In an Israeli condominium (בית משותף, bayit meshutaf), every part of the building that is not registered as an apartment is common property shared by all the owners, and the building is run under bylaws: the model bylaws in the Land Law apply unless the owners registered their own. Your share of the common property, and of the building’s running costs, follows your apartment’s floor area unless the bylaws set another split. The building committee (vaad bayit) can be required to carry out repairs to the building or common property whose omission could harm an apartment; you must fix faults in your own flat that could harm a neighbour, and let the committee in for necessary common works. Changing registered bylaws needs a majority of owners whose apartments carry two-thirds of the common property, while attaching a piece of common property, such as the roof, to one flat in the bylaws needs every owner. Disputes between owners go to the Supervisor of Land Registration. This summary follows the Land Law, 1969, as checked on 29 October 2026.
What counts as common property
Common property (רכוש משותף, rechush meshutaf) is every part of a registered condominium except the parts registered as apartments. The Land Law names the land, the roofs, the external walls, the foundations, the stairwells, elevators and shelters, and heating or water installations meant to serve all or most of the owners, even when they sit inside one apartment. So a shared water riser that runs through your kitchen is still common property. An “apartment” here can be a home, a shop or an office, so business units in the building share the same rights and duties.
Each apartment carries an undivided share of the common property. Nobody owns a particular corner of it, and the share cannot be sold apart from the flat: a sale of the apartment carries its share with it. The share follows the apartment’s floor area compared with the floor area of all the apartments, unless the bylaws set a different rate, and balconies and external walls are left out of that floor area unless the bylaws say otherwise. The same floor-area ratio sets each owner’s part of the costs of keeping the common property in proper condition, which the law defines as its condition when construction was completed, plus later improvements the owners agreed to.
Attachments: when part of the common property belongs to one flat
The bylaws can attach (הצמדה, hatzmada) a specific part of the common property, such as a roof, a garden, a parking space or a storeroom, to a particular apartment. Once attached, that part is treated as part of the apartment. Stairwells, the elevator, shelters and installations serving all the owners can never be attached. That is why a seller’s promise of “our roof” or “our parking spot” means nothing until you see it in the condominium register; our due diligence guide explains how this fits into the checks your lawyer runs.
The bylaws: model or agreed
Every condominium is run under bylaws (תקנון, takanon) that set the owners’ rights and duties towards each other. Where the owners have not registered their own bylaws, or where their bylaws are silent on a point, the model bylaws (התקנון המצוי, hatakanon hamatzui) in the schedule to the Land Law apply. The Land Registry itself notes that not every condominium has registered bylaws, and that files from 1969 or earlier may hold an agreement instead.
The owners can adopt agreed bylaws, or change them, by a majority of owners whose apartments carry two-thirds of the common property. Note what is counted: shares of the common property, not heads. That majority has limits. Without the consent of the owners concerned, the bylaws cannot set or change owners’ rights or impose duties or payments of a type or rate the law does not specify, and they cannot attach part of the common property to one flat without the consent of every owner. So bylaws that would let one owner build on the shared roof need everyone’s agreement, unless the separate extension route described below applies.
Registered bylaws, and every registered change, bind anyone who becomes an owner later, including you as a buyer. Bylaws can even be registered while one person owns every apartment in the building, which is how a developer can set the rules before the first flat is sold.
The model bylaws cover changes and repairs inside apartments, the owners’ right to demand repairs, access for works on the common property, the annual and extraordinary general meetings and how they vote, a committee of one to five members with a treasurer, and the treasurer’s accounts, which any owner may inspect, with income deposited in a bank account in the building’s name. Meeting notices, quorum, proxies and votes are explained step by step in our guide to vaad bayit fees and building meetings.
