Our firm achieved an important victory in the Supreme Court, which overturned the Haifa District Court’s ruling and determined that a gift apartment given 25 years ago, but not registered, belongs to the recipient of the gift.

Our client received an apartment as a gift from her father 25 years ago through an irrevocable notarial power of attorney, without a written agreement. Over the years, she did not register the apartment in her name. When her parents passed away, and an estate administrator was appointed for the inherited assets, the client approached our firm to arrange apartment registration in her name.

To complete the registration, we filed a declaratory lawsuit in the Haifa District Court, requesting recognition of a power of attorney as an agreement and allowing the registration in the Land Registry (Tabu). Judge M. Raniel ruled that the power of attorney could not be considered a substitute for a real estate contract and emphasized that the fact that the apartment was not registered indicated the invalidity of the transaction.

Thanks to Attorney Adi Cohen and Attorney Natali Dadon, we filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, which unanimously overturned the District Court’s ruling and recognized the power of attorney as a valid real estate transaction.