In force
Saudi Civil Transactions Law
نظام المعاملات المدنية
The Civil Transactions Law of Saudi Arabia. This page presents the official Arabic text of each article with plain-English explanations for residents and businesses.
- Articles
- 721
- In force
- 721
- Amended
- 0
- Issued
- 29/11/1444 AH
Issued by: مرسوم ملكي رقم (م/191) وتاريخ 1444/11/29هـ · قرار مجلس الوزراء رقم (820) وتاريخ 1444/11/24هـ
Each article shows the official Arabic text, which is the only legally binding version, followed by our plain-English explanation.
Browse Civil Transactions Law by topic
Capacity and General Provisions53 articlesElements of the Contract44 articlesVoidness and Termination of Contracts56 articlesEffects and Interpretation of Contracts31 articlesCompensation for Harm59 articlesUnjust Enrichment16 articlesPerformance of Obligations and Agreed Compensation42 articlesCondition, Term and Joint Liability46 articlesAssignment of Rights and Debts25 articlesPerformance of Debt and Set-Off52 articlesLimitation Periods26 articlesSale Contract79 articlesGift19 articlesLoan Contract9 articlesSettlement Contract19 articlesLease Contract58 articlesContracting (Construction) Contract20 articlesAgency Contract35 articlesDeposit and Sequestration23 articlesPartnership and Mudaraba50 articlesSuretyship30 articlesInsurance Contract1 articleOwnership, Co-Ownership and Partition89 articlesPreemption, Possession and Easements43 articles
Articles of the Saudi Civil Transactions Law
باب تمهيديArticles 1–29
- Article 1The Article sets the order of what applies to civil matters: the Law's provisions, then the general rules in the final provisions, then the most suitable rulings of Sharia, without prejudice to special statutory provisions.
- Article 2The Article provides that all periods and time limits in the Civil Transactions Law are calculated by the Hijri calendar.
- Article 3The Article provides that a person's legal personality begins with complete live birth and ends with death, and that the rights of an unborn child in the womb are determined by statutory provisions.
- Article 4The Article refers the rules on the missing person, the absent person and the person of unknown parentage to the statutory provisions specific to them rather than regulating them in the Civil Transactions Law.
- Article 5The Article refers the rules on persons' names, titles, families, kinship and nationalities to the statutory provisions specific to them.
- Article 6The article defines direct kinship as the link between ascendants and descendants, and indirect kinship as the bond between persons who share a common ancestor without one being a descendant of the other.
- Article 7The article explains how to count the degree of direct and indirect kinship, and treats a spouse's relatives as having the same kinship and degree in relation to the other spouse.
- Article 8The article defines domicile as the place of habitual residence, allows a person to have more than one, and makes the place of presence, or the last known place, the domicile of a person with no habitual residence.
- Article 9The article makes the place where a person carries on a trade or profession his domicile in relation to the management of the business of that trade or profession.
- Article 10The article makes the domicile of a person lacking capacity, a person with limited capacity, a missing person or an absent person that of their legal representative, and allows a person with limited capacity a special domicile for acts he is qualified to carry out.
- Article 11The article allows a chosen domicile to be adopted for a particular act, serving as the domicile for everything relating to it unless expressly limited, and requires writing to prove it.
- Article 12The article defines a person with full capacity as one who has reached the age of majority, enjoys his mental faculties and is not under interdiction, and sets the age of majority at 18 full Hijri years.
- Article 13The article defines a person lacking capacity as one who lacks discernment because of young age or insanity, and provides that a person who has not completed seven years of age is not considered to have discernment.
- Article 14The article lists persons with limited capacity: the minor with discernment who has not reached the age of majority, the person of deficient mind short of insanity, and the person under interdiction for prodigality or heedlessness.
- Article 15The article subjects persons lacking capacity and those with limited capacity to the rules of guardianship or custodianship as the case may be, in accordance with what the legal provisions set.
- Article 16The article prevents anyone from waiving his capacity or modifying its rules.
- Article 17The article lists persons with juridical personality: the State, public bodies and institutions, endowments (awqaf), companies, civil and cooperative associations and institutions, and anything granted this personality by legal provisions.
- Article 18The article provides that a juridical person enjoys all rights except those inherent in a human being, and has an independent financial liability, capacity, the right to sue, a domicile and a nationality, and must have someone who represents it.
- Article 19The article provides that anything material or immaterial may be the object of financial rights, except things that by nature cannot be exclusively possessed by anyone or that the legal provisions prevent from being the object of financial rights.
- Article 20The article defines property as anything that has a material value recognized in dealings, whether a thing, a usufruct or a right.
- Article 21The article distinguishes fungible things, whose units are alike or close and can stand in for one another on performance, from non-fungible things, whose units differ in a way recognized by custom or whose like is rarely found.
- Article 22The article defines an immovable as a thing fixed in its place that cannot be moved without damage or change in its form, everything else being movable, and treats a movable that its owner assigns to the service or exploitation of his immovable as an immovable by destination.
- Article 23The article defines consumable things as those whose use, according to what they are prepared for, is limited to consuming or spending them, and treats everything prepared in stores for sale as consumable.
- Article 24The article provides that the legal provisions specific to public property apply to it.
- Article 25The article divides financial rights into two kinds: personal rights and real rights.
- Article 26The article divides the real right into principal rights, such as ownership, usufruct, use, habitation, easement and waqf, and accessory rights, such as mortgage and privilege, together with what the legal provisions so consider.
- Article 27The article refers the rules on rights relating to an immaterial thing to the legal provisions specific to them.
- Article 28The article provides that a person who uses his right lawfully is not liable for any harm that arises from that.
- Article 29The article prohibits abuse in using a right, and sets its cases: aiming only to harm others, benefit entirely disproportionate to the harm caused, and use for something other than what the right was granted for or for an unlawful purpose.
الباب الأول: مصادر الالتزامArticles 30–160
- Article 30The article provides that the rules of the contract chapter apply to named and unnamed contracts, without prejudice to the legal provisions that regulate contracts of a special nature.
- Article 31A contract arises when one party's offer is joined to the other's acceptance to produce a legal effect, subject to the particular forms the legal provisions set for the formation of certain contracts.
- Article 32Consent in a contract is achieved when the wills of two or more contracting parties who have capacity to contract coincide and the will is expressed by what indicates it.
- Article 33Offer and acceptance may be by anything that indicates the will: words, writing, an understood gesture or mutual exchange, explicit or implicit, unless the legal provisions, the agreement or the nature of the transaction require otherwise.
- Article 34Displaying goods and services with their price stated is an offer, and an advertisement with the prevailing prices is not an offer, unless there are indications to the contrary in either case.
- Article 35The offeror may withdraw his offer before acceptance is made unless the offer has a fixed period, and if he does not inform the other party he compensates him for the harm suffered but not the expected profit.
- Article 36An offer lapses if the offeror withdraws it, it is rejected, either party dies or loses capacity before acceptance, acceptance is not connected to it, or its period expires; acceptance after lapse is a new offer.
- Article 37Silence is not acceptance except by agreement or indication; it is acceptance where the offer relates to a prior dealing between the parties or is solely for the benefit of the person addressed.
- Article 38A contract between parties present, including by direct means of communication, is concluded at the time and place the acceptance is issued, and between parties not present when the offeror learns of the acceptance, unless otherwise agreed.
- Article 39A contract in auctions is concluded only when the auction is awarded; a bid lapses when a higher bid is made, even if void, or when the auction closes without being awarded, without prejudice to statutory provisions.
- Article 40In adhesion contracts, acceptance is limited to mere submission to fixed terms set by the offeror that are not open to discussion.
- Article 41Negotiating does not oblige the parties to conclude a contract, but a person who negotiates or ends negotiations in bad faith is liable for the harm, not for expected profit; bad faith includes lack of seriousness and concealing an essential fact.
- Article 42Agreement on the essential matters while postponing the non-essential ones is enough to conclude a contract, unless the parties make its conclusion depend on agreeing on them; the court determines them if there is no agreement.
- Article 43A promise to conclude a future contract is binding only if its essential matters, the period for concluding it and its conditions are met; if the promisor refuses, the court's judgment, once issued, stands in place of the contract.
- Article 44Paying earnest money gives only the payer the right to withdraw from the contract without recovering it, unless otherwise agreed; the court sets the withdrawal period if the parties have not.
- Article 45A framework agreement is a contract in which the parties set the basic terms of the contracts they create between them under its provisions, and it is treated as part of those contracts.
- Article 46If the contracting parties, expressly or impliedly, refer in the contract to a model document, specified rules or any other document, it is treated as part of the contract.
- Article 47As a rule every person has capacity to act, unless wholly or partially incapacitated under a statutory text.
- Article 48A minor, even if able to discern, a person who is insane and a person with diminished mental capacity are under interdiction by operation of law; a spendthrift and a person of impaired judgment are interdicted, and released, by court judgment.
- Article 49The transactions of a minor unable to discern are void.
- Article 50The purely beneficial transactions of a minor able to discern are valid and the purely harmful ones void; those between benefit and harm are valid, and his guardian, executor or he after majority may seek to annul them.
- Article 51The guardian or executor may hand over to a minor who has completed 15 years a portion of his property and authorize him to act; the court may authorize him if they refuse; an authorized minor is like an adult in what he is authorized to do.
- Article 52The transactions of a person with diminished mental capacity are treated like those of a minor able to discern, and the transactions of a person who is insane like those of a minor unable to discern.
- Article 53The transactions of a spendthrift and of a person of impaired judgment after interdiction are treated like those of a minor able to discern; before interdiction they are valid unless they resulted from exploitation or collusion.
- Article 54Matters relating to guardianship and executorship are governed by the statutory texts specific to them.
- Article 55Transactions by guardians and executors are treated as valid within the limits set by statutory texts.
- Article 56If a partially incapacitated person resorts to fraudulent means to conceal his incapacity, he must compensate the other contracting party for the harm caused by the annulment of the contract.
- Article 57A contracting party may seek annulment of the contract if he made a material mistake without which he would not have agreed to the contract, particularly a mistake in a quality of the subject matter, in the other party's person or quality, or in a statutory ruling.
- Article 58A contracting party's mistake is taken into account only if the other party made the same mistake, knew he had made it, or could easily have discovered it.
- Article 59A mere material error in calculation or writing does not affect the contract.
- Article 60A person who made a mistake may not rely on it in a way that conflicts with good faith, and is bound by the contract he intended if the other contracting party shows readiness to perform it.
- Article 61Misrepresentation is one contracting party deceiving the other by fraudulent means that lead him to a contract he would not have concluded; deliberate silence to conceal a material matter is also misrepresentation.
- Article 62The article gives a person who was a victim of misrepresentation the right to seek annulment of the contract, provided the misrepresentation concerned a material matter without which he would not have agreed to the contract.
- Article 63If the misrepresentation came from a person other than the contracting parties, the deceived party may not seek annulment unless it is proven that the other contracting party knew of it or was presumed to know.
- Article 64The article defines duress as threatening a person without right by a physical or moral means that frightens him and leads him to act.
- Article 65Duress is established if the threat is of a grave and imminent danger to the person, honor or property of the person coerced, or is directed at another and the person coerced would not have concluded the contract without it.
- Article 66In assessing duress, the age of the person on whom it was exerted, his social and health condition and any other circumstance affecting its gravity must be taken into account.
- Article 67The article gives the person coerced the right to seek annulment of the contract if the duress came from the other contracting party; if it came from a third party, there is no annulment unless the other party's knowledge or presumed knowledge is proven.
- Article 68If a contracting party exploits an evident weakness or pressing need in the other and concludes a contract in which the other suffers inequity, the court, at the request of the injured party, may reduce his obligations, increase the other's obligations or annul the contract, within 180 days.
- Article 69The article defines inequity as an increase or decrease in consideration beyond the usual according to custom, and does not allow annulment for inequity alone except in specified cases, nor in auction contracts.
- Article 70The article allows the subject matter of an obligation to be the transfer of a real right, the performance of an act, or refraining from an act.
- Article 71The article allows the subject matter of an obligation to be a future thing specified by type and quantity, and prohibits dealing in the estate of a living person even with his consent, except as statutory texts permit.
- Article 72The article requires the subject matter of an obligation to be possible, not contrary to public order, and specified or capable of being specified, otherwise the contract is void.
- Article 73If the parties do not specify the quantity of the subject matter and the contract contains what allows it to be determined, the court determines it; if they do not agree on quality and there is no custom or indication, an item of medium quality must be delivered.
- Article 74The article allows a contract to include any term the parties agree to if it meets the conditions for the subject matter in Article 72; a void term is void alone, unless it is shown the party would not have agreed to the contract without it.
- Article 75Any contract whose motivating cause for contracting is unlawful is void, if that cause is stated in the contract or indicated by the circumstances of contracting.
- Article 76The article presumes that every contract whose cause is not stated has a lawful cause, unless evidence to the contrary is established.
- Article 77If a statutory text gives one contracting party the right to seek annulment of the contract, the other contracting party may not rely on that right.
- Article 78The right to seek annulment of a contract lapses when the person who holds it ratifies the contract expressly or impliedly, and ratification relates back to the time the contract was concluded.
- Article 79An action to annul a contract is not heard after one year from knowledge of its ground, or from attaining full capacity or the end of duress, nor after ten years from contracting except in the case of partial incapacity.
- Article 80Any interested person may give the holder of the right of annulment formal notice to state his wish to ratify or annul within a period of not less than 90 days; if he stays silent without excuse, his right lapses.
- Article 81Any interested person may rely on the nullity of a void contract and the court rules on it of its own motion; ratification does not cure it, and an action on it is not heard after ten years, though it may be raised as a defense at any time.