The model bylaws also set a few committee rules. If the owners fixed the number of committee members and the committee falls below that number for any reason, the remaining members must call an extraordinary general meeting within ten days to complete it. Committee decisions pass by a majority, and a tied vote counts as a rejected proposal. The treasurer prepares a financial report every six months, and the building’s financial year runs from 1 January to 31 December (Land Law, First Schedule, sections 15 and 16, checked 12 November 2026).
Everyday use: what decides the common disputes
The law does not list every permitted use of a stairwell or a yard. Under the model bylaws, the annual general meeting sets how the common property is managed and used and what that costs, and its decisions pass by a simple majority. A decision that changes an owner’s rights, or imposes a duty or payment of a type or rate the law and bylaws do not specify, does not bind that owner without their consent. Decisions recorded in the building’s decisions book (ספר ההחלטות, sefer hahachlatot) bind every owner, including owners who bought after the vote, and any owner may inspect the book at a reasonable time.
| Situation | Rule that decides it | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Strollers, bikes or belongings in the stairwell | The stairwell is common property and can never be attached to one flat. The general meeting can regulate its use by majority. | Registered bylaws and the decisions book |
| Using, fencing or building on part of the roof or yard | It stays common property unless the register attaches it to a specific apartment. A new attachment needs every owner, or the special extension majority. | The condominium order, bylaws and plan (tasrit) |
| Locking the shelter or storing things in it | A shelter can never be attached to one flat, and storage is not an approved peacetime use. | Any approval the building holds from the local authority and the Home Front Command |
| Work in your flat that changes the facade or could harm the common property | Needs the general meeting’s prior consent. Harm includes harm to the building’s proper, uniform external appearance as it was when built. | Registered bylaws, which can set a different rule |
| Renovation that could damage a neighbour’s flat | Needs that neighbour’s prior consent. Other changes inside your own flat need nobody’s consent. | Your contractor’s plan and the neighbour’s written consent |
| The committee needs to work through your flat | You must allow works necessary to maintain the common property. If they damage your flat, all owners share the cost of restoring it in their usual cost shares. | A written note of the works and the damage |
| A meeting votes to charge a new kind of payment | It binds you only with your consent if its type or rate is not set in the law or the bylaws. | The minutes and the decisions book |
Source: Ministry of Justice law book, Land Law 1969 sections 52 to 71 and the model bylaws; Home Front Command shelter guideline, checked 29 October 2026.
Repairs: who fixes what
Under the model bylaws, you can demand that the committee carry out any repair in the building or the common property whose omission could harm your apartment or its value, and you can demand that another owner repair their apartment where leaving it could harm yours. In practice the source of the fault decides who acts. A leaking roof, a cracked external wall or a failing shared pipe is common property, so the committee repairs it and every owner pays their share. A leak from pipes that serve only the flat above is that owner’s to fix. Before arguing, check whether the pipe or installation serves all or most of the owners: if it does, it is common property even inside a flat.
If the committee or the neighbour refuses, you can bring a claim to the Supervisor of Land Registration (המפקח על רישום המקרקעין, hamefake’ach al rishum hamekarke’in), who decides disputes about owners’ rights and duties under the bylaws. The Supervisor has the powers of a Magistrates’ Court judge, and the decision is enforced like a Magistrates’ Court judgment. The Ministry of Justice takes these claims online or at its offices through its Supervisor claims service.
The ministry’s separate online claim-drafting service is still in a trial run. As of 12 November 2026 it accepts claims and defences only about current committee fees, so confirm with the Supervisor’s office how to file a repair or bylaw dispute.
Lift inspections, service contracts and installer responsibility
The building must arrange routine maintenance with a licensed lift-service company and a separate examination by a certified lift inspector. For an ordinary mechanically operated passenger lift, section 60 of the Work Safety Ordinance prohibits use unless a certified inspector has examined it thoroughly within the preceding six months and issued an inspection report. A report identifying a defect that makes the lift unfit for use means it must stay out of service until the defect is repaired. Keep the service contract, inspection report and repair records with the committee’s building documents.
