Can I guarantee my daughter's Tel Aviv apartment lease from Australia?

Your daughter has found a flat off Ibn Gvirol, the landlord wants an arev by Thursday, and every name she can offer lives in Sydney. This is the standard collision between an Israeli rental market that runs on personal guarantees and a family that has no one in the country. There is a way through it, but it is not the guarantee itself.

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Detailed Answer

The Fair Rent amendment to the Hire and Loan Law 1971 changed the economics of Israeli residential letting. Section 25J limits securities that require the tenant to put money out, meaning cash deposits, bank guarantees and bank cheques, to the lower of three months' rent or one third of the rent for the whole tenancy period. It also confines what a landlord may draw the security for to unpaid rent, damage beyond reasonable wear, unpaid utility and municipal charges, and failure to vacate on time, and requires advance written notice before calling it, with the balance returned within 60 days of the tenant leaving. Personal guarantees and promissory notes are treated differently, as undertakings rather than money laid out, which is why landlords who feel constrained by the cash cap ask for a guarantor as well. A guarantor is not a security in the Section 25J sense; they are a second debtor.

That is what a parent abroad is being asked to become, and it is worth being precise about the exposure. Under Section 8 of the Guarantee Law 1967 a creditor cannot go straight at the guarantor: it must first demand payment from the tenant and show that the demand failed. The enhanced protections Israeli law gives a "single guarantor" apply to guarantees of loans, not leases, so a lease guarantor does not get them. From the landlord's side the objection to an Australian guarantor is practical rather than legal. An Israeli judgment against you would have to be recognised and enforced through the Australian courts, which costs more than most rental claims are worth, so experienced landlords simply decline. Two substitutes usually work. The first is an Israeli bank guarantee, which requires an Israeli account with the cash pledged behind it, a route our answer on obtaining an Israeli bank guarantee as a non-resident sets out. The second is a higher permitted deposit within the Section 25J ceiling combined with several months of rent paid in advance, which Israeli landlords accept readily and which, unlike a guarantee, caps your exposure at the money you handed over. Whatever is agreed, get the tenancy terms themselves reviewed; the practical points a tenant renting from abroad needs to check are set out in our answer on renting an apartment in Israel as a non-resident.

In Practice: Section 25J of the Hire and Loan Law 1971, as amended by the Fair Rent legislation of 2017, caps money-out securities at the lower of three months' rent or one third of the rent for the term, so on a NIS 6,000 monthly rent for twelve months the ceiling is NIS 18,000. The landlord may draw on it only for defined breaches, must give written notice first, and must return the balance within 60 days of the tenant vacating. A landlord suing a guarantor pursues a claim in the Magistrate Court (Beit Mishpat HaShalom) and then enforcement through the Execution Office (Hotzaa LaPoal), a route that typically runs 8 to 18 months and is why a guarantor living in Australia is usually refused at the outset.

When to Consult a Lawyer

• The lease is being signed on a standard landlord form with an open-ended guarantee clause. Israeli guarantee wording frequently purports to cover renewals and any future variation of the lease, so a guarantee given for one year can survive four.
• Your daughter is sharing with flatmates. Guarantors are commonly asked to guarantee the whole rent rather than one share, and where a co-tenant leaves mid-term the remaining guarantee is enforced against whoever is easiest to reach.
• The landlord asks for signed blank promissory notes (shtarei chov) or post-dated cheques in addition to a deposit. These sit outside the Section 25J cap by design, and once signed they can be filed directly with the Execution Office without a court hearing.

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Speak With an Israeli Attorney

We review the lease and the guarantee before anyone signs, hold the security cap to what Section 25J allows, and set up the bank guarantee or advance-rent structure that Israeli landlords accept from families living overseas.

Contact us for a confidential initial consultation.