- Article 82When a contract is annulled or void, the contracting parties return to their position before contracting, and if that is impossible compensation may be awarded.
- Article 83If a contract is annulled or void because a party is partially or wholly incapacitated, he is not bound to return more than the considerable benefit he obtained by reason of performance of the contract.
- Article 84If part of a contract is void or can be annulled, that part alone is void, unless it is shown that the contracting party would not have agreed to the contract without it, in which case he may seek its annulment.
- Article 85If a void contract meets the elements of another contract, that other contract is concluded if it is shown that the intention of the contracting parties was directed to it.
- Article 86Annulment of a contract may not be asserted against a specific successor who acquired a real right for value and in good faith, meaning one who did not know of the ground for annulment and could not have known with ordinary care.
- Article 87The article permits contracting through representation unless statutory texts require otherwise, and divides representation into agreed, judicial and statutory.
- Article 88The article prohibits a representative from exceeding the limits of his representation as set in the instrument creating it, whether a contract, a court judgment or a statutory text.
- Article 89In contracting through representation, the representative's person is what counts for defects of consent and the effect of knowledge, but a principal who gave specific instructions may not rely on his representative's ignorance of what he knows or is presumed to know.
- Article 90If the representative contracts within the limits of his representation and in the principal's name, the rights and obligations arising from the contract are attributed to the principal.
- Article 91If a representative does not inform the other party that he is contracting as a representative, the effect of the contract is not attributed to the principal except in two specified cases.
- Article 92The contract is attributed to the principal if the representative and the person contracting with him are both unaware, at the time of contracting, that the representation has ended.
- Article 93The article prevents a representative from contracting with himself by virtue of his representation without permission, whether for his own account or for the account of another, and allows the principal to ratify such a contract.
- Article 94The article provides that a valid contract may not be broken or modified except by agreement or a statutory text, that its rights arise as soon as it is concluded, and that it must be performed.
- Article 95The article requires a contract to be performed according to what it contains and in good faith, and provides that a contract includes its necessary incidents under statutory texts, custom and the nature of the contract.
- Article 96The article lets the court modify abusive terms in adhesion contracts, or relieve the adhering party of them, as justice requires, and voids any agreement to the contrary.
- Article 97The article lets a debtor burdened by exceptional, unforeseeable general circumstances invite the other party to negotiate, and lets the court reduce the burdensome obligation to a reasonable level if no agreement is reached.
- Article 98The article provides that a contract's effect extends to the contracting parties and general successors, and that rights and obligations tied to a thing pass to a specific successor under conditions.
- Article 99The article provides that a contract does not create an obligation on a person who is not a party to it, but may give that person a right.
- Article 100The article provides that a person who undertakes to make a third party bound by something does not bind that party, and sets out the effect of the third party's acceptance or refusal.
- Article 101The article allows a person to contract in his own name for obligations stipulated for another's benefit if he has a personal interest, and gives the beneficiary a direct right against the promisor.
- Article 102The article gives the stipulator alone the right to revoke the stipulation, substitute another beneficiary or take the benefit himself, with limits, and provides that revocation does not release the promisor except by agreement.
- Article 103The article allows the beneficiary of a stipulation for a third party's benefit to be a future person, or one not identified at the time of the contract, if he can be identified when the obligation is performed.
- Article 104The article sets rules for interpreting contracts: do not depart from clear wording, look for the parties' common intention when needed, and construe doubt in favor of the obligated party and the adhering party.
- Article 105The article allows the contracting parties to cancel a contract by mutual consent, as to all or part of its subject matter, and applies the contract's conditions to the cancellation.
- Article 106The article permits contracting with an option to withdraw from the contract within a set period, and explains how the option is exercised and when it lapses.
- Article 107The article lets a party to a bilateral contract, after warning the defaulting party, demand performance or termination, with compensation if warranted, in either case.
- Article 108The article permits agreeing that the creditor may terminate the contract on the debtor's breach without a court judgment, and that this does not dispense with notice of default except by express agreement.
- Article 109The article provides that exchange contracts are concluded on the basis that the subject matter is free of defects except what custom tolerates, and that an intolerable defect is a breach of the obligation.
- Article 110The article provides that a bilateral contract terminates automatically if performance becomes impossible for a reason beyond the debtor's control, and sets the rules for partial and temporary impossibility.
- Article 111The article provides that termination or automatic termination returns the parties to their position before contracting, with compensation where this is impossible, and has no retroactive effect in time-based contracts.
- Article 112The article provides that termination of a contract cannot be asserted against the contracting party's specific successor if he acquired a real right in good faith.
- Article 113The article provides that termination of a contract does not remove a dispute-settlement clause or a confidentiality clause, unless the parties agree otherwise and without prejudice to statutory provisions.
- Article 114The article allows either party to a bilateral contract to withhold performance of its due obligation for as long as the other party withholds performance of what it undertook.
- Article 115The article allows a person to be bound by his unilateral will, without needing another party, but only in the cases that statutory provisions prescribe.
- Article 116The article provides that the provisions of contract apply to an act of unilateral will, except those requiring two matching wills, unless statutory provisions provide otherwise.
- Article 117The article binds a person who promises the public a specified reward for a particular act to give it to whoever does the act under the announced conditions, and regulates withdrawal of the promise and the claim period.
- Article 118The article provides that the provisions on harmful acts apply to liability arising from the act of a natural or legal person, subject to liability provisions in special statutory texts.
- Article 119The article provides that civil liability does not prejudice criminal liability, and that punishment has no effect on the scope of civil liability or the assessment of compensation.
- Article 120The article states the general rule of liability in tort: every fault that causes damage to another obliges the person who committed it to compensate.
- Article 121If a harmful act is committed by the person who directly performed it, the damage is presumed to have resulted from his act, unless contrary evidence is established.
- Article 122A person is liable for a harmful act if it came from him while he had discernment, and a person without discernment must pay appropriate compensation set by the court in specified cases.
- Article 123Whoever causes damage while in a state of lawful defense of person, honor or property is not liable, provided his defense does not exceed what is necessary to repel the aggression.
- Article 124Whoever causes damage to another to avoid a greater damage imminently threatening him or another is obliged to compensate only to the extent the court considers appropriate.
- Article 125A person is not liable for damage if it is proven that it arose from a cause beyond his control, such as force majeure, the fault of another or the fault of the injured person, unless otherwise agreed.
- Article 126A public employee is not liable for his act that harmed another if he did it to carry out a statutory provision or his superior's order under specified conditions that he proves.
- Article 127If several persons are liable for a harmful act, they are jointly liable for compensation, the court sets each one's share, and if that is not possible, liability is divided equally.
- Article 128If the injured person contributed by his fault to causing or increasing the damage, his right to compensation, in whole or in part, lapses in proportion to his contribution.
- Article 129The article makes a supervisor liable for damage caused by the person he supervises, and a principal liable for the fault of his subordinate, with a right of recourse for whoever paid the compensation.
- Article 130An animal's keeper is liable to compensate for the damage the animal causes, unless he proves that the damage was due to a cause beyond his control.
- Article 131A building's keeper is liable to compensate for damage caused by the collapse of all or part of the building, unless he proves that it was not due to neglect of maintenance, age of the building or a defect in it.
- Article 132Whoever has charge of things that require special care to prevent their harm, by their nature or under statutory provisions, is liable for the damage they cause, unless he proves it was due to a cause beyond his control.
- Article 133Anyone threatened with damage from a particular thing may demand that its keeper take measures to avert the danger; if he does not, the threatened person may carry them out with court permission at the owner's expense, or without it in urgency.
- Article 134The keeper of a thing is whoever has actual authority over it, himself or through another, even if he lacks discernment, and the owner is presumed to be the keeper unless custody is shown to have passed.
- Article 135Exercising a right in public utilities is limited by the safety of others, and whoever harms another in doing so by a harm that could be guarded against is liable for it.
- Article 136Compensation is whatever fully redresses the damage, by returning the injured person to the position he was in, or could have been in, but for the damage.
- Article 137The damage for which the liable person must compensate is the loss the injured person suffered and the gain he missed, if that is a natural result of the harmful act.
- Article 138Compensation for a harmful act includes compensation for moral damage; the article explains what that means and when the right passes to others, and leaves its assessment to the court.
- Article 139Compensation is in principle assessed in cash; the court may, at the injured person's request, award like-for-like compensation, restoration or a specific measure tied to the act, and payment by installments or as a periodic income.
- Article 140If a harmful act causes severe damage that makes it impossible to restore the thing to its intended use, the injured person may keep it or leave it to the person who damaged it, and claim compensation in both cases.
- Article 141If the court cannot assess compensation finally, it may make a preliminary assessment while preserving the injured person's right to request a review of the assessment within a period it sets.
- Article 142If the damage falls on life or less than life, the amount of compensation for the injury itself is determined under the provisions of fixed compensation (daman) in Islamic Sharia for offenses against life and less.
- Article 143A compensation claim for a harmful act is not heard after 3 years from knowledge of the damage and the person liable, nor after 10 years from its occurrence, with a special rule for a claim arising from a crime.
- Article 144Anyone, even without discernment, who is enriched without lawful cause at another's expense must compensate him for his loss to the extent of his enrichment, and the obligation remains even if the enrichment later disappears.
- Article 145Whoever received in payment what he was not entitled to must return it, unless the payer knew he was paying what was not due, unless he was of limited capacity or under compulsion.
- Article 146Recovery of what was not due is valid if the payment was made in performance of an obligation whose cause did not materialize or ceased after materializing, or of an obligation not yet due where the payer was unaware of the term.
- Article 147What a non-debtor paid cannot be recovered if, as a result, a good-faith creditor lost the debt instrument or its guarantees or abandoned his claim until its period expired, and the payer may have recourse against the original debtor.
- Article 148A good-faith recipient of what was not due returns only what he received; a bad-faith recipient returns what he received plus the fruits he collected or failed to collect, from the day he became in bad faith.
- Article 149Whoever received what was not due and lacks capacity to contract is bound only to the extent he was enriched.
- Article 150Voluntary agency (fudala) is where a person intentionally undertakes an urgent matter for another without being obliged to do so.
- Article 151Voluntary agency exists even if the volunteer agent, while handling his own affair, also handled another's, where the two affairs are so linked that one cannot be done separately from the other.
- Article 152The article provides that when the beneficiary approves what the volunteer agent did, the rules of agency apply to that work.
- Article 153The article requires the volunteer agent to continue the work he began until the beneficiary can take it over himself, and to notify him of his intervention as soon as he is able.
- Article 154The article requires the volunteer agent to exercise the care of an ordinary person, makes him liable for damage arising from his fault, and allows the court to reduce compensation if there is a justification.
- Article 155The article makes the volunteer agent liable for the acts of the person he entrusts with all or part of the work, without prejudice to the beneficiary's right to have recourse directly against that person.
- Article 156Article 156 requires the unauthorized agent to return what he received because of the intervention and to give the beneficiary an account of what he did.
- Article 157Article 157 treats the unauthorized agent as the beneficiary's representative if he exercised the care of an ordinary person, and obliges the beneficiary to honor his commitments, expenses and compensation; he earns no fee unless the work is part of his profession.
- Article 158The article governs the effect of death on unauthorized agency: the agent's heirs who know of it must inform the beneficiary and take suitable measures, and the agent stays bound to the beneficiary's heirs.
- Article 159The article bars hearing claims for unjust enrichment, undue payment and unauthorized agency 3 years after the creditor learns of his right, and in all cases 10 years after the right arose.
- Article 160The article provides that obligations arising directly from the law alone are governed by the statutory provisions that created them.
الباب الثاني: آثار الالتزامArticles 161–196
- Article 161The article requires the debtor to perform his obligation when it falls due and allows it to be enforced against him by compulsion if he refuses, once the conditions for compulsory enforcement under the law are met.
- Article 162The article provides that an obligation that does not meet the conditions for compulsory enforcement remains owed on a moral basis (diyanah); if the debtor performs it voluntarily, the performance is valid and is neither a gift nor an undue payment.
- Article 163The article provides that an obligation owed on a moral basis (diyanah) is a valid foundation on which the debtor may build a legal obligation.
- Article 164The article compels the debtor, after formal notice, to perform in kind where possible, and lets the court, at his request, limit the creditor to compensation if performance is burdensome and causes the creditor no serious harm.
- Article 165The article provides that a right to a thing specified by kind attaches to a particular item only once it is set apart, and lets the creditor, on non-performance, obtain a like item at the debtor's expense.
- Article 166The article places the risk of destruction or damage on the debtor who failed to deliver, in two cases: transfer of a real right and an obligation to perform work involving delivery, each on different conditions.
- Article 167The article regulates performance of an obligation to perform work: the creditor's right to refuse performance by anyone but the debtor, performance at the debtor's expense with or without court permission when urgent, and a judgment standing in for the work.
- Article 168The article distinguishes between an obligation to exercise the care of an ordinary person, which is fulfilled even if the aim is not achieved, and an obligation to achieve a result, which is fulfilled only when it is achieved.
- Article 169The article lets the creditor, where the debtor breaches an obligation to refrain from an act, request removal of what was done in breach with compensation where warranted, and ask the court's permission to carry out the removal at the debtor's expense.
- Article 170The article provides for compensation for non-performance if performance in kind is impossible or the debtor does not perform within a reasonable period, unless he proves the non-performance was due to a cause beyond his control.
- Article 171The article requires a debtor who is late in performing to compensate the creditor for the harm caused by the delay, unless he proves the delay was due to a cause beyond his control.
- Article 172The article refers to the provisions of Article 128 where the creditor, by his own fault, contributed to the harm arising from non-performance or delay, or increased that harm.
