Court Restores Apartment Proceeds to Woman After Decades-Old Unauthorized Sale

A court in a known Haredi city in central Israel ruled that the sale proceeds of an apartment belonging to a woman with severe mental illness must be returned to her family, after her uncle sold the Amidar apartment and kept the money. The woman, Rachel, a pseudonym, had suffered for years from serious psychiatric illness and had been hospitalized repeatedly in psychiatric hospitals.

The family learned about the apartment years after Rachel’s death, when a neighbor mentioned remembering the mother coming to the property. The daughter initially insisted her mother had no apartment, but the neighbor persisted, and it emerged that the Amidar unit where the mother had lived was indeed hers. The daughter then tried to recover the apartment rights, but faced a major obstacle, because too much time had passed since the sale.

Attorneys Tali Elman and Meayin Solomons took the case and argued that the limitation period should not bar the claim because Rachel had been unable to manage her affairs, and because the key facts were discovered only much later. They built the case through historical records, witnesses, and extensive evidence about the mother and daughter’s mental condition over the years. The court also appointed a psychiatric expert, who concluded that the daughter had long been unable to assert her rights or conduct legal affairs, and the court accepted that opinion in full.

The court ruled that the apartment belonged to the deceased woman, that its sale had been unlawful, and that the defendant had failed to prove his ownership claims. It also found that he had effectively acted as a de facto guardian for his sister, meaning he owed duties arising from that role. The court ordered the money from the apartment returned to the daughter, and the district court later rejected the uncle’s appeal and ordered him to pay costs as well.