Our Islamic school has
reached a point where people dont pay their school fees putting the school
under tremendous pressure as we depend on fees for all our expenses...we now
hand over these amounts to a Muslim lawyer firm to collect.they charge a fee to
the parent for collection as we cannot afford to pay the firm...is this
collection fee charged by the firm jaiz?

Answer: 

We acknowledge that the parents have defaulted by not paying the fees timeously, and as a result inconvenienced the school to the extent that debt collection agencies had to be employed to retrieve outstanding fees. However, the school cannot claim for charges imposed by the debt collection agency from the parents, rather the school will be liable to pay the debt collection agency themselves.

This Kitaabs of Fiqh state that one is only entitled to charge a fee when there is an agreement between two parties. In the queried scenario, there exists an agreement between the school and the debt collecting agency and not between the debt collection agency and parent, thus it is the school that will be liable for the charges imposed by the debt collection agency.

However, if there is an existing agreement between the parents and the school whereby parents agree to pay any costs incurred by the school due to parents defaulting in payment of school fees timeously, then in this case the debt collection charges can be claimed from the parents.

And Allah Ta'aala knows best!

ANSWERED BY: Mufti Mohammed Desai

CHECKED AND APPROVED BY:  Mufti Muhammed Saeed Motara Saheb D.B 

Date: 07 Jumadal Ukhra 1440 - English Date: 13 February 2019