- Article 173The article permits agreeing to exempt the debtor from compensation for non-performance or delay of a contractual obligation, except for his fraud or gross fault, and prohibits exemption from liability for a harmful act.
- Article 174The article permits agreeing that the debtor bears the risk of force majeure.
- Article 175The article provides that compensation is due only after formal notice to the debtor, unless there is an agreement or statutory provision to the contrary.
- Article 176The article lists five cases in which formal notice to the debtor is not required, including agreement to treat him as notified once the due date arrives and his written declaration that he will not perform.
- Article 177The article provides that formal notice is given by any means agreed between the contracting parties or any means prescribed by law for notification, including filing a claim or any other judicial procedure.
- Article 178The article permits the contracting parties to fix the amount of compensation in advance in the contract or a later agreement, unless the subject of the obligation is a sum of money, and does not require formal notice for it to be due.
- Article 179The article sets controls on agreed compensation: it is not due if no harm occurred, the court may reduce or increase it on conditions, and any contrary agreement is void.
- Article 180The article provides that the court assesses compensation not fixed in advance under Articles 136 to 139, and limits a non-fraudulent contractual debtor's liability to harm that could ordinarily be foreseen at the time of contracting.
- Article 181The article makes all of the debtor's assets a guarantee for his debts and places creditors on an equal footing unless a statutory provision gives priority, and allows creditors to agree on priority.
- Article 182The article allows every creditor to exercise the debtor's neglected rights if neglecting them leads to an increase of his debts over his assets, except rights personal to him or not subject to attachment.
- Article 183The article allows an injured creditor to seek a ruling that the debtor's act, which increased his debts over his assets, has no effect against him, if it was a gift or an exchange where both sides knew the debt exceeded the assets.
- Article 184The article allows a person who received a right from a debtor whose debts exceed his assets to escape the action for non-enforceability by depositing the equivalent value with the body specified by the Minister of Justice.
- Article 185The article sets the effect of an insolvent debtor preferring one creditor without right, and the rule on his paying one of his creditors before or after the due date.
- Article 186The article provides that a creditor claiming that debts exceed the debtor's assets need only prove the amount of the debtor's due debts, and the debtor may rebut the claim by proving that his assets equal or exceed them.
- Article 187The article provides that a judgment that an act by a debtor whose debts exceed his assets is unenforceable benefits all creditors who are harmed by the act.
- Article 188The article sets the periods for the claim of non-enforceability: it is not heard one year after the creditor learns of its ground, nor in any case ten years after the date of the act.
- Article 189The article allows creditors of the contracting parties and particular successors who act in good faith to rely on the sham contract or the concealed one, and gives priority to whoever relies on the apparent contract when interests conflict.
- Article 190The article provides that the enforceable contract between the contracting parties and their universal successors is the real contract if they concealed it behind an apparent one.
- Article 191The article allows a person bound to deliver something to refrain from performing as long as the creditor has not performed a related obligation arising from the debtor's obligation and has not given adequate security.
- Article 192The article allows a person who spent necessary or useful expenses on another's property that is in his hands by lawful means to retain it until he recovers what is due to him.
- Article 193The article requires the retainer to look after the thing and account for its yield, and allows him to sell it with court permission if it risks perishing or damage or retention is lengthy, or without permission when urgent.
- Article 194The article provides that the right to retain a thing gives the retainer no priority in collecting his right from it.
- Article 195The article sets the grounds on which the right of retention ends, and allows the retainer to ask the court to recover the thing within 30 days of learning it left his hands and before a year passes, if it left without his knowledge or despite his objection.
- Article 196The article refers the insolvency of a debtor to the statutory provisions specific to it.
الباب الثالث: الأوصاف العارضة على الالتزامArticles 197–237
- Article 197The article defines a conditional obligation as one whose existence or disappearance depends on a future event that may or may not occur.
- Article 198The article provides that an obligation made conditional on an event that has occurred is treated as immediate, and one made conditional on something impossible has a void condition and is itself void.
- Article 199The article provides that an obligation does not arise if it is made conditional on a condition whose purpose is to encourage something unlawful.
- Article 200The article provides that an obligation does not exist if it is made conditional on a suspensive condition making its existence depend on the mere will of the obligor.
- Article 201The article provides that an obligation subject to a suspensive condition is not enforceable unless the condition is fulfilled and cannot be performed before then, while the creditor may take steps to preserve his right.
- Article 202The article provides that fulfillment of a resolutory condition ends the obligation, the creditor must return what he took or pay compensation if return became impossible for a reason he is responsible for, and acts of administration remain in force.
- Article 203The article provides that the effect of fulfilling the condition relates back to the time the obligation arose, unless the parties' intention or the nature of the contract shows otherwise, or performance was impossible before it for a reason beyond the debtor's control.
- Article 204The article defines an obligation subject to a term, makes it unenforceable before the term arrives while allowing the creditor protective steps, and provides that expiry of a resolutory term ends the obligation without retroactive effect.
- Article 205The article sets the cases in which the debtor loses the benefit of the term: a judgment of his insolvency, failure to provide the agreed security, or its diminution unless he promptly completes it.
- Article 206The article permits early performance by the person for whose benefit the term was set unless it harms the other party, treats the term as for the debtor's benefit in case of doubt, and returns the debt to deferred status if what was received early is claimed by another.
- Article 207The article provides that a deferred debt does not fall due on the creditor's death, and falls due on the debtor's death unless it is secured by security in kind, the heirs provide adequate security, or the creditor agrees it remains deferred.
- Article 208The article provides that if the debtor loses the benefit of the term and the term had increased the debt when the contract was made, the court reduces that increase according to how much of the term was lost, the reason and the nature of the transaction.
- Article 209The article provides that if it is agreed that performance is due only when the debtor is able, the court sets a term by which he is presumed able to perform, and the term lapses once his ability is proven.
- Article 210The article defines an alternative obligation, gives the choice to the debtor unless agreed or provided otherwise, and transfers the choice to the other party if its holder refrains from choosing within the term the court sets.
- Article 211The article defines a facultative obligation as one whose subject is a single thing, with the debtor entitled to perform another thing in its place, and makes the principal thing alone the subject of the obligation.
- Article 212The article provides that joint and several liability among creditors is not presumed and arises only by agreement or statutory provision.
- Article 213The article allows each joint creditor to demand the whole debt from the debtor, and sets the defenses the debtor may raise against the claiming creditor.
- Article 214The article makes everything collected by one of the joint creditors the right of all of them, to be shared proportionally unless a statutory provision or agreement provides otherwise.
- Article 215The article allows the debtor to pay his debt to any of the joint creditors, unless one of them has given him formal notice not to pay his share to a particular creditor and this causes the debtor no harm.
- Article 216The Article provides that if a debtor is released from one joint creditor for a reason other than payment, the debtor is released toward the other creditors only to the extent of that creditor's share.
- Article 217The Article provides that any act by one joint creditor that is liable to harm the other creditors does not take effect against them.
- Article 218The Article provides that solidarity among creditors does not prevent the debt from being divided among any creditor's heirs; solidarity passes to each heir in proportion to his share, except for an indivisible debt.
- Article 219The Article defines a shared debt as a debt of several creditors with a single cause, and treats a debt passing by inheritance to more than one heir as a shared debt.
- Article 220The Article allows each partner in a shared debt to claim his share, and gives the others the right to share in what he collects, unless they leave to him what he collected.
- Article 221The Article sets out the rule on a partner's disposal of what he collected of a shared debt, and the rule where it is lost in his hands without fault on his part.
- Article 222The Article provides that solidarity among debtors is not presumed and arises only by agreement or legal provision.
- Article 223The Article provides that solidarity among debtors arises even if the descriptions of their debts differ, such as where the debt of some is deferred or conditional and the debt of others is immediate.
- Article 224The Article provides that if one of the jointly liable debtors pays the debt, he and the other debtors are released toward the creditor.
- Article 225The Article allows the creditor to claim from all the jointly liable debtors or some of them, taking the debt's descriptions into account, and sets out the defenses available to each debtor.
- Article 226The Article prevents a jointly liable debtor from relying on a set-off arising between the creditor and another jointly liable debtor except to the extent of that other debtor's share.
- Article 227The Article provides that where a jointly liable debtor's share is extinguished by merger of liabilities, the debt is extinguished for the others only to the extent of that debtor's share.
- Article 228The Article distinguishes between a creditor releasing one jointly liable debtor from the debt only, from solidarity only, or absolutely, and states the effect of each case.
- Article 229The Article states that the other debtors may have recourse against the released debtor for his share of an insolvent debtor's portion, unless the creditor relieved him of all liability, in which case the creditor bears that share.
- Article 230The Article provides that non-hearing of a claim due to lapse of time as to one jointly liable debtor benefits the others only to the extent of his share, and that suspension or interruption of the period for one cannot be asserted against the others.
- Article 231The Article provides that a jointly liable debtor answers in performing the obligation only for his own act, that a warning to him or a claim against him does not extend to the others, while his warning to the creditor benefits them.
- Article 232The Article provides that a settlement between one jointly liable debtor and the creditor takes effect against the others, except where it imposes a new obligation or an increase on them, in which case it takes effect only with the approval of the one affected.
- Article 233The Article provides that one jointly liable debtor's acknowledgment does not apply to the others, and states when the tendering of an oath to or by him harms or benefits them.
- Article 234The Article regulates the recourse of a jointly liable debtor who paid more than his share against his co-debtors, makes the shares equal in principle, and states who bears the insolvency of one of them.
- Article 235The Article defines an indivisible obligation as one concerning a subject that by nature cannot be divided, or one that the parties' purpose shows may not be performed in parts.
- Article 236The Article provides that each debtor in an indivisible obligation is bound to perform it in full, and the one who performed has recourse against the others, each in proportion to his share.
- Article 237The Article allows each creditor, or the creditor's heirs, in an indivisible obligation to claim its performance in full, and regulates the case where one of them objects.
الباب الرابع: انتقال الالتزامArticles 238–258
- Article 238The Article allows a creditor to assign his right to another person unless legal provisions, agreement or the nature of the obligation prevent it, and does not require the debtor's consent for the assignment to be concluded.
- Article 239The Article limits the validity of an assignment of a right to the portion that is attachable, so what cannot be attached cannot validly be assigned.
- Article 240The Article requires, for an assignment to be enforceable against the debtor and third parties, that the debtor accept it or be notified of it by a lawful means, and that acceptance relied on against third parties be in writing with a certain date.
- Article 241The Article provides that the assigned right passes to the assignee with its attributes, accessories and guarantees as it was with the assignor.
- Article 242The Article determines the assignor's guarantee: in an assignment for consideration he guarantees the existence of the right at the time it is concluded unless otherwise agreed, and in an assignment without consideration he does not guarantee its existence.
- Article 243The assignor does not guarantee the debtor's solvency except by special agreement, and if he guarantees it, the guarantee applies to solvency at the time the assignment is concluded unless otherwise agreed.
- Article 244The Article sets the ceiling of the assignee's recourse against the assignor under the guarantee: the assignor is required only to return what he took together with expenses, even if otherwise agreed.
- Article 245The Article allows the debtor to assert against the assignee the defenses he had against the assignor when the assignment became effective against him, and defenses derived from the assignment contract.
- Article 246If the same right is assigned more than once, the assignment that took effect first against third parties takes precedence.
- Article 247If an attachment is imposed in the debtor's hands before the assignment takes effect against third parties, the assignment is treated as another attachment as to the attaching creditor, and the right is divided between them as between creditors sharing proportionally.
- Article 248The Article defines assignment of a debt as a contract that transfers the obligation from the assignor's liability to that of the person assigned to.
- Article 249Assignment of a debt is concluded by agreement between the assignor and the person assigned to and does not take effect against the creditor unless he accepts it; if he does not, the person assigned to remains bound toward the assignor to pay the creditor unless otherwise agreed.
- Article 250The Article allows assignment of a debt to be concluded by agreement between the assignor and the assignee, which does not take effect against the person assigned to unless he accepts it; if he owes the assignor a debt of the same kind, it takes effect under Article 240.
- Article 251When an assignment of a debt takes effect, the assigned debt passes to the person assigned to with its attributes and accessories, and the assignor is released from it.
- Article 252The assigned debt keeps its guarantees after the assignment, except guarantees provided by third parties, and jointly liable debtors remain bound after deducting the assignor's share.
- Article 253The person assigned to may assert against the creditor the defenses the assignor had and defenses derived from the assignment contract, but not defenses personal to the assignor.
- Article 254The assignor guarantees the solvency of the person assigned to at the time the assignment is concluded if it is between him and the assignee, and at the time it takes effect if it is between him and the person assigned to, unless otherwise agreed.
- Article 255A contracting party may transfer his capacity in the contract to another with the other party's consent; consent may be given in advance if the contract is specified, and the transfer then takes effect by notifying the counterparty.
- Article 256If the counterparty consents to the transfer, the transferor is released toward him as regards the future; if not, the transferor is bound to perform the contract jointly and severally with the transferee unless otherwise agreed.
- Article 257The transferee may assert against the counterparty defenses relating to the debt but not those personal to the transferor, and the counterparty may assert against the transferee all the defenses he had against the transferor.
- Article 258If the counterparty did not release the transferor, the agreed guarantees remain; if he released him, third-party guarantees do not remain and jointly liable debtors remain bound after deducting the transferor's share.
الباب الخامس: انقضاء الالتزامArticles 259–306
- Article 259Payment is valid from the debtor, his representative or a person with an interest unless a provision says otherwise, and from a person without an interest, though the creditor may refuse if the debtor notified him of his objection.
