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Fatwa CenterAn agent charging his fees on a percentage basis
Question
How do you see if an institution/person charge its fees by percentage in these three situations.
1. Money Transfer. The companies charge the fee by percentage of the money transferred.
2. Commission which a middle man takes. e.g A property dealer take his fee according to the price of house which will be sold to buyer. e,g 5% of price of house.
3. Money agent/wakeel. e.g I give my money to an agent prior to any transaction. Whenever I buy some thing, I refer the seller to the agent (or send the agent to the seller). The agent pay the charges from the money I have given to him and ask for his fee according to the price of thing I buy. The percentage is decided between me and the agent. e.g 5% of each transaction will be payed to the agent. The Money I gave him is not loan.
Please answer
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
It is permissible to condition a percentage fee when transferring money provided that the Sharee’ah conditions in transferring money are met; we have already clarified this in Fatwa 94389.
As regards the agent getting a percentage of the price of the sold estate, then if the price is known when conducting the contract, like if the owner of the estate says to the agent ‘if you sell the estate with such and such price, you will get 5% or 10% of the price, then this is permissible because the commission is known when conducting the contract. However, if the price of the estate is unknown when conducting the contract, and at whatever price the agent sells, he gets a percentage of its price, then the majority of the scholars 
are of the view that this is not permissible whereas some scholars are of the view that it is permissible.
With regard to the agent getting a known percentage of a defined amount of money which he is authorized to pay, then this is permissible.
Allaah Knows best.
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