Can I sell my share of an inherited or co-owned property in Lebanon?

Also asked as: “Do co-owners have pre-emption (shuf'a) in Lebanon?” · “Can a co-heir sell an inherited share without the others' consent?” · “Right of first refusal on co-owned property in Lebanon” · “Can my brother stop me selling my share?”

You can sell, but an outside buyer can be replaced#

Owning a share "in indivision" means you and the others each own a fraction of the whole plot or building, written in shares out of 2,400. You do not own a marked-off part of it^[2,3,4]. You can sell your fraction without asking the others first. According to Kallas Law Firm, pre-emption comes into play afterwards: once the sale is registered, a co-owner can step into the buyer's shoes on identical terms^[1].

Only three people hold this right: a co-owner when a share is sold to an outsider, the bare owner when the usufruct is sold, and the usufructuary when the bare ownership is sold. Neighbours lost their pre-emption under Law 461 of 31 August 1995^[1]. The right passes to a co-owner's heirs but cannot be handed to anyone else, and if several co-owners claim, each takes in proportion to their share.

If you would rather end the co-ownership altogether than sell a fraction, that is a separate court route: see how to end co-ownership of a property.

When pre-emption does not apply#

Selling your share to another co-owner of the same property opens no pre-emption^[1]. Nor do exchanges of property, or sales between spouses, between parents and children, or between siblings. A gift that turns out to be a disguised sale reopens it. There is also no pre-emption on a public auction run by the administration or the courts, which covers a partition auction, or in favour of a waqf.

Apartments follow other rules. According to Kallas, for divided units in a building under the condominium regime, Legislative Decree 88/1983 Art. 74 displaces ordinary pre-emption, except where some indivision remains. Art. 75 requires the buyer to notify the building administrator within 30 days and deposit the documents proving the purchase^[5]. If you are not sure whether your building has been divided into units, ask a lawyer or the Land Registry.

Deadlines, price and waivers#

After registration, the buyer notifies the co-owners: through a notary for people living in Lebanon, and under Code of Civil Procedure Art. 362 for people living abroad. A co-owner then has 10 days plus a distance delay to claim. Without notification, the right lapses one year after registration. Only a court action stops these clocks; letters between the parties do not^[1].

A co-owner who claims must actually offer the sale price and consign it to the court treasury no later than the day the action is filed, and must also repay the deed expenses and any improvements. If the price is not consigned, the court rejects the action^[1]. The buyer cannot then argue that the real price was higher than the price in the registered contract. That is one more reason to read what declaring a lower price in the deed risks.

A co-owner can give up the right before registration by a written act with an authenticated date that names the buyer, the price and the conditions, dated no more than six months before registration^[1]. Kallas lists other ways the right ends: the co-owner acted as the seller's agent, signed as a witness without reservation, or renounced after registration.

Inherited shares: clearance comes first#

For an estate, notaries and Land Registry officials may not draw up or register any transaction until the heirs obtain the Ministry of Finance's authorisation. It is issued only after the inheritance transfer fee is paid or secured for twice its maximum amount^[6]. New deeds are then issued in the heirs' names according to their shares. See transferring inherited property into the heirs' names and selling before the estate tax is paid.

If the property was registered to several people without fixed share sizes, the undefined share cannot be sold. When co-owners disagree, any of them can ask the additional land judge to fix the shares^[7,8]. No source we found sets the fees for selling an undivided inherited share, so ask the notary and the Land Registry for a written estimate before you agree a price.