Coming as I do from the old school of journalism in which it was taboo to write in the first person, I still find it difficult to do so; but given the circumstances, I feel I must because mine is a situation that affects many people, especially immigrants.
It concerns an issue that aliyah emissaries seldom, if ever, warn prospective olim about.
Many people who unwittingly purchased apartments built on church land, which in the interim has been sold to private investors, have discovered that they can be evicted unless they pay a hefty sum to the new owner of the plot or, alternatively, sell their apartments to the new landowner for less than market value.
According to current legislation, even freehold owners can be evicted, even though the plot on which their apartment stands belongs to them and to other apartment owners in the building. Such might be the scenario for the occupants of the building where I live.
It wasn’t always that way. I had a friend who, in the early years of the state, moved into a key-money apartment, where she remained until her demise, regardless of efforts by her landlord to evict her, though she didn’t even own her apartment. She was renting, and the law was on her side.
Now, however, the law states that if 61% of the owners of apartments in a building are willing to subscribe to an evacuation-and-construction project, the 59% who are not have no recourse.
Apartment owners forced to leave their homes at a loss
In the case of my building, those of us opposed to such a project thought we were safe because the prime minister’s official residence is located on our tiny street. A few years ago, a new site was sought for the residence, and one at the entrance to the city was initially approved but later scuttled by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) due to the realization that it would eventually be surrounded by high-rise buildings. This meant that the prime minster and his family would have no privacy, which was a security issue. The same problems will surface in the current circumstances if the District Planning Committee approves the mega project, which threatens to disrupt the lives of all the residents affected, as well as adding to traffic congestion.
The relevant project comprises four buildings on parallel streets in Talbiyeh. My upstairs neighbor has lived in her apartment for 40 years. Except for the few months that I spent in an immigrant absorption center upon making aliyah, I have lived in my apartment for over 50 years. My neighbor, who never married, has close relatives nearby. I am a childless widow with no siblings. My late husband likewise had no siblings, which puts me in the category of being a leaf in the wind. My entire life in Israel is contained in that apartment, which originally belonged to the developer who built the whole building. He sold it to my father-in-law, who left it to my husband, who left it to me.
If I have to move out, I will not be able to afford to move back in. The current building has 11 apartments (only three of which are owner-occupied). The monthly maintenance fee is very modest because we don’t have an elevator. In the proposed project, there would be more than one elevator, and the maintenance fees would skyrocket to much more than the monthly rentals currently paid by the building’s tenants. Moreover, we have no guarantee that we will be allotted the same floors on which we live now. The ceilings would be lower than the high ceilings we currently have, and my bedroom, which is large by Israeli standards, would be much smaller.
I would also have to buy new furniture, as the built-in floor-to-ceiling wall-to-wall closet, which belonged to the original owner, would be destroyed when the building was demolished.
According to a representative of the developer, there is some form of compensation for senior citizens of an advanced age; they are entitled to receive the value of their new apartment long before it is completed. This would enable them to purchase another apartment or to rent one and invest most of their capital. However, they won’t receive the real value of the property because when the floor space is calculated, it will include enclosed balconies, but not those that are open. I have three balconies, only one of which is enclosed. The back balcony, which is quite large, is open, as is the front balcony, so I would receive nothing for either.
The proposed plan includes the building next door, which is also home to senior citizens, as well as a family with young children, and there are senior citizens in the two buildings on the next street.
What has not yet been discussed is the wide expanse of lawn at the back of the apartment building, large enough to accommodate yet another building. That’s probably what attracted the developer. Perhaps he thinks that we’re not aware that the land is jointly owned by all the proprietors.
A friend in Haifa told me about a five-apartment building near her home, surrounded by a spacious lawn, which the developer had refused to take into consideration when paying the occupants of the building to leave. They took him to court, won their case, and he was obligated to compensate them.
Today, more than ever, apartment buyers in Israel must engage in due diligence. It’s a serious case of “Let the buyer beware.”
Non-resident apartment owners are happy to agree to rebuilding because they will be able to charge higher rents, while their tenants will be paying the maintenance fees, city rates, and municipal tax, as well as the cost of utilities, such as water and electricity.
Many of the apartments in buildings that are changing the Jerusalem skyline have been purchased by overseas buyers who come to Israel for a week or two twice a year.
Who wants to live in a ghost tower?
Additionally, the economic situation is cause for worry. Some people have waited far beyond the promised time for their apartments to be rebuilt and ready for occupancy, with developers going bankrupt or simply deciding that it wasn’t worth continuing.
Just as pedestrians are no longer protected from scooters, bicycles, and even motorbikes while they are walking on sidewalks, apartment owners are not protected from greedy developers. There are still open areas in Jerusalem where developers could build. There’s no need to take homeowners out of their comfort zones.
greerfc@gmail.com