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Selling Unclaimed Items to
Defray Costs
Follow the procedure as outlined hereunder:
a) When accepting items for repairs take down the
customer's name, address and telephone number, or at least one of the last
two. This is for later identification.
b) When the repairs have been done, notify the owner to
come and collect his item.
c) Should the owner fail to appear, send off another
notification. This can be telephonically and/or by letter, fax, etc., or
whichever way possible. Wait for about a week then make another effort to
contact the customer.
d) If the owner still does not appear, make another
attempt to contact him.
In this manner you should make several attempts to get in touch with the
customer. Note: There is no fixed number of times you need to contract
the owner, nor any fixed period within which this must be done. The Shariah has
not prescribed any number of days or months. It all depends on the
circumstances. The criterion is your own personal discretion in the matter. If
you feel after several failed attempts at contact, that the owner will not
appear, you may go ahead with the next step. If not, continue waiting. If you
feel strongly that the person will put in an appearance then it is wajib to
carry on waiting.
Once you have established and satisfied yourself that the owner really will
not come and collect the goods, now you go ahead and sell it. But observe the
following important points:
(i) It must be sold at its current value, not hocked to the first
buyer at any price. (This is what people normally do just to get back their
money.)
(ii) After selling it deduct your costs on repairs.
(iii) The balance of the money if any, must be given to poor Muslims
in charity. It is not permissible to utilize that money for any other purpose.
NOTE (A):
If your repairs were very costly, then adopt the advice given above to
retrieve these costs. If not, then it will be better not to sell the item but
give it away in sadaqah as is. This is the original ruling on unclaimed
items or lost property. In this case, should the owner not appear after
exhaustive efforts to trace him, give the whole item away to a poor Muslim. In
the process, make a niyyat of sadaqah for the amount it cost you to repair the
item. Otherwise, you may act on the points given above. The choice is yours.
NOTE (B):
Should the owner appear after you've sold the goods or given it away, he is
entitled to the price fetched for his item, minus the cost of repairs. If, for
example, an unclaimed item was sold for R100.00, of which R20.00 was the cost of
repairs and the balance of R80.00 was given in sadaqah, then the owner who
resurfaced after his item was disposed off is entitled to R80.00. You being the
one who sold off his article must reimburse the owner. | 