The building with our inherited Israeli apartment was never registered as a condominium. What do Canadian heirs do?

Israeli heirs in Ontario often discover the problem at the bank rather than at the Tabu. A succession order arrives, the lawyer goes to register the apartment, and the answer is that there is no apartment on the register because the building was never entered as a bayit meshutaf (condominium). Section 52 of the Land Law 5729-1969 defines the thing you need to create, and the order that creates it comes from the Supervisor of Land Registration.

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Detailed Answer

A condominium in Israel is a building of two or more apartments recorded in a separate register at the Land Registry, with each apartment given its own sub-parcel number and each owner holding a share of the common property. Until that register entry exists, the whole parcel is registered as one unit and individual apartments simply cannot be transferred, mortgaged or inherited on the face of the record. Chapter 6 of the Land Law sets out the machinery, and Section 142 deals with the Supervisor's power to issue a registration order, including where two or more buildings are to be registered together. The application goes in with a plan of the building, the tashrit, prepared and signed by a licensed surveyor, architect or engineer, showing the parcel, the building, each apartment and the areas attached to it. That plan is only good for six months from the date it is drawn, which is why files stall and are then redrawn at the owners' expense. An agreed takanon (bylaws) may be lodged at the same time, and where it is, every owner and long-lease holder must sign. Where owners do not cooperate, the Supervisor can be asked to register on the application of some of them, but that route is slower and contested.

Two features make this heavier from Canada than it looks. The first is signatures. Consents, the application and any bylaws need signatures that the Israeli registry will accept, which for a Toronto or Montreal heir means a power of attorney signed before a notary and apostilled by the provincial authority under the 1961 Hague Convention, and where the estate has several heirs the paperwork multiplies rather than adds. The second is the housing company. Many older Israeli buildings, especially those built by cooperative developers, hold rights in the books of a chevra meshakenet rather than at the Tabu, so the deceased was never a registered owner anywhere and the succession order has to be presented to the company first before registration can even be contemplated. Establishing which situation you are in costs almost nothing, and it is the first thing to do: an extract from the Land Registry is available online for about NIS 15 and will show whether the parcel carries a condominium register at all, as we explain in our answer on checking Israeli property title at the Tabu from abroad.

In Practice: Chapter 6 of the Land Law 5729-1969, and Section 142 in particular, put the registration order in the hands of the Supervisor of Land Registration at the Land Registry and Settlement of Rights Authority. The tashrit must be signed by a licensed surveyor or architect and is valid for only six months, with surveying and plan preparation commonly costing NIS 8,000 to NIS 15,000, the registry fee running roughly NIS 1,000 to NIS 2,000, and legal fees for the file typically NIS 10,000 to NIS 25,000 depending on the number of units. Allow 12 to 24 months from instructing the surveyor to holding the registration order where the owners cooperate.

When to Consult a Lawyer

• Rights in the building are held through a housing company rather than at the Land Registry, because the succession order must be recognised by the company and the company's own records are often incomplete or the company itself long dormant
• Another owner has built out a balcony, roof or basement that the surveyor's plan will now record, since registration fixes the areas and a neighbour with an unpermitted extension has every incentive to block the file
• The estate is being sold rather than kept, as a buyer's bank will not lend against an unregistered apartment and the sale price reflects that discount until the condominium register exists

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Speak With an Israeli Attorney

Registering the building is the step that turns a succession order into a marketable Israeli apartment, and it is entirely doable from Canada with the right powers of attorney. We check what the register actually shows, instruct the surveyor and take the file through the Supervisor.

Contact us for a confidential initial consultation.