Land Registration and Settlement of Rights Department

The Land Registration and Settlement of Rights Department includes three main spheres of activity.

Land Registration
There are nine Land Registration Offices, in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Petach-Tikva, Nazareth, Netanya, Beersheba, Holon and Rehovot, two extension branches in Hadera and in Acre.

Land Registration Inspectors
There are nine Land Registration Inspectors Offices: in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Petach-Tikva, Nazareth, Netanya, Beersheba, Holon and Rehovot, two extension branches in Hadera and in Acre. Additionally, judicial hearings concerning Cooperative Houses (Condominiums) within the area of Eilat, are held as determined by the Beersheba Land Registration Inspector, in Eilat.

Settlement of Land Rights
There are five Settlement of Land Rights Offices, in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Nazareth and Beersheba, and an extension branch in Acre.
Each Department is headed by the Registration Commissioner (Manager of the Department), who bears responsibility, together with a staff of employees, for the management of the Department, for the proper operation of all the Department's offices in all areas of their administrative and judicial responsibilities.

ACTIONS OF ALL THE UNITS OF THE DEPARTMENT ARE CONCENTRATED IN THE FOLLOWING SPHERES:

1. Keeping the Land Registers
The lands situated within the territories of the State are recorded in three types of Register:
The Deeds Registers - in which lands are registered that have not yet undergone the processes of settlement of rights of title under the Land (Settlement of Title) Ordinance [New Version] 5729-1969.
Registration in the Deeds Registers in respect of unsettled land constitutes, under the law, prime facie evidence of its contents. Following settlement of the rights in the land, the registration in the Deeds Register is cancelled and the rights are registered in a new register - the Rights Register.

The Rights Register - in which land is registered that has undergone the processes of settlement of rights of title, following official survey and mapping, and after the official and public investigation of claims to rights in the land.
Registration in the Rights Register with regard to settled land constitutes conclusive evidence of its content, under the law. The Rights Registers contain about 95% of all the area of the State. In so far as progress is made in the Settlement of Rights work, so does the significance of the Deeds Registers diminish with the simultaneous expansion of the Rights Registers.

The Cooperative Houses (Condominiums) Register - in which the buildings are registered in respect of which Registration of Cooperative House Orders have been issued in accordance with plans that include a description of the buildings and apartments included therein.

The Land Registers are kept in the Land Registration Offices and faithfully reflect the legal status of rights of title of the land within the territories of the State.

2. Certification of Transactions and other actions with regard to land and the registration thereof in the Land Registers
Under the provisions contained in the Law, a transaction in land must be registered in the Land Registers. The transaction concludes with registration and only then does it have legal force and effect vis-à-vis everyone. As long as the transaction has not been registered, the recipient of the right only has a contractual right which is valid as between the parties.

3. Registration of Buildings in the Cooperative Houses Register (Condominiums)
A process by means of which parcels that are registered in either the Deeds or the Rights Registers become registered parcels in the Cooperative Houses Register and containing more than one sub-unit.

4. Deciding disputes as between apartment owners in condominiums
The Land Registration Inspectors have jurisdiction to hear and rule on disputes between apartment owners in condominiums, both those registered in the Cooperative Houses Register, as well as in respect of those that have not yet been registered. An Inspector hearing a dispute is vested with all such powers as a Magistrates Court Judge has, who is trying a civil action.
The Inspector's decision in a dispute and an interim order issued by him are treated for the purposes of enforcement and execution and for the purposes of Section 6 of the Contempt of Court Ordinance, in the same way as a judgment or interim order of a Magistrates Court.

5. Settlement of Rights of Title to Land within the Territories of the State
The Land Settlement Offices bear responsibility for settlement of rights of title to land situated within the territories of the State.
The State of Israel is one of the few States in the world in which a process of settlement of rights to land is employed, and based upon accurate and official survey and mapping, and after official and public investigation of claims and other rights.

Contact details
Phone: 02-5696120
Fax: 02-6246866
E-Mail:
Hebrew Web Site: http://index.justice.gov.il/Units/LandRegistration/