- Article 260The Article requires, for payment to be valid, that the payer own what he pays with, bars payment by a person lacking capacity, and validates payment by a person of limited capacity with something due from him unless it harms him.
- Article 261One who pays another's debt without being a donor has recourse against the debtor to the extent of what he paid, unless the payment was without the debtor's permission and the debtor proves an interest in objecting to it.
- Article 262The Article specifies four cases in which one who pays another's debt is subrogated to the creditor who received his right, including being bound by the debt, a legal provision, and agreement with the creditor.
- Article 263If the payer is subrogated to the creditor, the creditor's right passes to him with its attributes, accessories, guarantees and defenses to the extent of what he paid, and the creditor has priority for the remainder in partial subrogation unless otherwise agreed.
- Article 264If a debtor pays some of his creditors during his death illness and his estate does not suffice for the debts of the rest, they may have recourse against those who were paid and share in what they took, each in proportion to his share.
- Article 265Payment is made to the creditor or his representative, one who presents a receipt from the creditor is treated as having authority, and where the creditor lacks or has limited capacity, release comes only by payment to his guardian or executor, with an exception.
- Article 266If a creditor refuses without justification a payment properly offered to him, refrains from acts without which payment cannot be made, or declares he will not accept it, the debtor may put him in default under the provisions of the Law.
- Article 267Once the creditor is put in default he bears the risk of the thing's loss or damage, and the debtor may deposit it at the creditor's expense and claim compensation for harm.
- Article 268The Article requires the offer to be for the entire debt and its expenses, allows an offer during pleadings with the creditor present, which counts as putting in default, and makes deposit by court order with notice to the creditor.
- Article 269If the subject of payment spoils quickly or is costly to deposit or keep in custody, the debtor may sell it at the market price with the court's permission or without it in urgency, or by auction if that is impossible, and deposit of the price takes its place.
- Article 270Deposit suffices without an offer if the debtor does not know the creditor or his domicile, the creditor lacks or has limited capacity and has no representative, persons dispute the debt, or for serious reasons the court assesses.
- Article 271The Article makes an offer followed by a valid deposit take the place of payment from the time of the offer, bars the debtor from withdrawing it, and makes the creditor bear the expenses of the offer and deposit.
- Article 272The Article provides that payment is made with the thing originally due, so the creditor cannot be forced to accept something else even if of greater value.
- Article 273The Article bars the debtor from forcing the creditor to accept partial payment of a single debt unless a provision or agreement says otherwise, and requires payment of the acknowledged part if the creditor accepts it.
- Article 274The Article states who designates the debt against which the debtor's payment is counted where he owes several debts to one creditor and the payment does not suffice, and sets fallback rules where there is no designation.
- Article 275The Article requires payment immediately once the obligation arises unless an agreement or provision says otherwise, and by exception allows the court to grant the debtor a reasonable grace period on conditions.
- Article 276The article provides that where a deferred obligation has no fixed due date, the court sets the date for performance at the request of the creditor or the debtor, according to custom and the nature of the transaction.
- Article 277The article sets the place of performance where no agreement or provision fixes it, distinguishing between contractual and non-contractual obligations.
- Article 278The article places the costs of performance on the debtor, unless a legal provision or an agreement provides otherwise.
- Article 279The article gives a person who pays a debt or part of it the right to request a document evidencing the payment; if the creditor refuses, the debtor or an interested party may deposit the debt with the body designated by the Minister of Justice.
- Article 280The article allows a debt to be paid by a substitute agreed between the parties, and subjects such payment to the provisions of the suitable contract and the provisions on performance in discharging a debt.
- Article 281The article allows a debtor to set off what he owes his creditor against what the creditor owes him, even if the two debts arise from different causes, subject to conditions on the subject and character of the debts.
- Article 282The article provides that set-off takes effect only if the interested party invokes it, and that it cannot be waived before the right to it is established.
- Article 283The article allows a debtor to invoke set-off even if the place of performance of the two debts differs, while requiring him to compensate the creditor for any harm resulting from this.
- Article 284The article explains that set-off extinguishes the two debts to the extent of the smaller one, from the time they become eligible for set-off.
- Article 285The article provides that if one of the conditions in Article 281 is not met, set-off does not take place except by agreement of the parties.
- Article 286The article prevents set-off from taking place if it would harm rights acquired by third parties.
- Article 287The article prevents set-off between a depositary's debt against the depositor and the deposit, or between a borrower's debt against the lender and the loaned item, except by agreement of the parties.
- Article 288The article provides that a claim on one of the debts being no longer actionable due to the passage of time when set-off is invoked does not prevent set-off, as long as its conditions were met before that period passed.
- Article 289The article prevents a debtor who paid his debt although he was able to set off from invoking the guarantees of his right to the detriment of others, unless he was unaware of the existence of the right at the time of payment, with an acceptable excuse.
- Article 290The article provides that a debt is extinguished to the extent of the merger when the capacities of creditor and debtor come together in one person, and excepts a creditor who is the debtor's heir, who collects his debt from the estate like other creditors.
- Article 291The article provides that the debt returns to what it was if the cause of the coming together of the capacities of creditor and debtor ceases and its ceasing has retroactive effect.
- Article 292The article provides that the debtor's obligation is extinguished when the creditor releases him, without needing his acceptance, with the debt returning if he rejects it, and requires that the release be of an existing debt even if not yet due.
- Article 293The article subjects release to the substantive provisions on gifts and does not require a particular form for it.
- Article 294The article provides that the debtor's obligation is extinguished if he proves that performance became impossible for a reason beyond his control, and that the corresponding obligation, if any, is extinguished as well.
- Article 295The article provides that a right is not extinguished by the passage of time, but a claim on it is not heard against a party who denies it after 10 years have passed, except where a legal provision or an exception in the section applies.
- Article 296The article sets a period of 5 years after which a claim is not heard against a party who denies it, for the rights of the liberal professions and recurring periodic rights, with an exception of 10 years for the proceeds owed by a bad-faith possessor and endowment proceeds.
- Article 297The article sets a period of one year after which a claim is not heard against a party who denies it, for merchants' rights against non-traders, the rights of hotels, restaurants and the like, and the rights of hired workers for wages and the price of what they supplied.
- Article 298The article provides that the periods after which a claim is not heard for the rights in paragraph (a) of Article 296 and the rights in Article 297 apply even if dealing continues, and that a document makes the period 10 years from its date.
- Article 299The article provides that the period after which a claim is not heard begins, where there is no legal provision, from the day the right becomes due for performance.
- Article 300The article provides that the running of the period after which a claim is not heard is suspended whenever there is an excuse making a claim impossible, including good-faith negotiation ongoing when the period is completed and a moral impediment.
- Article 301If several creditors share one debt and none of them claims it, the bar on hearing the claim runs only against those of them who have no excuse.
- Article 302The article sets out three cases that interrupt the period after which a claim is not heard: the debtor's acknowledgment, a court claim even before a court without jurisdiction, and any court procedure by which the creditor asserts his right.
- Article 303The transfer of a right from its holder to his successor does not interrupt the period after which a claim is not heard; the period continues to run.
- Article 304If the period after which a claim is not heard is interrupted, a new period similar to the first begins, and it is ten years in specified cases, including a court judgment on the right.
- Article 305It is not permitted to agree to shorten or lengthen the period after which a claim is not heard, nor is it valid to waive reliance on it before the right to it is established, and a waiver that harms the other creditors does not take effect against them.
- Article 306The court does not dismiss a claim as time-barred on its own; the debtor or an interested person must request it.
الباب الأول: العقود الواردة على الملكيةArticles 307–406
- Article 307Article 307 defines sale as a contract under which the seller transfers ownership of the item sold to the buyer for a cash price.
- Article 308The buyer must know the item sold by seeing it or by its description; if the contract states he knows it, he can seek annulment for lack of knowledge only by proving the seller deceived him.
- Article 309In a sale by sample the item sold must match the sample; if the sample is lost or damaged with one party and they disagree, the other party's word prevails unless the contrary is proved.
- Article 310A sale subject to a trial for a set or customary period is permitted; the seller must allow the trial, and the buyer may rescind by notifying the seller during the trial period.
- Article 311A sale subject to a trial becomes binding at the agreed price in four cases, including the buyer's waiver of rescission and the passing of the period without rescission despite being able to try the item.
- Article 312If the agreement or circumstances show that a sale subject to a trial depends on the buyer's acceptance of the item, the sale does not take effect except by his acceptance.
- Article 313In a sale it is enough to state sound bases by which the price is determined, instead of fixing its exact amount.
- Article 314If the parties agree the price is the market price, the market price at the time and place of the sale applies; if there is no market there, the place that custom designates applies.
- Article 315Failing to fix a price does not void the sale where the circumstances show the parties intended the market price or the price used in their dealings.
- Article 316In cost-plus, loss and at-cost sales, the seller must disclose everything affecting his capital; the buyer may seek annulment for concealment, or for gross unfairness where capital was not fixed at the time of contracting.
- Article 317The price is due immediately unless it is agreed to be deferred or paid in installments for a known term, and the term starts from the date of the contract unless agreed otherwise.
- Article 318Ownership of the item sold passes to the buyer on conclusion of the sale, without prejudice to Articles 655, 656 and 657, and a sale made in bulk does not prevent this.
- Article 319The seller must do what is necessary on his side to transfer ownership of the item to the buyer and refrain from any act that makes the transfer impossible or difficult.
- Article 320In a deferred or installment sale, the seller may stipulate that ownership transfers only once the buyer pays the full price, even if the item is delivered; after payment, ownership dates back to the time of the contract.
- Article 321The seller must deliver the item in the condition it was in at the time of sale and bear delivery costs unless agreed otherwise, and deliver it free of any third-party right unknown to the buyer.
- Article 322Delivery of the item sold includes its accessories, whatever is permanently attached to it, and whatever custom treats as its appurtenances, even if not mentioned in the contract.
- Article 323The article sets the rules when the quantity of an item sold, stated at the time of contracting, proves short or in excess and there is no agreement, including the right to rescind and a one-year bar after delivery.
- Article 324Delivery of the item sold is made by placing it in the buyer's possession, or by the seller clearing the way between the buyer and the item and informing him, in a manner suited to the nature of the item.
- Article 325If the item sold was already in the buyer's hands before the sale, in any capacity or for any reason, that possession counts as delivery unless agreed otherwise.
- Article 326Three cases count as delivery of the item sold: the parties' agreement, a statutory provision, or the seller keeping the item for a reason other than ownership with the buyer's consent.
- Article 327If the item sold perishes or is damaged before delivery through the buyer's act, he is treated as having received it and must pay the price; if the seller had a right to withdraw and chose it, he may claim compensation.
- Article 328If the item sold or part of it perishes before delivery through the act of the seller or a third party, the buyer may rescind, uphold the sale and claim compensation, or rescind only for the part lost.
- Article 329If the item sold perishes before delivery for a reason in which no one had a hand, the sale is dissolved and the buyer recovers the price; if only part perishes, it is dissolved as to that part and the buyer may rescind the rest.
- Article 330The seller warrants that he will not interfere with the buyer's use of the item, and that it is free of any third-party right that predates the sale or passed to the third party from the seller.
- Article 331The article states against whom a claim for entitlement to the item sold is brought, requires the buyer to notify the seller, and explains when the seller owes the warranty and when the buyer loses it.
- Article 332A good-faith buyer keeps his right to the warranty if he acknowledges the third party's right or settles with him without awaiting judgment, having notified the seller in good time without the seller intervening.
- Article 333If the buyer settles with the entitlement claimant for money before judgment, the seller may escape the consequences of the warranty by repaying the settlement sum and its costs.
- Article 334If the whole item sold is claimed by its true owner who approves the sale, he recovers the price from the seller and the item remains with the buyer.
- Article 335The article lists what the buyer may claim from the seller if the whole item is claimed and the owner does not approve the sale: the price, fruits, expenses and compensation.
- Article 336If part of the item sold is claimed and this creates a defect in the rest, the buyer may rescind; otherwise he has only recourse on the warranty for the part claimed.
- Article 337An agreement may exempt the seller from the entitlement warranty, or limit or increase it, except for entitlement arising from his own act or concealed on purpose, and the buyer may still recover the price.
- Article 338The seller warrants the item against any defect reducing its value or usefulness even if unaware of it; the buyer may rescind or keep it and claim the price difference, plus compensation if warranted.
- Article 339The seller does not warrant a defect in four cases, including the buyer's knowledge or ability to detect it, a defect tolerated by custom, and sales at judicial or administrative auctions.
- Article 340The buyer must check the item after receiving it and notify the seller of a defect within a reasonable time, or as soon as a hidden defect appears, or he is taken to have accepted it.
- Article 341The buyer's acceptance of a defect forfeits his right to rescind and to the price difference; in listed cases only the right to rescind is lost and the price difference remains.
- Article 342If several things are sold in one transaction and some are defective, with no harm in separating them, the buyer may rescind as to the defective part or keep it and claim its price difference.
- Article 343An agreement may exempt the seller from the warranty against defects, or limit or increase it, unless the seller deliberately concealed the defect.
- Article 344A claim on the warranty against defects is not heard after 180 days from delivery unless the seller undertook a longer warranty, and the seller cannot rely on this period if he concealed the defect by fraud.
- Article 345As a rule the buyer must pay the price before receiving the item sold, unless the parties agree otherwise.
- Article 346The seller may withhold the item until he receives the price due, even if the buyer provided a pledge or guarantee, and risk of loss then falls on the buyer; accepting deferral of the price ends the right.
- Article 347If the buyer takes the item before paying the immediately due price with the seller's knowledge and without objection, it is permission to take it; without permission the seller may recover it and claim compensation.
