The charge was made for a new road section that was paved north of the street where they live (Photo: Shlomi Gabai)
In July 2021, dozens of residents of the Givat Olga G neighborhood were surprised to receive charges amounting to tens of thousands of shekels each - and a total of 2 million shekels from the municipality of Hadera -
for a paving levy.
According to the municipality's announcement, the charge was made for a new road section that was paved further down HaSheldag Street, which is north of the street where they live.
This is an old neighborhood, which was established with the help of the state and the "Amidar" company starting in the 1950s.
Following the charge, 35 of the residents organized and filed an administrative petition against the municipality in the Haifa District Court, through lawyers Michael Rosen, Guy Hayon and Yula Domansky, claiming that the collection of paving levies is illegal, negligent and disproportionate - in light of the fact that they paid participation fees for the paving of the street many years ago The southern one bordering the properties.
As mentioned, the parties reached a compromise, when the court decided, against all odds, to reduce the paving levy imposed by the municipality on the residents by about 50%.
These are hard-working people - who, unluckily, live next to a newly paved road
As part of the petition to cancel the charge, it was claimed by
the attorney office of Michael Rosen
, who deals with municipal taxation, that these are hard-working people who do not have any means of financing road paving works, the vast majority of whom are elderly and veteran residents, who suffer from serious health problems and whose income is from allowances, and who, unfortunately, Their houses border a new road that was paved in principle in honor of a new project nearby, a road that does not contribute anything to them, since their houses naturally also border another road that was paved many years ago. Furthermore, it is claimed in the petition that the municipality has already financed the construction of the road subject to the charges through paving levies,
which were financed By the developers who built the residential towers accessed from HaSheldag Street.
In addition, the petitioners claimed that participation fees had been paid in the past for the construction of the street bordering the properties and therefore, they should not be charged for the land area and the built-up area that existed at that time.
Alternatively, it was argued that according to the law, the municipality must take into account the participation fee payments that were paid by way of offsetting the payment requirements.
The petitioners argued that according to the by-law for the Hadera (Paving of Rehovot), 5555 1994 where a property owner was charged both participation fees for Paving a street and with a paving levy for another bordering street, then he will be entitled to an exemption from one of the two aforementioned payments, which is the lower payment between them, and therefore they should not be required to pay a paving levy for that area for which the petitioners and/or the owners of the previous properties paid participation fees.
Real estate
Tags
real estate
Hadera