Fri 25 شعبان 1447 (13 Feb 2026)
[What Car Showrooms Take]
Mufti:
Alsayyed Muhammad b. Abdallah Awad Al-Muayyady
Fatwa number: 20949
Number of views: 3
[What Car Showrooms Take]
Fatwa number: 20949
Print
Question: A man owns a car showroom. Car owners bring their cars and place them in the showroom; another comes, then another—each placing his car there to be offered for sale. A car may sell after a day, a week, or a month. When it is sold, the showroom owner demands a “showroom fee,” proportional to the car’s value, which he takes from both seller and buyer.
Is there any objection to what the showroom owner takes from the seller and the buyer, given that both buyer and seller knew of this in advance?
Answer—and Allah grants success and aid: There is no objection to what the showroom owner takes on the sold car, as compensation for the showroom—this with respect to the car’s seller, who is its owner. As for the buyer: if he purchases the car, then the showroom owner says to him after the sale contract, “Pay the showroom fee,” and the buyer refuses, saying, “I did not know that the showroom requires a fee from the buyer, and you did not stipulate anything upon me,”—then in that case there is no recourse against him, and it is not permissible to harass him.
But if he knows the established custom that the buyer owes half of the showroom’s fee, and he buys the car knowing that, then the fee is binding upon him. In reality it is not a fee as such; rather, for him it is part of the car’s total price.
If it is said: How do you bind him to half the showroom fee while he is a purchaser, not a renter; only the seller is the renter—
We say: This is the custom in car showrooms, and the people engaged in buying and selling cars have proceeded upon this custom. The scholars have said: custom is given the force of a condition in such matters; so if the buyer purchases the car at a stated price, it is as though, at the time of contract, that price was implicitly conditioned with an added amount for the showroom.
Yes, what appears to me is that the ijārah is invalid:
1- Due to ignorance of the term of display.
2- Due to ignorance of the fee.
On that basis, the showroom owner is not lawfully entitled to more than what the seller and buyer willingly consent to. If that is not achieved, then what is incumbent for him is the customary fee (ujrat al-mithl): two upright appraisers assess what the showroom owner deserves; whatever they determine is imposed upon the seller and the buyer, even if they are not content.
This is what has become apparent—Allah knows best. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah bless our master Muhammad and his family and grant them peace.
Source: Min Thimār al-ʿIlm wa al-Ḥikmah vol.2
- Website categories