- Article 348The price is paid at the place of delivery if it falls due at delivery, otherwise at the place of the contract, unless the parties agree otherwise.
- Article 349The buyer may withhold the price if an entitlement claim is brought based on an earlier right or one from the seller, or a warranted defect appears, until the seller gives security for repaying the price.
- Article 350If the seller stipulates that there is no sale if the price is not paid by a set date and it is not paid, the sale counts as rescinded if the seller chooses, without notice.
- Article 351The buyer must receive the item at the place where it is at the time of the sale and remove it without delay, apart from the time transport requires, unless agreed otherwise.
- Article 352The costs of paying the price, receiving the item, the sale contract and its registration fall on the buyer unless the parties agree otherwise.
- Article 353Article 353 defines death-sickness as an illness in which a person cannot carry on his usual affairs, death is likely, and death follows; situations of danger of death are treated the same.
- Article 354A sale or purchase at a favorable price by a person in death-sickness does not take effect, to the extent of the favor, against the heirs: for an heir without their approval, for a non-heir beyond one third of the estate.
- Article 355The non-effectiveness of a sale by a person in death-sickness cannot be invoked against a good-faith person who acquired a real right in the item for consideration, while the heirs keep their recourse against the buyer.
- Article 356A representative may not buy for himself what he was entrusted to sell, even at auction or in another's name, without permission; the same applies to an intermediary, expert and the like.
- Article 357A sale by a representative, intermediary or expert to himself does not take effect against the owner unless he approves it, while a good-faith specific successor who acquired a real right for consideration is protected.
- Article 358A judge, public prosecution member and the like, and court employees, may not buy a disputed right, nor may a lawyer who is the agent in it, and the contract is void.
- Article 359A sale without permission of a specific thing by someone who does not own it does not take effect against the owner unless he approves it, and the buyer may seek annulment on conditions.
- Article 360A buyer who did not know the item was not owned by the seller may claim compensation if the sale is annulled, even if the seller was in good faith.
- Article 361Article 361 defines exchange (muqayada) as a contract exchanging property for property by way of transfer of ownership, where neither side is cash.
- Article 362Each party to an exchange is treated as the seller of what he gave and the buyer of what he took in return.
- Article 363Adding cash to one consideration to make up a difference in value does not change an exchange, unless that consideration is worth less than the cash added, in which case the contract becomes a sale.
- Article 364The costs of an exchange contract are shared equally between its two parties unless they agree on another division.
- Article 365The rules of the sale contract apply to the exchange contract to the extent they do not conflict with the nature of exchange.
- Article 366The article defines a gift as a contract by which the donor, during his lifetime, transfers ownership of property to the donee without consideration.
- Article 367The article allows the donor to impose a specific obligation on the donee, and makes the contract one for value if the donor requires consideration.
- Article 368The article requires that a gift of real estate be documented in accordance with the legal provisions to be formed, and accepts documentation or delivery for a gift of movable property, even without documentation.
- Article 369The article provides that a gift of property the donor does not own does not take effect, unless the owner approves it.
- Article 370The article allows a creditor to give the debt to the debtor himself, and treats such a gift as a release of the debtor from the debt.
- Article 371The article allows a partner to give his share in jointly owned property to his partner or to someone else, whether the property is real estate or movable, even if it is divisible.
- Article 372The donor does not guarantee that the gifted item will not be claimed by others or that it is free of defects, unless he deliberately concealed the claim or the defect or guaranteed that the gifted item is free of them.
- Article 373The article obliges the donee, in a gift conditional on an obligation, to perform what the donor required, whether it is for the donor's benefit or for the benefit of someone else.
- Article 374The article obliges the donee to pay a debt secured by a right in rem over the gifted item, up to the value of the gifted item, unless otherwise agreed.
- Article 375The article places the costs of the gift contract and of the delivery and transport of the gifted item on the donee, unless the parties agree otherwise.
- Article 376The article allows the donor to revoke the gift if the donee agrees to return the gifted item; if he refuses, the donor may ask the court in three specific cases.
- Article 377The article provides that the right to revoke a gift under Article 376 lapses if one of the parties to the contract dies before revocation.
- Article 378The article allows the donor, on revocation, to recover the gifted item and its fruits from the time the donee accepts the return or the lawsuit is filed; the donee recovers only useful expenses to the extent of the increase in value, and necessary expenses.
- Article 379The article specifies three cases in which the donor does not recover the gifted item itself on revocation: a disposal that transfers ownership, a significant attached increase or a change, and loss.
- Article 380The article provides that if the donor is barred from recovering the gifted item itself under Article 379, he is not entitled to its value, unless the gift was conditional on an obligation that the donee failed to perform.
- Article 381The article obliges the donee to compensate the donor if the donor has the right to revoke and the gifted item is lost in the donee's hands after he was put on notice to deliver it.
- Article 382The article defines a loan as a contract by which the lender transfers ownership of a fungible thing to the borrower, on condition that the borrower returns its equivalent.
- Article 383The article provides that a loan contract is formed only when the borrower takes possession of the borrowed thing.
- Article 384The article requires the lender to have full legal capacity, and prevents a guardian or custodian from lending the money of a person under his authority, or borrowing for him, except in accordance with the legal provisions.
- Article 385The article makes void any condition, made at the time of the contract or when payment is deferred, that includes an increase in the repayment of the loan paid by the borrower to the lender.
- Article 386The lender does not guarantee against a third-party claim to the borrowed money or its defects unless he concealed them or guaranteed it is free of them; the borrower's duty to return an equivalent lapses on a claim, and a defective item is returned at its value as defective.
- Article 387The article sets the time for repaying a loan: if a term or purpose was fixed, repayment is not due before it ends; otherwise it is due when the lender asks, unless the borrower would be harmed.
- Article 388The article obliges the borrower to return the equivalent of the borrowed thing in amount, type and description when the loan period ends; if returning the equivalent is impossible, he must return its value on the day of borrowing.
- Article 389The article obliges the borrower to repay the loan at the place where the loan was made, unless the parties agree on another place.
- Article 390The article places the costs of the loan and of repaying it on the borrower, unless the parties agree otherwise.
- Article 391The article defines a settlement as a contract by which two parties end an existing dispute or avert a potential one, each giving up his claim or part of it in return for the other's giving up his.
- Article 392The article requires the settling party to have the capacity to dispose of the rights covered by the settlement for consideration, and requires a person who gives up some of his rights without consideration to have full legal capacity.
- Article 393The article excepts from the capacity requirement in Article 392 the settlement of an authorized discerning minor, which is not valid if it causes him clear harm.
- Article 394The article requires that the right being settled be one for which taking consideration is permitted.
- Article 395The article allows a settlement even if the right is unknown, provided the uncertainty does not prevent delivery and it is impossible to learn the right within a short period, given its nature, amount and location.
- Article 396The article allows a settlement over rights whether the defendant admitted them, denied them, or remained silent without admitting or denying.
- Article 397The article allows a settlement over part of what the settling party claims, a settlement to postpone a debt or part of it without increase, or to accelerate it with a reduction.
- Article 398The article allows two persons, each claiming a right from the other, to settle on each keeping the right he has in hand.
- Article 399The article provides that a settlement does not create a new right in the rights it covers, whereas consideration from outside them does create a right, and the rules on contracts for value apply to it.
- Article 400The article requires that statements of waiver in a settlement contract be interpreted narrowly, within the rights that were the subject of the dispute.
- Article 401The article provides that a settlement extinguishes the rights and claims each settling party gave up, and neither of them nor their heirs may withdraw from it.
- Article 402The article limits the effect of a settlement to the rights it covered and resolved the dispute over, so it does not extend to any others.
- Article 403The article defines a contest as a contract in which a person undertakes to give a prize to whoever wins a race in which winning depends on the contestant's own work.
- Article 404The article allows the undertaking of the prize in a contest to come from some of the contestants or from others, and does not allow it to come from all the contestants.
- Article 405The article provides that if a contest is between two teams, each team is treated as one person in undertaking the prize.
- Article 406The article provides that any agreement on gambling is void.
الباب الثاني: العقود الواردة على المنفعةArticles 407–460
- Article 407The article defines a lease as a contract by which the lessor enables the lessee to benefit from a non-consumable thing for a specified period in return for rent.
- Article 408The article allows the leased item to be a thing, a usufruct or a right, specified individually or by type, and also allows it to be an undivided share.
- Article 409The article allows it to suffice to state sound bases for determining the rent, and allows the rent to be a specified sum together with a known percentage of the output or profit.
- Article 410The article allows a lease contract to require that the rent be paid in advance, deferred or paid in installments.
- Article 411The article regulates the rent and the right to terminate where the number of units of the leased item turns out to be more or less than stated in the contract, depending on whether the rent is a lump sum or set per unit.
- Article 412The article provides that the lease period starts from the date specified in the contract, or if none is specified, from the date the contract is concluded.
- Article 413The article provides that if the lease period is not specified and the rent is set for a particular unit of time, the contract extends to its end; otherwise the court sets the period according to custom and the circumstances of the contract.
- Article 414The article allows a lease contract to be attributed to a future term, that is, concluded now to begin at a later time.
- Article 415The article provides that a lease extends after its term ends, to the extent of a pressing necessity if proven, with the lessee paying the fair rent, unless otherwise agreed.
- Article 416The article obliges the lessor to deliver the leased item and its accessories in a condition fit for full use of the benefit, and to enable the lessee to benefit without obstacle throughout the lease period.
- Article 417The article allows the lessor to withhold delivery of the leased item until he receives the rent due in advance.
- Article 418The article subjects delivery of the leased item and its accessories to the rules on delivery of the thing sold, unless the parties agree otherwise.
- Article 419The article obliges the lessor to make necessary repairs, and allows the lessee, if the lessor delays after being put on notice, to carry them out with the court's permission or, for urgent and slight ones, without it, and allows agreement otherwise.
- Article 420The article provides that the lease contract terminates of its own accord if the leased item is totally destroyed during the lease period.
- Article 421If the leased item is partially destroyed or the benefit from it is reduced during the lease period without the lessee's fault, the lessee may request termination of the contract or a reduction of the rent.
- Article 422The lessee recovers, to the customary extent, what he spent on works or repairs he made with the lessor's permission for the benefit of the leased item, but does not recover what he made for his own personal benefit, unless otherwise agreed.
- Article 423The lessor must not interfere with the lessee's benefit throughout the lease period, and guarantees interference by his dependents and interference by third parties based on a legal ground; the lessee may request termination or a reduction of the rent, together with compensation.
- Article 424The lessor does not guarantee interference by a third party that is not based on a legal ground, but the lessee may request termination or a reduction of the rent if deprived of the benefit, and likewise where the benefit is reduced by an act of a public authority.
- Article 425The lessor guarantees to the lessee defects that prevent or reduce the benefit from the leased item, except defects that custom tolerates or that the lessee knew of at the time of contracting.
- Article 426If a defect deprives the tenant, fully or partly, of use of the leased property, the tenant may request termination or a rent reduction, while keeping the right to compensation.
- Article 427Any agreement exempting the lessor from the warranty against interference or defects, or limiting it, is void if the lessor deliberately concealed the cause of the warranty.
- Article 428The lessor may sell the leased property, and the sale does not affect the tenant's rights.
- Article 429The tenant pays rent on the agreed dates; otherwise on delivery of the property or at the start of each period. No rent is due for any period before delivery unless the tenant caused the delay.
- Article 430The tenant must take care of the leased property as an ordinary person would and compensate the lessor for damage resulting from the tenant's wrongdoing or default. Where there are several tenants, each answers for their own wrongdoing or default.
- Article 431The tenant must use the leased property within the use agreed in the contract; if nothing was agreed, according to what it was prepared for.
- Article 432The tenant may not make any change to the leased property without the lessor's permission, unless the change is required to repair the property and does not damage it.
- Article 433During the lease term the tenant must maintain the leased property as custom requires, unless the parties agree otherwise.
- Article 434The tenant may not prevent the lessor from making repairs necessary to preserve the leased property if notified a reasonable time before they begin, and may request termination or a rent reduction if they impair the tenant's use.
- Article 435At the end of the contract the tenant must return the leased property in the condition in which it was received, apart from what ordinary use entails; if the tenant keeps it without right, the lessor is entitled to the fair rent plus compensation.
- Article 436If a tenant builds or plants for the tenant's own benefit without agreement that it will remain, then at the end of the contract the lessor may request removal at the tenant's expense or keep it for a payment, and the tenant may remove it if that does not damage the property.
- Article 437The tenant may not sublease all or part of the leased property to another, or assign the contract, except with the lessor's permission or approval.
- Article 438A tenant permitted to sublease or assign to another is then bound by the limits of the use the tenant holds, in its kind and its duration.
- Article 439If a tenant assigns the contract, the assignee takes the tenant's place in all the rights and obligations arising from the assigned contract.
- Article 440A lease ends when its term expires unless automatic renewal was agreed, and it is renewed if the tenant continues with the lessor's consent; a requested rent increase binds a tenant who stays without objecting.
- Article 441A lease does not end with the death of one of the contracting parties; the tenant's heirs may request termination in specified cases, and the lessor may request it if the contract was made for reasons personal to the deceased tenant.
- Article 442Either the lessor or the tenant may request termination of the lease for a supervening excuse relating to that party, while compensating the other; a tenant cannot be forced to return the property at the lessor's request for termination until compensation or adequate security is received.
- Article 443Leasing land for farming is valid, whether what is to be planted is specified or the choice of what to plant is left to the tenant.
- Article 444A lease of farmland cannot take immediate effect while it holds another's unharvested crop planted with a right; if the crop is ripe or was planted without right, the lease is valid and the crop must be removed.
