determine which assets can and cannot be subject to compulsory division, and it orders the sale of assets that cannot be compulsorily divided, with each co-owner receiving their share of the proceeds, unless the co-owners agree otherwise. | Regulations on the Division of Jointly Owned Property: Articles 1(2), 16 and 18 |
| Disputes over ownership of certain estate assets, a debt owed by the deceased, a will, or a waqf (endowment) | These are “division disputes” and do not halt the hearing of the division claim. The court rules on the undisputed assets that are ready for division, and it may stay the claim until the disputes are resolved if that is not possible or if it appears they may exhaust the jointly owned property. | The Regulations: Articles 1(5) and 12 |
| An heir takes sole possession of estate real property without right | Any co-owner may file a claim to have the jointly owned property vacated, and the liquidator or judicial custodian, if any, must file it according to the duties assigned to them. Anyone who unlawfully seizes any part of the jointly owned property, even if a co-owner, or deliberately obstructs the division or liquidation claim, is referred to the Public Prosecution. | The Regulations: Articles 5 and 37 |
| Concealment of estate assets or documents | The court hears claims for disclosure of the assets and documents of the jointly owned property, and it may write to the competent authorities or those overseeing the registration of assets to have them disclosed. | The Regulations: Articles 11(1) and 13 |
| Disputes over the use of estate assets before division | During the division claim, heirs may share the benefits of the jointly owned property through a time- or space-based sharing arrangement (muhaya’a) until the division is complete. If they cannot agree, the court rules on this where necessary. | The Regulations: Articles 1(6) and 6 |
| Disputes over the management and liquidation of the estate | Where necessary, the court may appoint a liquidator chosen by agreement of all parties concerned; if they do not agree, it selects a licensed liquidator. It may also take urgent measures to preserve the jointly owned property, including entrusting the General Authority for Guardianship over the Property of Minors and Persons of Similar Status (الهيئة العامة للولاية على أموال القاصرين ومن في حكمهم) with safeguarding the disputed property until it is adjudicated. | The Regulations: Articles 20 and 21 |
| Objection to the inventory list prepared by the liquidator | A dispute over the accuracy of the inventory, whether to include or exclude items, is raised by a statement of claim filed with the administration of the court hearing the division claim within the thirty days following notification of the filing of the inventory list. | The Regulations: Article 39(1) |
| Disputes over a bequest to an heir or exceeding one third | A bequest to an heir does not take effect unless the other heirs approve it after the death; if only some approve, it takes effect within their shares. A bequest takes effect up to one third of the estate; any excess is suspended pending the heirs’ approval and takes effect to the extent of the shares of those who approve. | Personal Status Law: Articles 179(1) and 190 |
| Challenging an heir’s entitlement to inherit | A person who kills the person from whom they would inherit, intentionally and wrongfully or quasi-intentionally, whether as principal perpetrator or accomplice, does not inherit; nor does a person who caused or ordered the killing wrongfully or quasi-intentionally. A person who kills by mistake inherits from the estate but not from the blood money (diya). There is no inheritance between persons of different religions, subject to the provisions on bequests, nor between persons who die at the same time or where it is unknown who died first. | Personal Status Law: Articles 200, 202 and 203 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Article 1 of the Regulations on the Division of Jointly Owned Property defines consensual division as division that is permissible only with the consent of the co-owners, because it involves harm or the payment of compensation by one of them to another, and compulsory division as division that involves no harm to the co-owners or any of them and no payment of compensation.
Article 171 of the Personal Status Law provides that a will is executed from the testator’s estate after deducting the funeral expenses of the deceased and paying the deceased’s debts. Where jointly owned property is liquidated, the liquidator divides it among the co-owners after settling debts, bequests and the like, under Article 44 of the Regulations on the Division of Jointly Owned Property.
A will is executed if it does not exceed one third of the estate; any excess depends on the approval of the heirs and is executed to the extent of the shares of those who approve it (Article 190 of the Personal Status Law). There is no will in favor of an heir unless the other heirs approve it after the death; if only some approve, it is executed from their shares (Article 179).
The Ministry of Justice offers an electronic service for issuing the legal heirship certificate through the Estates platform, accessed through the National Single Sign-On. The application includes the details of the applicant, the deceased, the heirs and the witnesses, and the certificate sets out the details of the deceased, the heirs and their shares. Paper heirship deeds issued by the courts may be digitized through the Ministry’s electronic services after verification by the competent court.
Co-owners with full capacity may divide jointly owned property in the manner they agree, provided it does not contradict Sharia and the laws, and the agreement is then submitted to the competent authority for documentation (Article 3 of the Regulations on the Division of Jointly Owned Property). The Ministry of Justice also offers an agreed estate division service through the Estates platform. If, after division, a claim is made for a debt against or a bequest in the jointly owned property, it is heard under the general rules of subject-matter and territorial jurisdiction (Article 46 of the Regulations).
Article 12 of the Notarization Law, as amended by Royal Decree No. M/21 dated 26/1/1447H, provides that a notary public is not competent to notarize any acknowledgment or contract where one of the parties lacks or has limited capacity, is absent, or is a waqf administrator or executor, except in specific cases that do not include division. Under Article 2 of the Regulations on the Division of Jointly Owned Property, the special statutory provisions must be observed when dividing jointly owned property that includes the share of a minor, an absent or missing person, a waqf or a will.
The court orders the sale of property that cannot be divided by compulsory division and the delivery to each co-owner of his or her share of the price, unless the co-owners agree otherwise, and the sale judgment, once final, is submitted to the competent enforcement circuit for execution, under Article 18 of the Regulations on the Division of Jointly Owned Property.
Guardianship over a minor’s property belongs to the father, then the father’s appointed guardian, then a guardian appointed by the court (Article 139 of the Personal Status Law). If the minor has no appointed guardian, or the guardian is removed, the court appoints a guardian for the minor’s property after consulting the mother (Article 152). The guardian must deposit the minor’s property in bank accounts in the minor’s name (Article 156), without prejudice to the powers of the General Authority for the Guardianship of Minors’ Property (Article 144).
Legal references
Official sources for the legal information on this page (Arabic texts):
- Personal Status Law (نظام الأحوال الشخصية) — Umm Al-Qura Gazette.
- Regulation of the Personal Status Law (لائحة نظام الأحوال الشخصية) — Umm Al-Qura Gazette.
- Regulations on the Division of Jointly Owned Property (لائحة قسمة الأموال المشتركة) — Ministry of Justice legal portal.
- Royal Decree No. (M/21) dated 26/1/1447H amending the Notarization Law (نظام التوثيق) — Umm Al-Qura Gazette.
- Ministry of Justice e-services: Issuance of heirs determination (إصدار حصر الورثة), Digitization of an heirs determination document (طلب رقمنة وثيقة حصر الورثة), and Consensual estate division (قسمة تركة اتفاقية).
Last content update: 22 October 2026.