For a residential lift-service contract lasting more than 12 months, section 7B of the Lift Installation and Service Order requires an unconditional right for the building’s representation to end the contract after the first 12 months from signing. Give at least three months’ advance notice in writing. The provider may collect the service fees due through the termination date, but has no additional claim against the representation because of that early termination. The same rules apply to a renewed contract or an agreement extending an existing contract.
For a newly installed residential lift, section 7 makes the installer responsible for proper operation for one year, with repairs and replacement parts supplied without charge to the residents. That warranty year starts when the maintenance-and-repair agreement is signed with the residents’ representation, provided it is signed within 60 days after a certified lift inspector approves compliance with the Work Safety Ordinance. The installer must also provide routine maintenance free of charge during the first half of that warranty year. Keep both dated documents when checking the warranty period.
After providing lift service, the provider must issue a signed bill identifying the provider and customer by name and address, describing the service, itemising the service fee and parts with their prices, and recording the service date and place and the bill date.
Sources checked 9 November 2026: Lift Installation and Service Order 1984, sections 2, 7, 7A and 7B; 1974 amendment to the Work Safety Ordinance, sections 12 to 14 inserting or replacing sections 59A, 60 and 60A; and the Ministry of Labour’s 2020 report, existing-law background on page 2.
The building shelter
A building shelter (מקלט, miklat) is common property and can never be attached to one apartment, so no owner may lock it or take it over for private use. The Home Front Command encourages dual use in peacetime because shelters that are used tend to be kept in better condition. For a residential building, the guideline lists uses shared by all the residents, such as culture, prayer, sport, children’s play, a committee office, clubs for youth, adults or seniors, a reading room, or parking for bikes and strollers, but not storage.
Source: Home Front Command, guideline on shelter maintenance and dual use for local authorities (June 2014 version), checked 29 October 2026. The State Comptroller’s January 2026 report describes a later version, published in July 2019 and updated in June 2024, which also allows dual use of a residential shelter in calm periods only if fixed or heavy equipment takes up no more than 20 percent of the shelter area and the shelter can be readied within four hours. The other details on this page come from the 2014 text and were not checked against the later version, so confirm the current rules with the local authority or the Home Front Command before acting.
Peacetime use also requires that nothing flammable or toxic is kept there, that the shelter has regular lighting from the building supply and emergency lighting, that it holds any equipment the Home Front Command requires, and that no physical change is made without the approval of the Home Front Command’s district engineer. Either authority can cancel the approval at any time, and the undertaking the applicant signs commits them to restore the shelter within 30 days of a cancellation.
- Agree the use. Decide on a use shared by all residents; the application has to carry the consent of the rights holders in the property.
- Draw an outline plan. Show the internal layout, systems, equipment and fittings for the planned use.
- Sign the undertaking. The applicant signs the Home Front Command’s dual-use undertaking (no storage, the equipment limit, no hazardous materials, no changes without approval).
- Apply to both authorities. Send the request to the local authority’s engineer and the Home Front Command district engineer for the area, and wait for approval before moving anything in.
Section 14(a) of the Civil Defense Law, 1951, as the guideline cites it, puts maintenance of a shared private shelter on the occupant or the building committee, and makes the local authority responsible for inspecting and enforcing. The guideline tells authorities to coordinate inspections with the committee, let minor repairs be done without reporting, set a deadline of up to 90 days for significant repairs, and require safety defects to be fixed immediately. If a shelter is locked or blocked on inspection day, the authority may clear its contents after at least 15 days notice, and items left uncollected for 30 days may be sold. These powers rest on the city’s own bylaw, so what your municipality can enforce depends on it. For renters, our mamad and shelter check covers what to confirm before signing.
Separately, section 14A of the Civil Defense Law, as the State Comptroller described it in January 2026, requires the residents of a building to clear the movable items out of its shelter, keep it clean and keep it usable as a shelter at any time. The Comptroller adds that responsibility for maintaining shared shelters rests with the residents, and responsibility for oversight and enforcement with the local authority.