- Article 445A lease of land occupied by a crop is valid if it is made with effect deferred to a future time when the land will be empty.
- Article 446A lease of land for farming includes its appurtenances, what is permanently attached to it and what custom treats as belonging to it, but not farm tools and machinery unless otherwise agreed.
- Article 447Someone who leases land for farming with no agreement on the kind and type of crop may plant it in all seasons of the year.
- Article 448If the term of a lease of land for farming ends before the crop is harvested for a reason beyond the tenant's control, the tenant may keep the crop there at the fair rent until it is harvested, unless otherwise agreed.
- Article 449The lessor of farmland must make the repairs on which its use depends, and the tenant must carry out the maintenance that use requires and maintain leased machinery, according to custom; the parties may agree otherwise.
- Article 450If the whole crop is destroyed by force majeure before harvest, the tenant may request that the rent be waived; if part is destroyed with a significant fall in yield, the tenant may request a reduction, unless the tenant receives compensation covering the loss.
- Article 451The article defines a loan for use as a contract in which the lender lets the borrower use a non-consumable thing for a period or a specific purpose, free of charge, on the condition that the borrower returns it.
- Article 452The article makes a loan for use come into being only when the borrower takes possession of the thing lent, so mere agreement does not create it.
- Article 453The article sets when the thing lent is to be returned: after the term or the period for the purpose if set, and on the lender's request if not, with a right for a borrower who would be harmed to keep it.
- Article 454The article provides that the lender does not warrant that the thing lent is free from third-party entitlement or defects, unless the lender deliberately concealed them or warranted that it was free of them.
- Article 455The article requires the borrower to look after the thing lent with the care the borrower gives to the borrower's own property, and not less than the care of an ordinary person.
- Article 456The article puts the expenses of the thing lent, its ordinary maintenance and the cost of returning it on the borrower, unless the parties agree otherwise.
- Article 457The article sets how the borrower may use the thing lent: in the customary way if the loan is unrestricted, and within the restrictions if it is limited by time, place or kind of use.
- Article 458The article prevents the borrower from dealing with the thing lent in a way that creates a right in it or in its use for anyone, except with the lender's permission.
- Article 459The article provides that a loan for use ends on the death of the lender or the borrower and does not pass to the heirs, unless otherwise agreed.
- Article 460The article provides that a loan for use ends when the term expires or the use is exhausted, and requires the lender to accept the thing if the borrower returns it early, unless that would cause harm.
الباب الثالث: العقود الواردة على العملArticles 461–527
- Article 461The article defines the contracting (muqawala) contract as one in which the contractor undertakes to make a thing or perform work for a fee, without being subordinate to or an agent of the client.
- Article 462The article allows the contractor to carry out the work with materials supplied by the contractor or with materials supplied by the client.
- Article 463The article sets the contractor's obligations on materials: if the contractor supplies them, they must meet the specifications or be fit for the purpose by custom; if the client supplies them, the contractor must safeguard them, observe technical rules and return what is left.
- Article 464The article puts the expenses of the machines and tools needed to complete the work on the contractor, unless the parties agree otherwise.
- Article 465The article requires the contractor to complete the work according to the contract terms and within the agreed period, failing which according to the recognized standards and within the reasonable time the nature of the work requires.
- Article 466If the contractor breaches the contract, the client may call on the contractor to correct the work and then give it to another contractor at the contractor's expense or request termination, and may request termination at once in specified cases.
- Article 467The article governs the risk of loss or damage to the thing before delivery for a reason beyond the contractor's control: no fee or expenses for the contractor, and no claim for the value of materials against the contractor, with specified exceptions.
- Article 468The article requires the client to promptly take delivery of the work once completed; if the client refuses without a lawful reason despite being notified, and it is lost or damaged without the contractor's wrongdoing or default, the contractor owes no compensation.
- Article 469The article requires the client to pay the fee on taking delivery of the work unless otherwise agreed, and to pay in proportion to what is completed if the work is in parts or the fee is by unit, subject to conditions.
- Article 470The article requires the contractor to notify the client at once of an apparent excess over the estimate, failing which the contractor loses the right to claim it, and lets the client withdraw from the contract if the excess is serious.
- Article 471In a lump-sum contract, the contractor may not claim a higher fee for price rises or design changes except on conditions, and the court may rebalance the contract in exceptional general circumstances.
- Article 472The article provides that if the contract does not fix the contractor's fee, the contractor is entitled to the fair fee and the value of the materials the contractor supplied.
- Article 473The article lets the contractor give all or part of the work to a subcontractor unless a legal text, agreement, the nature of the work or reliance on the contractor's person prevents it, and the contractor's liability remains.
- Article 474The article prevents a subcontractor from claiming from the client for itself anything due to the main contractor, unless the contractor referred the subcontractor to the client.
- Article 475The article provides that a contracting contract ends when the agreed work is completed.
- Article 476The article allows either party to a contracting contract to request its termination if a supervening excuse relating to performance arises for it, while compensating the other party for the harm of termination.
- Article 477The article provides that a contractor who started performance and then was unable to complete it for a reason beyond the contractor's control is entitled to the value of what was done and what was spent on the rest to the extent of its benefit to the client.
- Article 478The article provides that contracting terminates on the contractor's death if the contractor was required to work personally or the contractor's person was relied on, and otherwise allows the client to request termination if the heirs' guarantees are insufficient.
- Article 479The article refers the rules on the employment contract to the legal provisions specific to it.
- Article 480The article defines agency as a contract by which the principal puts the agent in the principal's own place in a legal act.
- Article 481The article allows an agency to be unrestricted or restricted, and to be made conditional on a condition or deferred to a term.
- Article 482An agency is not valid if worded in general terms that do not specify the type of legal act for which the agent is authorized.
- Article 483A special agency for a particular type of act is valid even if the subject of the act is not specified, unless the act is a gratuitous one.
- Article 484Any work that is not an act of administration must be covered by a special agency that specifies the type of work and the acts it requires.
- Article 485The article makes a person's later approval of an act done on that person's behalf equivalent to a prior agency for the act.
- Article 486The article sets the scope of an agent's authority to act, treats money the agent receives for the principal as a deposit, and explains when acting more beneficially is not an overstep.
- Article 487The article sets the level of care an agent owes in carrying out the agency and distinguishes between paid and unpaid agency.
- Article 488The article regulates the case of multiple agents: when each may act alone, when they must act together, and when they are jointly liable.
- Article 489The article sets the rules for an agent appointing another agent, the first agent's liability for the second, and the right to dismiss the second agent.
- Article 490If a person is authorized to buy something without a price being stated, he may not buy it for more than the fair market price.
- Article 491The article bars an agent authorized to buy a specific item from buying it for himself, and bars him from buying from his own property, his relatives' property, or from anyone dealing with whom benefits him, except with his principal's permission.
- Article 492The article sets out the rule when an agent buys at an unfair price or above the set price, and when an agent declares in the principal's presence that he bought for himself.
- Article 493If a purchasing agent pays the price from his own money, he may recover it from his principal together with what he spent in carrying out the agency to the usual extent.
- Article 494The article bars a selling agent from selling below the set price or the fair market price, and explains the effect of an under-priced sale on the principal and on a good-faith buyer.
- Article 495The article bars a selling agent from buying for himself what he was authorized to sell, or selling it to his relatives or to anyone dealing with whom benefits him, except with his principal's permission.
- Article 496A selling agent may not sell at a deferred price except with express or implied permission, and if he sells on deferred terms he may take a pledge or a guarantor.
- Article 497The article requires the agent to give his principal the necessary information on how the agency is being carried out and to render an account of it, unless the agreement or the nature of the transaction requires otherwise.
- Article 498The article requires the principal to pay the agreed fee once the agent completes the work, and gives an agent who habitually works for pay the fair fee when nothing was agreed.
- Article 499The principal must reimburse the agent for what he spent in carrying out the agency to the usual extent.
- Article 500The principal is bound by all that falls on the agent because of usual performance of the agency, and is liable for harm that befalls the agent because of it unless the harm arose from the agent's own fault.
- Article 501The article subjects the relationship of the principal and agent with a third party who deals with the agent to the rules on representation in contracting set out in the Law.
- Article 502The article lists the causes by which an agency contract ends: completion of the work, expiry of its term, the death of the principal or agent, or loss of capacity by either of them.
- Article 503The article lets the principal dismiss his agent or restrict the agency whenever he wishes, unless it was issued in favor of the agent or a third party, and requires him to notify the agent in all cases.
- Article 504If the agency is paid and the principal dismisses his agent at an unsuitable time or without an acceptable justification, he must compensate the agent for the resulting harm.
- Article 505The article regulates the agent's right to withdraw from the agency and its conditions, his duty to complete what he started, and compensation to the principal for unsuitable withdrawal in a paid agency.
- Article 506The article defines deposit as a contract under which the depositary keeps the depositor's property on the basis that he will return it in kind.
- Article 507The depositary is not entitled to a fee for keeping the deposit unless otherwise agreed.
- Article 508If the deposit is unpaid, the contract is formed only when the depositary takes possession of the deposit.
- Article 509The article sets the care owed by the depositary in keeping the deposit depending on whether it is paid or unpaid, and who may keep it.
- Article 510The depositary may not deposit the deposit with a third party without the depositor's permission unless he is compelled to, and he must retrieve it once the reason ceases.
- Article 511The article bars the depositary from using the deposit or creating any right over it for a third party except with the depositor's permission.
- Article 512In a paid deposit, the depositor must pay the agreed fee when the keeping of the deposit ends, unless otherwise agreed.
- Article 513The article requires the depositor to repay the depositary's expenses for keeping the deposit unless otherwise agreed, and lets the depositary refer the matter to the court if the depositor is absent.
- Article 514The article requires the depositor to bear the costs of returning and delivering the deposit and to compensate the depositary for harm he suffered because of it unless it arose from his own wrongdoing or default, unless otherwise agreed.
- Article 515The article sets out when the depositary may return the deposit and the depositor may recover it, distinguishing between an unpaid and a paid deposit.
- Article 516The article sets out the causes by which a deposit contract ends: expiry of the agreed term, return of the deposit by consent or by judgment, or the death of the depositary, unless otherwise agreed.
- Article 517The article defines sequestration as a contract under which the sequestrator keeps and manages disputed property and returns it with its yield to the person found entitled to it.
- Article 518The article provides that the sequestrator is appointed by agreement of the interested parties, failing which the court may appoint him if it sees that leaving the property in its possessor's hands poses an urgent danger.
- Article 519The article bars one of several sequestrators from acting alone in keeping or managing the property or dealing with the yield without the permission of the others.
- Article 520The article makes the sequestration contract or the judgment issued for it the reference for the sequestrator's obligations and rights, failing which the rules of the chapter and the rules on deposit and agency apply to the extent consistent with the nature of sequestration.
- Article 521The article requires the sequestrator to exercise the care of the ordinary person in keeping and managing the property entrusted to him.
- Article 522The article bars the sequestrator from dealing with the property outside keeping and management except with the interested parties' consent, the court's permission, or without its permission in a case of urgency.
- Article 523The article requires the sequestrator to provide the interested parties with information on the performance of his task and to render an account at the times and in the manner agreed or ordered by the court.
- Article 524The article gives the sequestrator the right to recover sums he spent in performing his work to the customary extent.
- Article 525The article provides that the sequestrator is entitled to the agreed fee on performing the work, and if no fee was agreed, to the fair fee.
- Article 526The article regulates the sequestrator's withdrawal from his task: a volunteer may withdraw on conditions, failing which he must pay compensation, and a paid sequestrator must compensate if he withdraws at an unsuitable time or without an acceptable justification.
- Article 527The article sets out how sequestration ends and requires the sequestrator on its ending to return the property with its yield to the person the interested parties agree on or the court appoints.
الباب الرابع: عقود المشاركةArticles 528–577
- Article 528The article requires partnership contracts and their amendments to be in writing or be void, while barring reliance on the voidness against third parties and limiting its effect between the contracting parties to the period after a voidness claim is filed.
- Article 529The article defines the partnership as a contract under which two or more partners contribute a share of money, work, or both to a project in order to divide its profit or loss, and excludes partnerships governed by special legal provisions.
- Article 530The article bars a partner's influence, reputation or financial credibility from being his share, explains how a non-cash share is valued, and says when a partner's obligation ends if his share is a debt owed by a third party.
- Article 531The article allows a partnership to be based on the partners' joint liability for what they undertake in their obligations for its benefit, makes each partner's share in the capital equal to what he undertook unless otherwise agreed, and allows partners to differ in their obligations.
- Article 532The article provides that each partner's share is determined by what he undertook in the partnership contract, and that he may not increase it except with the consent of the other partners.
- Article 533The article subjects the guarantee of a partner's share to the rules of sale if it is a right of ownership or another real right, and to the rules of lease if it is merely the use of property.
- Article 534The article makes the division of profits in proportion to each partner's share unless otherwise agreed, and distributes losses in proportion to each partner's share.
- Article 535The article bars stipulating that a partner's portion of the profit is a fixed sum, that he does not benefit from the profit, or that he is exempted from loss.
- Article 536The article allows the partners to agree on the method of distributing profits and the dates they fall due, provided the distribution is made after the capital is safe.
- Article 537The article allows the partners to appoint a manager of the partnership's funds; if they do not, each partner is treated as an agent of the others, with a right to object before an act is completed that a majority of shares can reject.
- Article 538The article gives every partner, or whoever he authorizes, the right to inspect the partnership's books and documents, and voids any agreement otherwise.
- Article 539The article sets the level of care required of whoever manages the partnership or deals with its funds, and bars him from acting in a way that harms the partnership or contravenes his powers or its purpose.
