Mortgage of Jointly Owned Property in the Jurisprudence of Five Religious Schools of Law and in Iranian Law

Mortgage of jointly owned property (indivisum) is permissible according to Imamiyah, Maliki, Shafi’i, and Hanbali (except Hanafi) schools of Law because it is an instance of the rule of dominion. This is because conclusion of the mortgage contract does not mean possession of the jointly owned property. It is clear that submission of the jointly owned property to the mortgagee, in cases where it requires possession of the shares of the other partners, requires obtaining their consent. In cases where the mortgager submits the property to the mortgagee without the consent of the other partners, he shall be considered legally responsible for that. However, in cases where the submission of property means evacuation, the submission of the property does not mean possession of the shares of other partners, thus according to the jurisprudence of the above-said schools of law it does not need their consent for evacuation. This paper intends to study these issues in the jurisprudence of the abovementioned five schools of law and in the Iranian law.