Legal Updates

The Tel Aviv municipality may renovate a building and then demand payment from land owners

October 28, 2024
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The Tel Aviv municipality required apartment owners in a building to renovate the building in which the apartments they own are located, and inter alia required the unification of the shape of the windows on the building's facade, contending that the apartment owners had changed them in breach of the permit.

The Court held that the Tel Aviv municipality may require a building to be renovated but not to demand the unification of the windows even if the apartment owners had changed them in deviation from the permit. The Tel Aviv municipal law stipulates that the municipality may carry out renovations and afterwards demand that the rights holders pay for the expenses incurred in carrying out the renovation, each based on their proportional share, or demand that the apartment owners renovate the building themselves. Regarding the nature of the renovation, the requirement is to maintain the proper appearance of the facade of the building and to carry out renovations in order to prevent the deterioration and neglect of the facade of the building, while the municipality may also consider the need for uniformity of its shape. However, such unification does not include a requirement to change the windows even if they were changed in deviation from the permit. Here, the municipality demanded uniformity in the appearance of the windows, which deviates from the requirement for a proper appearance, and the lack of uniformity is not enough to establish a requirement to replace windows. In addition, the municipality cannot act against a tenant who changed the window without a valid permit to amend the deviation by requiring renovation under the municipal law.