Special majorities at a glance
Most building decisions pass by a simple majority at the general meeting. A few need more, and the law counts them in different ways: some by shares of the common property, some by the number of apartments.
| Decision | Who must agree | Law |
|---|---|---|
| Adopt or change agreed bylaws | A majority of owners whose apartments carry two-thirds of the common property, plus the consent of any owner whose rights change or who gets a new kind of duty | Section 62(a) |
| Attach part of the common property to one flat in the bylaws | Every owner | Section 62(a) |
| Hand management and maintenance to a management company | A provision in the bylaws, or a majority of owners whose apartments carry two-thirds of the common property | Section 71(b)(1) |
| Choose or replace a specific management company | Owners whose apartments carry more than half of the common property | Section 71(b)(2) |
| Extend apartments into the common property and divide the building rights | Owners of three-quarters of the apartments whose apartments carry two-thirds of the common property | Section 71B(a) |
| Extend apartments to build an apartment or floor protected space (mamad) | Owners of 60% of the apartments | Section 71B(a) |
| Install an elevator or switch the central gas supplier | Separate procedures: see our elevator retrofit guide and the gas supplier section of our vaad bayit guide | Section 59F (elevators); a separate 1991 law for gas suppliers |
Source: Ministry of Justice law book, Land Law 1969, with Amendment 37 (Reshumot, 31 October 2023), checked 29 October 2026.
Extending flats into the common property
The extension route lets the special majority override the usual rule that every owner must agree to an attachment, so that flats can grow into the common property where a valid plan allows a building permit. The decision cannot cut into any owner’s proportional building rights for their own extension. An owner who extends is treated as having agreed to similar extensions of the other flats. An owner whose flat can grow by more than their share of the common property pays balancing payments to owners who cannot extend, or can extend less; if the owners cannot agree the amount, a land appraiser appointed by agreement sets it, and the appraisal cost is split by common-property shares. A decision cannot take away an owner’s ability to build a sukkah if they used to. An objecting owner who claims substantial harm can go to the Supervisor within 30 days of the decision, or of receiving it if they were absent, but the claim alone does not stop the works. Agreed bylaws can switch this route off, though since Amendment 37 of October 2023 not for building a mamad or other protective upgrades.
The committee, management companies and an appointed committee
Every condominium must have a committee (נציגות, netzigut, usually called the vaad bayit) to manage it. The committee acts as the agent of all the owners for maintenance and management: it can sign contracts and sue or be sued in their name. Owners can instead hand day-to-day management and maintenance to a contractor, the law’s “maintainer”, by the special majorities in the table above. The maintainer’s fee is a shared building expense, and it carries the treasurer’s duties to keep accounts, have them approved and give owners information.
If no committee has been formed under the bylaws, or the one formed does not function, section 67 of the Land Law lets the Supervisor appoint one and fix its pay, which the owners then share like any building expense. The appointed committee has the same standing as an elected one, and its appointment binds all the owners.
- Prepare the request. Give the full address with block (gush) and parcel (chelka) numbers, the reason, a list of all the owners with their mobile numbers or email addresses, and your own name, ID number, address and phone.
- Send it to Ashdod. All requests go to the judicial Supervisor’s office in Ashdod, wherever the building is: email shiputi-ashdod@justice.gov.il or fax 073-3929060. The service is free.
- Hold the ordered meeting. The Supervisor first sends an order to convene a residents’ meeting within 21 days to elect a committee. If one is elected, the minutes go to the Supervisor.
- External committee if needed. If no committee is elected, the Supervisor orders the appointment of a paid external committee.
The appointment can end in three ways: the appointed committee asks to step down, an extraordinary meeting attended by the appointed committee elects owners by majority, or the annual meeting replaces it after a year in office. Each needs a Supervisor’s decision approving the end of the appointment. The details are on the Ministry of Justice external committee service page.
