A lessee who vacated the apartment two and a half months after the rental period had already ended moved the Cout to reduce 20% of the rent due to an 'insect attack' that prevented him from making reasonable use of the apartment.
The Court rejected the lessee’s claim and ordered him to pay the lessor damages for late eviction. Israeli law entitles a tenant who believes that there is a defect in the apartment that causes a “real disruption to normal use" to correct the defect and demand reimbursement of reasonable expenses. Here, there were no 'severe defects' in the apartment due to an ‘insect attack’, inter alia, because in practice the lessee behaved as if he wanted to keep living in the apartment for more than 4 years while extending the rental agreement twice and under the same terms, while he breached the rental agreement and was late in vacating the property. In addition, the lessee could have mitigated the alleged 'damage' through a standard pest control, but did not. Therefore, the lessee’s claim for damages was rejected. Nevertheless, the lessee is to pay the lessor, inter alia, damages for late eviction.