Analysing the factors of failure and delay in islamic inheritance distribution at Selangor/ Suria Melati Norizani

The increasing values of unclaimed inherited properties and frozen assets has emerged as one of the protracted issues among Muslims in Selangor and requires emphasis. Abandonment of this subject is most likely due to lack interest and negligence to make a planning, especially from the estate planning on how to redistribute their assets upon their death. Delays in Islamic inheritance claim become an important issue faced by the majority of Muslims in claiming rights to Islamic inheritance in Selangor. Hence, this will cause an accumulation of unclaimed inheritance and frozen assets which cannot be distributed to deserving heirs. Over the years, claim processes were very problematic and troublesome. There have been increasing trends in volumes of unclaimed property over the years. The increasing number of frozen assets has become unresolved issues faced by the Muslim community in Selangor. Statistics from Amanah Raya Bhd. (ARB) stated that there are RM38 billion in lands and property, RM1.5 billion with Registrar of Unclaimed Monies, RM70 million with the EPF and about a million land titles still in the name of dead people. These showed a serious delay in processing the application for estate's distribution. There are many factors contributing to these delays that have been identified. Although several measures have been used to resolve this problem, the process is still cumbersome. Thus, it is necessary to discover and explore the factors of failure and delay in Islamic inheritance distribution in Selangor. Research methodology for this paper is through questionnaire and interview from a few residents from Selangor. This paper acknowledges that there exists lack of knowledge and understanding among clients and the heirs on processes and procedures to follow, in order to complete a claim submission process, a low awareness, identifies lack of guidelines and fewer officers that manage the inheritance cases to be the main causes of the problem.