The defendant further argued that the plaintiff's claims regarding her alleged reliance and the damages caused to her should be rejected, in the absence of a basis justifying his obligation to pay compensation for them. According to the defendant, the plaintiff sold her apartment in Kiryat Bialik on October 29,2024, hastily and on her own initiative, before receiving the defendant's approval of the payment schedule. In any event, the plaintiff did not prove that she suffered any financial loss. According to him, her apartment in Kiryat Bialik was sold for ILS 1,070,000, a price that he claimed was significantly higher than the prices of previous transactions in the area. In addition, the plaintiff made handsome profits both from renting her apartment and from selling it. The defendant further emphasized that his decision not to complete the sale of the apartment stemmed from circumstances that might have left them homeless (Lihi's reply of December 8,2024, paragraph 21 of the reply; attached as Exhibit 44 to the plaintiff's exhibits; Lihi's interrogation at p. 24 of the pro of May 6,2026, paras. 24-25; ibid., p. 26, paras. 20-26). Finally, he argued that in the absence of a signing of a sale agreement, a binding contract between the parties with respect to the real estate transaction was not perfected.
The Curtain of Controversy
As detailed above, the main dispute that needs to be decided is whether the draft agreement that was exchanged between the parties matured into a binding sale contract in real estate, even though no formal agreement was signed between the parties. In this framework, it must be decided whether the elements of discretion and specificity required for the formulation of a binding contract were met in our case. In particular, it is necessary to examine whether the draft agreement included the material details necessary for the engagement, including the significance of the fact that the parties did not reach a full and final agreement with respect to the payment schedule, the date of the eviction of the apartment, the terms of the rental option and the amount of the rent.