U.S. Buyers Sue Sellers Over Flood Damage to Tiberias Holiday Home

American residents who bought a three-story house overlooking the Sea of Galilee in Tiberias are suing the sellers for hundreds of thousands of shekels, alleging the property was badly damaged by flooding before the keys were handed over. The contract for the home was signed in August 2022 for 1.9 million shekels, and the buyers said they intended to use it partly as a vacation home in Israel.

According to the claim, the Tiberias municipal water company warned the sellers about unusually high water consumption, which should have raised suspicion of a leak, but they allegedly did nothing to stop it and rushed to hand the keys to the buyers’ lawyer. The lawsuit, filed in the Magistrate’s Court in Rishon Lezion by attorney Lia Endel, includes a WhatsApp exchange in which one seller said the water company told him there was a leak of 11 cubic meters of water a day and added, “Tomorrow I will transfer you the house keys.”

The buyers’ lawyer asked whether the main valve could be shut off completely and whether a neighbor or someone else could do it, but the seller replied, “You need to drive there.” The buyers then asked a friend from Jerusalem to inspect the property in Tiberias, where he allegedly found the lower floor completely destroyed.

The claim says the lower level had been flooded for several weeks, causing severe damage to the walls, floors, furniture, equipment and electrical appliances. The buyers say they flew urgently to Israel and spent hundreds of thousands of shekels dealing with the damage. They are seeking about 414,000 shekels for repairs, replacement furniture, flights, car rental and five months of lost use of the flooded floor, or alternatively the contractual penalty for fundamental breach, about 230,000 shekels.