Disputes and who can bring them
The Supervisor of Land Registration decides disputes between owners about their rights and duties under the bylaws and the Land Law’s cost-sharing and installation provisions. A trespass dispute, where one owner takes over another flat or part of the common property, can go to a competent court or to the Supervisor, at the claimant’s choice. These rules also apply when the person occupying a flat on the owner’s behalf, or the management company, is a party. Any owner or the committee can file. An agreement to send such disputes to an arbitrator keeps its effect.
Tenants should know one limit: votes at the general meeting belong to the apartment owners. An owner can vote in person or through a proxy, who must hand the committee an appointment letter signed by the owner just before the meeting opens.
Where building committees get help
The Association for Housing Culture (האגודה לתרבות הדיור, HaAgudah LeTarbut HaDiur) is a membership body for building committees, which join by paying a membership fee. Its listed services include legal advice, legal representation before the Supervisor and in the courts, an arbitration institute, engineering, architectural and appraisal advice, shelter advice, radon tests, electrical safety checks for common property and inspections in a new building’s first year. Its national call centre is *8484 and its email is moked@tarbut-hadiur.gov.il; the head office is at 40 Derech HaAtzmaut, Yehud.
As of 12 November 2026, the government payment page for Association membership (last updated 14 April 2024) sets the fee at ILS 31 per year for each housing unit, and the Association’s annual report published in July 2026 gives the same figure. Under the Association’s membership terms (updated 26 June 2024), the building committee pays the per-unit amount multiplied by the number of housing units in the building, and the Association may change the amount at any time, so confirm the current figure before joining. The same government page lists the national centre on *8484 with reception hours from Sunday to Thursday, 16:00 to 20:00.
Before you buy: check the building as well as the flat
- Order the condominium file. The Land Registry’s online service supplies the registration order, the bylaws and the plan (tasrit), signed electronically. An authenticated electronic copy of scanned file documents costs ILS 39, you can order up to 3 files for the same block and parcel in one basket, and the readiness email is due within 24 hours.
- Match the attachments. Confirm that the parking, storeroom, roof or garden you were shown is attached to the flat in the order and plan, and read it against the Tabu extract.
- Read the bylaws. If bylaws are registered, look for special rules on cost shares, uses, building rights and whether the extension route was switched off. If none are registered, the model bylaws apply.
- Ask for the decisions book. Recorded decisions bind you once you buy, so ask the committee for the book, recent minutes and accounts, and any planned works or special charges.
- Look at the shelter. Check whether it is clear and usable, whether any dual use is approved, and whether the city has issued repair demands.
This is general information, not legal or tax advice; confirm with a licensed professional.
Sources
- Ministry of Justice, law book for the real estate brokers’ exam, part 1 (updated to 1 October 2020): Land Law, 1969, sections 52 to 77 and the schedule (model bylaws). Later amendments to these sections checked against the Knesset legislation record on 29 October 2026.
- Reshumot, Sefer HaChukim 3098 (31 October 2023): Land Law (Amendment No. 37), 2023, sections 71B and 71D on protected spaces.
- Ministry of Justice, ordering condominium documents (order, bylaws and plan).
- Land Registry fee notice for 2026.
- Ministry of Justice, request to appoint a paid external building committee.
- Ministry of Justice, filing claims with the Supervisor of Land Registration (condominiums).
- Home Front Command, guideline on shelter maintenance and dual use for local authorities (June 2014), chapters B and C and annex B.
- Association for Housing Culture, official site: services and contact details.
Buying into an older building, or comparing two flats in different buildings? Send us a buyer brief with your budget and the areas you’re considering. We’ll shortlist homes that fit and flag the building questions, from the bylaws to the shelter and the committee’s accounts, that your lawyer should cover before you sign.
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