- Article 540The article bars whoever manages the partnership or deals with its funds on behalf of the partners from giving away or lending any of its money, unless he is authorized.
- Article 541The article bars a partner from keeping any of the partnership's money for himself or using it for himself and requires him to compensate for harm, and gives him the right to recover what he paid or spent for its benefit, on conditions.
- Article 542The article allows a partner's personal creditor to satisfy his claim from the partner's distributable profits or his portion after liquidation, or to ask for a sale of his shares, with the other partners having priority to buy them.
- Article 543If the partnership's funds do not cover a debt connected to its purposes, the partners are liable from their own money for the remainder in proportion to each one's share, and there is no joint liability among them unless agreed.
- Article 544A partnership contract ends when its purpose is achieved or its term expires, the partners may agree to extend it, the partners' continuing the work afterward is a renewal, and a partner's creditor may object to it.
- Article 545A partner may withdraw from a partnership of unspecified duration with prior written notice and without fraud or unsuitable timing, but from a fixed-term partnership he can leave only if the court removes him, with compensation.
- Article 546The article allows partners to agree in the partnership contract on how a partner may be removed and the procedure for it, and any partner may ask the court to remove one or more partners for acceptable reasons.
- Article 547A partnership contract ends on the death, interdiction, insolvency, opening of liquidation proceedings against, or withdrawal of a partner, but the partners may agree that it continues with the heirs or among the remaining partners.
- Article 548If a partnership ends in respect of one partner but continues among the others, his share is valued as at the time the ground for ending occurred and paid in cash to him or his heirs, unless otherwise agreed.
- Article 549The partnership's assets are liquidated and divided as the partners agree; failing agreement, any interested person may ask the court, and the rules on dividing jointly owned property apply to the division.
- Article 550The article defines mudaraba as a contract in which the capital owner hands over money to a person who works with it in return for a joint (proportionate) share of the profit.
- Article 551A mudaraba's capital may be a debt owed to the capital owner by the mudarib, and if non-cash property is contributed, the capital is its value at the time of contracting or on agreed valuation bases.
- Article 552The capital owner must hand the mudaraba money to the mudarib and enable him to manage it and deal with it.
- Article 553After the capital is handed to him, the mudarib has the right to manage it and deal with it in accordance with Articles 539, 540 and 541, taking into account what the mudaraba contract requires.
- Article 554The mudarib must provide the capital owner with information on the mudaraba's business and render an account when its term ends, or every year if its term is unspecified, unless otherwise agreed.
- Article 555If a mudaraba contract is restricted by time, place, type of work or otherwise, the mudarib is bound by the restriction; if it is unrestricted, he may work according to custom.
- Article 556The mudarib may not mix the mudaraba money with his own or hand it to another as a mudaraba except by custom or authorization, and where mixing is permitted the profit of each fund is calculated by its proportion.
- Article 557The capital owner alone bears any shortfall in the capital and any condition to the contrary is void; the mudarib compensates for the shortfall only if he committed a transgression or default.
- Article 558Each party's share of the mudaraba profit is fixed by agreement, failing which by custom, and in that case a party may terminate the contract under paragraph 1 of Article 562.
- Article 559In a mudaraba it is not valid to stipulate a specified sum of the profit for one party, but dividing profit in tiers or variable shares is valid, as is one party having a known wage in addition to his share.
- Article 560A party is entitled to his share of the profit when the mudaraba ends unless it is agreed to value it and distribute periodically, and neither party may take his share before it is due without the other's consent.
- Article 561A mudaraba contract ends on expiry of its term if it has a fixed term, or on completion of the work for which the mudaraba was made.
- Article 562A party may withdraw from a mudaraba of unspecified duration by giving reasonable prior notice, without bad faith or bad timing; from a fixed-term one only by asking the court, with compensation.
- Article 563When the mudaraba ends, the mudarib must bring his work to a state in which assets and profits are not damaged, may not deal with them, and must convert non-cash assets to cash unless otherwise agreed.
- Article 564On the mudaraba's end the mudarib must return the capital owner's share; if he delays without acceptable justification he bears any shortfall, and if the money makes a profit the capital owner is compensated for it until return.
- Article 565A mudaraba contract ends on the death, interdiction, insolvency or opening of liquidation proceedings against a party, and a deceased mudarib's qualified heirs who know of the mudaraba must inform the capital owner and preserve the money.
- Article 566The article defines the output-sharing contract as one in which the capital owner hands a non-consumable thing to a person who exploits it in return for a joint share of the output.
- Article 567The capital owner must enable the worker to work and the worker must use ordinary care and preserve the property; preservation costs fall on the capital owner and exploitation costs on the worker, who may hire helpers.
- Article 568Each party is entitled to his share of the output when it is produced; at the end the asset is returned to the capital owner, and the worker gets his separable additions and useful attached expenses unless removing them would harm the asset.
- Article 569If an output-sharing contract is annulled, the output belongs to the capital owner and the worker gets the fair wage for his work, unless the materials came from the worker, in which case the output is his and the capital owner gets fair rent.
- Article 570An output-sharing contract ends on expiry of its term or completion of the work, and on the worker's death if he was engaged for his personal qualities or his heirs choose not to complete; it does not end on the capital owner's death.
- Article 571The article defines the agricultural sharing contract as one in which land or trees are handed to a person who works on them by muzara'a or musaqah in return for a joint share of the output.
- Article 572The article allows the seed or seedlings in an agricultural sharing contract to come from the capital owner, the worker, or both.
- Article 573The article prohibits stipulating for either party to an agricultural sharing contract a share that is a non-joint amount of the output or the output of a particular spot of the land or trees.
- Article 574If the term of an agricultural sharing contract is not fixed, or is too short for harvest or picking, its term is one agricultural cycle in muzara'a and a period sufficient for the first output in musaqah.
- Article 575If the worker refuses to complete the work in agricultural sharing, the capital owner may, after a formal warning, hire someone to finish it at the worker's expense under Article 167, or ask for termination of the contract.
- Article 576Each party is entitled to his share of the output when it appears, and the article explains the effect of the term expiring before the output appears, or after it appears but before harvest or picking.
- Article 577The worker may ask to terminate the agricultural sharing contract for a sudden excuse before the output appears relating to performing the contract, and is entitled to the fair wage for his work and the value of what he spent, to the extent the capital owner benefited.
الباب الخامس: عقد الكفالة وعقد التأمينArticles 578–607
- Article 578The article defines suretyship as a contract in which the surety undertakes to the creditor to perform an obligation owed by the debtor if the debtor himself does not perform it.
- Article 579Suretyship is concluded between the surety and the creditor, the creditor's silence counts as acceptance, and it does not depend on the debtor's acceptance, so it is valid without his knowledge and despite his objection.
- Article 580The article requires the surety to have full capacity, limits a suretyship by a person on his deathbed to one third of the estate unless the heirs approve, and a suretyship to or for an heir takes effect only with their approval.
- Article 581The article provides that suretyship is valid only if the obligation guaranteed is valid.
- Article 582The article allows suretyship to be immediate, conditional, for a limited period, or deferred to a term.
- Article 583Suretyship is valid for a future debt if the amount guaranteed is fixed in advance, and for a debt conditional on a condition; for a future debt with no fixed period the surety may withdraw by notifying the creditor.
- Article 584A suretyship for a larger amount or on harsher terms than the debt is valid only to the extent of the debt owed and on its terms, while a suretyship for a smaller amount and on lighter terms is valid.
- Article 585If the suretyship is unrestricted, the surety's obligation follows the debtor's obligation as to whether it is immediate or deferred.
- Article 586The article allows suretyship of an immediate debt to be made deferred, so the creditor may claim against the debtor at once but may not claim against the surety until the term arrives.
- Article 587In a suretyship for a limited period, the surety is claimed against only for obligations arising during the period of the suretyship.
- Article 588The surety is discharged to the extent of the debt guarantees the creditor lost through his fault; guarantees include anything allocated to secure the debt, even after the suretyship, and any guarantee provided by law.
- Article 589If the debt falls due and the creditor does not claim against the debtor, a non-joint surety may warn him, and if he takes no action within 180 days the surety is discharged.
- Article 590If any liquidation proceedings are opened for the debtor and the creditor does not submit his claim in them, his right to claim against the surety lapses to the extent of what he would have collected had he submitted it.
- Article 591The creditor may not claim against the surety alone except after claiming against the debtor, nor enforce against the surety's property except after exhausting the debtor's, unless the surety is jointly liable, and provided the surety invokes this.
- Article 592A surety who requests exhaustion must point out to the creditor, at his own expense, property of the debtor sufficient for the whole debt, and the creditor is liable for the debtor's insolvency if he delays in taking action.
- Article 593The article provides that statutory and judicial suretyship requires the sureties to be jointly liable with the debtor and among themselves.
- Article 594If the debt was secured by a real security before or at the time of the suretyship and the surety is not jointly liable, enforcement may not be made against the surety's property before the property securing the debt.
- Article 595If there are several sureties for one debt, each may be claimed against for the whole debt, unless they stood surety in one contract without a joint liability condition, in which case each is claimed against only for his share.
- Article 596If the sureties are jointly liable and one of them pays the debt, he may claim against each of the others for his share of the debt and his portion of the share of the insolvent one among them.
- Article 597The surety may claim against the debtor for what he paid and the contract's expenses if the suretyship was with the debtor's knowledge and without his objection, and may not claim what he paid early on a deferred debt unless the debtor permitted.
- Article 598When the surety pays the debt, the creditor must hand him the documents needed to claim against the debtor, and release to him a movable real security or transfer his rights in real estate, at the surety's expense.
- Article 599If the surety pays the debt he takes the creditor's place in all his rights against the debtor, and if he pays part of it he may claim against the debtor for what he paid only after the creditor has collected all of his right.
- Article 600If the surety pays something else in place of the debt he claims against the debtor for the debt or what he paid, whichever is less, and if he settles with the creditor for less he claims what he paid, not what he guaranteed.
- Article 601The debtor must inform the surety of any ground on which the debt is extinguished or void, and if he fails to and the surety pays when it falls due, the surety may claim against the debtor.
- Article 602A person who stood surety for jointly liable debtors, all of them, may claim against any one of them for everything he paid of the debt.
- Article 603The surety is discharged when the debtor is discharged and may rely on all the debtor's defenses, except the defense of the debtor's lack of capacity if he knew of it at the time of contracting.
- Article 604If the creditor accepts something else in place of the debt the surety is discharged, even if that thing is later claimed by its true owner.
- Article 605If the debtor or the surety transfers the creditor to another by a valid transfer (hawala), they are discharged within its limits, and if the transfer stipulates the surety's discharge alone, he is discharged without the debtor.
- Article 606A suretyship does not end with the death of the surety or the debtor, and the obligation remains on the estate of whichever of them dies.
- Article 607The statutory provisions specific to insurance apply to the insurance contract.
الباب الأول: الحقوق العينية الأصليةArticles 608–718
- Article 608The right of ownership entitles the owner alone to use, exploit and dispose of the thing within the limits of the law, and to its fruits, products and accessories alone.
- Article 609The owner owns the essential elements of the thing, and the owner of land owns what is above and below it to the extent useful for enjoying it, unless a provision or disposition provides otherwise.
- Article 610No one is prevented from using his property and no one's ownership is taken from him, except in the cases provided for by statutory provisions.
- Article 611An owner must comply, in exercising his right, with the restrictions that statutory provisions set for the public or private interest.
- Article 612If a right of someone other than the owner attaches to the property, the owner may not deal with it in a harmful way except with the permission of the holder of that right.
- Article 613An owner may not go to excess in using his right to the harm of a neighbor, and a neighbor may request removal of harms exceeding the usual limit even if a license exists.
- Article 614No partner in a shared wall may make a change in it that is inconsistent with the purpose for which it was prepared without the other partner's permission.
- Article 615A partner may raise the shared wall at his own expense on conditions and must rebuild it if it is not fit for raising, and the cost of repairing it is shared among the partners in proportion to their shares.
- Article 616The owner of a wall may not demolish it if the demolition would harm the neighbor whose property is screened by the wall, except for a valid reason.
- Article 617A condition preventing disposal in a contract or will is valid only for a reasonable period and to protect a legitimate interest, and the court fixes the period if none is set.
- Article 618Every disposition contrary to a valid prohibiting condition is void, without prejudice to the right of one who acquired the property for consideration in good faith.
- Article 619If more than one person owns a thing without their shares being separated, they are co-owners in undivided shares, and their shares are equal unless proven otherwise.
- Article 620A co-owner may dispose of and exploit his share without his co-owners' permission as long as he does not harm them, and his disposition of a specific part passes to what falls to him on division.
- Article 621Management of jointly owned property is the right of the co-owners together unless a provision or agreement provides otherwise, and a co-owner who undertakes it without objection is regarded as their agent.
- Article 622When co-owners disagree, the majority opinion by value of shares binds in ordinary management, and if there is no such majority the court appoints a manager at any co-owner's request.
- Article 623Owners of three quarters of jointly owned property may approve fundamental changes to improve its use while informing the others, and a dissenting co-owner may object before the court within 30 days.
- Article 624Every co-owner in undivided shares may take measures to preserve the jointly owned property even without the consent of the other co-owners.
- Article 625The expenses of managing and preserving jointly owned property and the other expenses of co-ownership are borne by all the co-owners, each in proportion to his share, unless otherwise agreed.
- Article 626If all the co-owners agree on partition, it is valid even if it reduces the property's usefulness or value.
- Article 627Anyone who wants to leave co-ownership may request judicial partition, unless an agreement or statutory provision prevents it or the property's purpose requires it to remain in co-ownership permanently.
