A purchaser of an apartment "on paper" in a luxury project in Tel Aviv discovered at the end of construction that the view from her apartment was blocked by another building.
The Supreme Court held that the contractor breached the duty of disclosure and is to compensate the purchaser. A party to a negotiation must act in an acceptable manner and in good faith. Given the significant information and power gaps between a contractor and an apartment purchaser, who lacks planning knowledge and lacks professional experience in real estate business, the contractor, who markets the apartment "on paper", has an increased duty of disclosure towards the purchasers. It is the duty of the apartment seller, contracting company or real estate developer, to ensure that the information the apartment purchaser receives contains all the details relevant to the purchase in clear and accessible language. Here, the purchaser relied on the simulations presented during the negotiations which did show a building being built near the apartment, but it was not made clear to her, in an unambiguous manner, that the view from her apartment may be blocked. The contractor did present to the purchaser an application for a building permit, from which the issue of blocking the view could have been deduced, but this was done only six months after the contract was signed. The contractor should have proactively drawn the purchaser's attention to this issue already at the negotiation stage and therefore it is to compensate the purchaser for the damage caused to her.