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This article is presented for your general information and does not constitute legal advice. You should obtain specific legal advice about your estate before taking (or deciding not to take) any action. Please contact us for further information.

We are selling our flat in Raanana and the buyers are also English speakers. Can we draw up the contract in English?

The Land Registry in Israel (the Tabu) accepts documents in three languages – Hebrew, Arabic and English. This means that a sale contract in English can usually be submitted to the Land Registry without requiring a translation. If the property you are selling is built on private land registered at the Land Registry and if the buyers are happy to have the contract drawn up in English, there is no reason why you should not do so. If you need to sign a power of attorney to your lawyer for the sale, then this can also be in English.

If the property is not registered at the Land Registry or is not on private land, then you will need to use a contract in Hebrew or, alternatively, you can arrange for the English contract to be translated and notarized.  Although most properties in Raanana are privately owned and registered at the Land Registry, in areas such as Bet Shemesh the land is owned through the Israel Land Authority which does not accept documents in English. In addition, if you are buying a relatively new apartment which may not yet have been registered at the Land Registry, you will need to ask the company handling the registration whether they will accept documents in English.

I have just renewed my English passport. I remember that when we bought our flat in Bet Shemesh I used my previous passport which had a different number, for identification. Should I register the new passport number?

Yes. If you have bought property in Israel or opened a bank account or hold any other assets in Israel which identify you by your passport number, you must ensure that when you renew or replace your passport, you update the number. You should also make sure that you keep copies of your previous passports. Otherwise, if you decide to sell your property, you will have no way of proving that it is yours. It is a relatively simple process to update the numbers with the Land Registry and banks and definitely worth doing while you are fit and able to do so. I have recently dealt with a case where we obtained a probate order only to find that all the assets owned by the deceased were registered with different passports, none of which matched the current passport number on the probate order. The bank would not allow the heirs access to the money, we can’t transfer ownership of the property and we are having a much harder time proving ownership of the assets than would be the case if the deceased were still around to do so himself.

We are buying a flat in Netanya. We live in New York and the sellers live in London. We have agreed a price in dollars. Can we send the purchase funds directly to London?

In principle, there is no reason why you should not send the money directly to London but whether it is advisable to do so will depend, amongst other things, on the timing of the payments. You cannot transfer ownership of the property into your names until the sellers provide you with documents to confirm that they have paid all outstanding debts on the property, including taxes on the sale and all municipal levies. If you are planning to complete the transaction within a few months of signing the contract, it is unlikely that the sellers will have all the documents you need at that time. To ensure that you can take possession of the property, part of the final payment will be paid by you to the sellers’ lawyer to hold on trust and will only be handed over to the sellers once they can produce all the documents. You will therefore need to send that part of the final payment to the sellers’ lawyer in Israel, rather than directly to the sellers in London, to be held on trust until you receive all the documents you need to register the property into your names.

Bear in mind that you will also need to send funds to Israel to cover the other expenses of the purchase, including the purchase tax. The amount of the tax is calculated using the shekel equivalent of the purchase price on the date the contract is signed. You need to file a declaration and self-assessment for tax with the authorities once the contract has been signed and you then have 50 days to pay the tax.

We already have a will in the UK which covers all our property worldwide.  Is this valid in Israel or do we need another will for our Israeli assets?

Usually, a will which is valid abroad will be valid in Israel. If you wrote a will while living in England which is valid there, it will usually be valid in Israel even if you no longer live in the UK.

However, there are several reasons why you may still wish to have a separate will just for your Israeli property. Firstly, there is no procedure for recognition of foreign probate orders here in Israel and so your heirs will still need to go through the process of filing the will for confirmation here in Israel before they can gain access to your property. As foreign wills are often lengthy and verbose – with provisions for charitable legacies, trusts and other tax planning provisions – the Israeli courts are unlikely to accept these without requiring a notarized translation. An Israeli will can usually be short and simple – there are no Estate or Inheritance taxes here – which can help to speed up the probate process. Another reason for a separate Israeli will is that the courts here will not appoint non-Israeli residents as executors and so you may wish to appoint different executors in Israel to deal with your estate here.

If you do decide to draft a separate will for your Israeli assets, you must make it clear that this does not cancel your previous UK will, which remains valid for your property outside Israel.

Caroline Walsh is an Advocate Notary, TEP, admitted in Israel and England & Wales.