- Article 628The court divides jointly owned property in kind if possible without loss of use or substantial loss of value, otherwise it orders its sale at auction, with cases in which the co-owners are not forced into an auction.
- Article 629A creditor of any co-owner may object to partition or sale at auction without his joinder, a creditor whose right is registered must be joined, and there is no challenge after partition except for fraud.
- Article 630If a debt against the deceased appears after the estate has been divided, each heir is bound for his share of the debt within the portion that fell to him.
- Article 631The article allows a partition by agreement to be set aside if one of the parties proves he suffered lesion in it, provided suit is filed within a year of the partition, and the other party can prevent this by making up the shortfall.
- Article 632The article gives a party to a partition whose share is evicted for a cause preceding the partition the right to recourse on the other parties by warranty, each in proportion to his share, with two cases where recourse is not allowed.
- Article 633The article provides that a party to a partition is regarded as owner of the share that fell to him by the partition from the time he acquired it in co-ownership, not only from the date of the partition.
- Article 634The article defines rotation of use (muhaya'a) as dividing the use of jointly owned property among the co-owners, either by time or by place, in proportion to each co-owner's share.
- Article 635The article requires fixing the starting time and period of use in muhaya'a by time and the place of use in muhaya'a by place, and gives the court a role when the co-owners disagree, including a draw.
- Article 636The article provides that the rules of the lease contract apply to time-sharing (muhaya'a) arrangements, as long as they do not conflict with its nature.
- Article 637The article allows co-owners to agree on muhaya'a during property partition proceedings until the partition is completed; if they cannot agree, the court may compel them to do so at one co-owner's request.
- Article 638The article gives a request for partition priority over a request for muhaya'a, even while muhaya'a is in force, and compels co-owners to enter into muhaya'a if one asks for it and the others refuse without requesting partition.
- Article 639The article provides that muhaya'a does not end with the death of one of the co-owners; instead, his heirs take his place in it.
- Article 640The article refers the regulation of ownership of real estate units to the legal provisions specific to them.
- Article 641The article provides that whoever takes possession of permissible movable property with the intention of owning it becomes its owner, and it defines when movable property is permissible.
- Article 642The article refers the rules on minerals, hydrocarbons, waste, water, lost property, antiquities and game to the legal provisions specific to each of them.
- Article 643The article refers the rules on state real estate to the legal provisions specific to it.
- Article 644The article provides that whoever is bound to pay compensation for property owns it once he pays its like or its value to the original owner, with ownership dating back to the time of the cause of compensation, provided the subject matter can be owned.
- Article 645The article provides that an heir owns by inheritance his share of the property owned by the deceased, under the legal provisions specific to inheritance.
- Article 646The article provides that the legatee owns the bequeathed property, under the legal provisions specific to wills.
- Article 647The article provides that a legal act made during a death-illness that is a gift, or an exchange involving favoritism, has the gift or the amount of favoritism treated as a will.
- Article 648The article treats an act by a person in favor of one of his heirs, where he keeps possession of the thing and the right to use it for life, as taking effect after death, so the rules on wills apply unless proven otherwise.
- Article 649The article presumes that every building or planting above or below the land was made by the landowner at his own expense and belongs to him, unless evidence shows otherwise.
- Article 650The article gives the owner of materials that a landowner used without permission in a building or planting the right to recover them, unless removal would seriously harm the land, in which case the landowner acquires them at their value.
- Article 651The article gives a landowner the choice between removing a building or planting that someone else knowingly made on his land without permission, or keeping it for a payment, and allows the maker to remove it if that does not harm the land.
- Article 652The article governs a person who builds or plants in good faith with his own materials on another's land: he may remove it if that does not harm the land; otherwise the owner chooses between paying for the materials and labor or the increase in value.
- Article 653The article allows the court, if it sees grounds, to compel the owner of adjoining land to transfer to his neighbor the part that the neighbor's building encroached on in good faith, in return for fair compensation.
- Article 654The article provides that if two movables of different owners become joined so that they cannot be separated without damage and the owners do not agree, the court decides the dispute taking into account the harm done, the parties' circumstances and each one's good faith.
- Article 655The article provides that ownership and other real rights in real estate and movables pass by contract, where the contract concerns a subject matter owned by the person making the disposition and in accordance with the legal provisions.
- Article 656The article distinguishes between a subject matter specified by its identity, whose ownership passes by the contract, and one specified by its kind, none of whose units passes in ownership until it is set apart.
- Article 657The article provides that if a legal provision requires a procedure for ownership or other real rights to pass, they do not pass until that procedure is completed.
- Article 658The article defines preemption (shuf'a) as the right of a co-owner to acquire the sold real estate for the price at which it was sold plus its expenses.
- Article 659The article provides that where more than one preemptor comes together, each one's entitlement to preemption is in proportion to his share.
- Article 660The article provides that if a buyer sells property subject to preemption to another before the preemptor is notified of his wish to take by preemption under Article 666, the preemptor takes it only at the price of the second sale plus its expenses.
- Article 661The article fixes when the right of preemption is established: when the sale is completed, provided that the reason giving rise to preemption exists.
- Article 662The article requires, for the right of preemption to be established, that the preemptor owned his share in the real estate at the time the buyer bought the seller's share.
- Article 663The article provides that once preemption is established under Article 661, it does not lapse on the death of the seller, the buyer or the preemptor.
- Article 664The article prevents preemption from being divided, so the preemptor may not take part of the real estate against the buyer's will, unless there are several buyers from a single seller.
- Article 665The article sets out three cases in which there is no preemption: transfer of ownership other than by sale, a sale between ascendants and descendants or between spouses, and a sale of real estate at a legally regulated auction.
- Article 666The article sets out three cases in which preemption lapses: the preemptor gives it up, he fails to notify his wish within 10 days of the warning, or he fails to file the claim within 30 days of the notification.
- Article 667The article provides that a preemption claim is not heard once 180 days have passed from the date the sale was registered.
- Article 668The article provides that a preemption claim is brought against the seller or the buyer, and that the court may give the preemptor 15 days to deposit the price or part of it, failing which his right lapses.
- Article 669The article fixes when ownership of the sold real estate passes to the preemptor: from the judgment establishing preemption or the buyer's handing it over by agreement, subject to the provisions on registering ownership.
- Article 670The article provides that the preemptor takes the buyer's place toward the seller in all his rights and obligations, and may benefit from the buyer's deferred payment period if he gives the seller sufficient guarantees.
- Article 671The article regulates the rights of the preemptor and the buyer where the buyer adds to, builds on or plants in the real estate subject to preemption, or it decreases, depending on whether this occurred before or after the preemptor notified his wish.
- Article 672The article allows the preemptor to request that the buyer's acts made after the preemptor notified the seller and the buyer of his wish to take by preemption not be effective, while his right to preemption remains if its conditions are met.
- Article 673The article defines possession as a person's putting his hand on the possessed thing, appearing over it as an owner.
- Article 674The article makes possession of a movable a presumption of its ownership when ownership is disputed.
- Article 675The article defines the good-faith possessor, presumes his good faith unless the contrary is proven, and states when this status ends.
- Article 676The article sets out the rule on fruits a possessor collects: the good-faith possessor owns them, the bad-faith possessor is liable for them from the time of his bad faith, and it fixes when fruits are considered collected.
- Article 677The article regulates what the owner must pay the possessor when the thing is returned to him: necessary expenses in full, useful expenses under Articles 651 and 652, and not luxury expenses.
- Article 678The article distinguishes the possessor's liability for loss or damage to the thing: the good-faith possessor is liable only to the extent of the benefit he gained, while the bad-faith one is liable even for causes beyond his control.
- Article 679The article defines the right of usufruct as a real right that entitles the usufructuary to use and exploit a thing owned by another.
- Article 680The article sets out the ways of acquiring the right of usufruct: legal disposition, inheritance if the usufruct is for a fixed term, and preemption from a co-owner in the right of usufruct over real estate.
- Article 681The article provides that the usufructuary's rights and obligations are determined by taking into account the instrument that created the right of usufruct and the rules set out in this section of the Law.
- Article 682The article provides that the fruits of the thing subject to usufruct belong to the usufructuary throughout his usufruct.
- Article 683The article obliges the usufructuary to use the thing within the agreement or what it is prepared for, gives the owner the right to object and to demand guarantees, and allows the court to remove the thing from him or end the usufruct.
- Article 684The article obliges the usufructuary to bear ordinary expenses and maintenance, puts unusual expenses and major repairs not caused by his fault on the owner, and gives the usufructuary a right of recourse if he carries them out.
- Article 685The article obliges the usufructuary to exercise the care of an ordinary person in preserving the thing, and does not require him to compensate if it is lost or damaged without transgression or negligence on his part.
- Article 686The article obliges the usufructuary to compensate if the thing is lost or damaged after the usufruct period ends and he did not return it to its owner although he could, unless he proves it would have been lost or damaged even had he returned it.
- Article 687The article obliges the usufructuary to inform the owner in three cases, and makes him liable to compensate for the harm if he does not inform him within a reasonable period.
- Article 688The article obliges the usufructuary to return the equivalent of consumable movables he consumed after his right ends, and makes them a charge on his estate if he dies before returning them.
- Article 689The article provides that the right of usufruct ends when the capacities of owner and usufructuary merge in one person, unless the owner has an interest in its continuing, such as where the thing is mortgaged.
- Article 690The article provides that the right of usufruct ends on the expiry of its term, or on the usufructuary's death if no term was fixed, with an exception for land occupied by the usufructuary's crop, where the usufruct continues at the fair rent until harvest.
- Article 691The article ends the right of usufruct on the loss of the thing, transfers it to the compensation if any was paid, and obliges an owner who caused the loss to restore the thing where possible.
- Article 692The right of usufruct ends when the usufructuary waives it, without affecting his obligations toward the owner of the thing or the rights of others.
- Article 693A claim for the right of usufruct is not heard once ten years have passed without its being used.
- Article 694The article allows the right of usufruct to be limited to the right of use alone or the right of residence alone.
- Article 695The scope of the right of use and the right of residence is determined by the needs of the right-holder and his family, taking into account what the instrument creating the right provides and custom.
- Article 696The right of use or right of residence may not be assigned to another person unless the instrument creating the right expressly allows it, or out of necessity.
- Article 697The rules of the right of usufruct apply to the right of use and the right of residence insofar as they do not conflict with the rules and nature of those two rights.
- Article 698The Article refers the rules on the right of waqf (endowment) to the special legal provisions that govern it.
- Article 699The Article defines the easement right as a real right established for the benefit of a property of one person over a property owned by another.
- Article 700The Article sets out two ways of acquiring an easement right: a legal disposition or inheritance.
- Article 701If the owner of two separate properties creates an apparent easement between them, the right remains after the properties or one of them pass to other owners with no change in their condition, unless otherwise agreed.
- Article 702If a person has an established right of way over land owned by another, its owner may not prevent him, and a right of way is not established by permission given as a mere courtesy.
- Article 703The owner of a property not connected to the public road, or reached only at exorbitant cost or great hardship, has a right of way over the neighboring property to the usual extent in return for fair compensation.
- Article 704The owner of higher land may water his land from the natural watercourse as much as he needs according to custom, and then must send the water on to the lower land.
- Article 705A person who has built a permitted stream or watercourse to irrigate his land may not have others benefit from it except with his permission or in accordance with the legal provisions.
- Article 706None of the partners in a water source or shared stream may cut another stream from it except with the permission of the other partners.
- Article 707The Article defines the right of watercourse and bars landowners from preventing it, even if structures are needed, on condition of prepaid compensation and no clear impairment of the owner's use.
- Article 708A landowner harmed by the watercourse may ask the holder of the right to repair it, and if he refuses, may repair it at the right holder's expense to the customary extent.
- Article 709The Article prevents the owner of lower land from building a dam that blocks natural flow from the higher land, and prevents the owner of the higher land from doing anything that increases the burden on the lower land.
- Article 710A harmful drain may not be run onto another's property or onto a public or private road, and the harm must be removed even if it is old.
- Article 711An easement right is governed by the rules in the instrument creating it, by the custom of the place where the property is located, and by the provisions of Articles 712 to 715 of the Law.
- Article 712The costs of using and maintaining an easement right fall on the owner of the benefiting property unless otherwise agreed; the Article also regulates giving up the property and sharing costs.
- Article 713The owner of the burdened property may not affect the use of an easement or change its position, unless it becomes more burdensome or blocks useful repairs, in which case he may ask to have it moved.
- Article 714If the benefiting property is divided, the easement remains for each part without increasing the burdens on the burdened property, and its owner may ask to end it for parts that do not benefit from it.
- Article 715If the burdened property is divided, the easement remains on each part, and the owner of a part on which the right is not used and cannot be used may ask to end it for his part.
- Article 716The Article lists five cases in which an easement right ends, including the expiry of its term, the two properties coming into one owner's hands, and its being given up with notice to the owner.
- Article 717A claim for an easement right is not heard if ten years have passed without its use.
- Article 718Use of the easement right by one co-owner in undivided shares interrupts the running of time for the benefit of the other co-owners, and suspension of the period for one makes it suspended for the others.
الباب الثاني: الحقوق العينية التبعيةArticles 719–721
- Article 719The Article refers the rules on accessory real rights to the legal provisions specific to them.
- Article 720The Article sets out 41 universal rules that apply to the extent they do not conflict with the legal provisions, taking into account their nature, conditions and exceptions, and without prejudice to Article 1.
- Article 721The Article provides that the Civil Transactions Law takes effect after 180 days from its publication in the Official Gazette and repeals every provision in conflict with it.
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