Housing ownership

TDT | Manama

Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com

Widows and children of Bahraini housing applicants who die before receiving a state home can keep the family’s housing file active, and in some cases take ownership of the property with outstanding sums written off, the Housing and Urban Planning Ministry has told the Shura Council.

In a written reply to member Nancy Khadouri, the ministry said Decision No. (909) of 2015 on the Housing System covers such cases through Article (83).

That article allows the ministry to transfer an existing housing application into the name of a member of the late applicant’s family, by agreement among them and at their request, provided the person concerned forms an eligible family under the rules and is already listed in the original application.

The ministry added that the transfer mechanism applies when the head of the family who filed the request dies, and that the new applicant must fall within one of the four categories named in Article (5) of the same decision, covering the first, second, third and fourth groups of eligible families.

On the second part of Ms Khadouri’s question, which dealt with sons and daughters of a deceased beneficiary who had already received a housing service but had not yet obtained ownership, the ministry described two paths that are followed in practice.

If the deceased leaves a wife and only minor child or children, the ministry cancels all remaining amounts.