People often ask me how to track down the owners of properties. You might want to do this for a variety of reasons; and your lawyer - before you sign a lease or buy a property - must do this (usually steps 1, 2 and 4). The procedure is complicated, requires a serious knowledge of Hebrew and some internet capabilities above the average.
1. You get the exact address and go to http://www.gov.il/FirstGov/TopNav/OfficesAndAuthorities/OAUList/ConstSurvey/firstGovGushcalculator/. This is a free government service to convert the address to lot and parcel (= gush and helqa) numbers.
2. Then go to any one of the sites that offer Land Registry Deeds (= nesah tabu) online, the best seems to be http://ecom.gov.il/Counter/alternative/tabuNesah. There is a small charge for this. From the deed you will learn the name of the landowner (or the lessee as most land in Israel is owned by the state and leased), including his or her ID number.
3. Now go to the Ministry of Interior, Office of Population Control (=Misrad Hapnim) and ask for this person’s details including address (= ittur maan). Try http://piba.gov.il/Pages/default.aspx but as far as I know this is not something you can do online. You will have to suffer the queues at the Ministry of Interior. Of course people, usually the problematic ones, do not update their addresses so this information could be outdated.
4. If the landowner/lessee is a company you use the company registration number (=het peh) or just the company name to get the company’s details at http://147.237.72.24/WebOJSite/CompaniesList.aspx. For the owner or managers of the company go to http://ecom.gov.il/counter/alternative=companyextract using the het peh (this is not free).
Complicated? Yes.
There are other ways of tracking people down. www.google.co.il is one very good one and another is to hire a private detective!
Saul Davis, Adv.
law in israel
שאול דיוויס, עו”ד
