Legal Updates

A mortgage does not give priority to the mortgage recipient over a ‎purchaser of the property ‎

December 6, 2015
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A purchaser of an apartment who did not sign the purchase agreement ‎‎(but it was signed by the seller) requested the Court to recognize its rights ‎in the apartment despite the fact that at the time of the sale agreement the ‎apartment was mortgaged and later sold to the recipient of the mortgage ‎but the transaction has not yet been recorded at the Land Registry.‎

The Court held that when a person obligates to a real estate transaction ‎and before the transaction was finalized such person resold the property in ‎a contradicting transaction, the right of the first purchaser is preferable, ‎unless the second purchaser purchased in bone fide and for consideration ‎and the second transaction was recorded before the first transaction.‎

The Court accepted the claim and held that the first agreement is a binding ‎agreement despite the fact that it was not signed by the purchaser ‎because it contained all the terms and conditions required in order to ‎create contractual relationship, especially when in fact the only one who ‎did not sign it is the one who claims that the agreement is enforceable. The ‎law does not negate the validity of a real estate transaction that was ‎performed after holding the pledge and the transaction is subject to the ‎registered pledge and its limitations, but‏ ‏without this preventing the sale of ‎the asset. As for the second transaction, the first transaction will trump ‎because the second transaction was not finalized by recording.