Tel Aviv Court Rules Basement Apartments Cannot Be Used for Residential Purposes
The Tel Aviv District Court last week rejected a request to permit residential use of a basement floor that does not meet the current municipal definition of a "basement" because most of it is above ground level. However, the property was originally classified as a basement in a 1950s building permit, when definitions were different. Judge Limor Bibi ruled that the city's basement plan, which prohibits residential use in basements, applies to any property originally designated as a basement in its building permit, regardless of its physical characteristics today. This ruling expands the scope of properties where residential use is forbidden under the plan.
The court clarified that the decision does not affect properties that previously received permits for residential use. The case involved the company Yerum Or Properties, owner of a building at 100 Ben Yehuda Street in Tel Aviv with three levels: ground, intermediate, and basement. The property received a permit for office use in 1957 and a temporary residential permit in 2013, which was never utilized. In 2024, the company applied for a permanent residential permit, which was denied by the local planning committee. An appeal committee upheld the denial, citing the basement plan's restrictions.
The Tel Aviv basement plan, first published in 1985 and updated in 2010, prohibits residential use in basements to regulate and clarify which spaces qualify as basements. Before these plans, the municipality occasionally approved residential use in basements through informal permits. Yerum Or Properties argued that the property is not a basement in practice, describing the case as a "Kafkaesque story of rigid planning bureaucracy" ignoring the building's physical reality, including its above-ground walls, lighting, and ceiling height of 2.8 meters. The court rejected these arguments, emphasizing the legal definition in the original permit.
Additional concerns against approving residential use included building density and impacts on future building rights. The company was ordered to pay 22,500 shekels in legal costs to the planning authorities. The Tel Aviv District Planning and Building Appeals Committee was represented by attorneys Iris Gilberg Yodashkin and Reut Weisenberg from the Tel Aviv District Attorney's Office, while the local planning committee was represented by attorneys Hila Campus Mizrahi and Tzlil Goldrat.
