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Recently, the Central District Court made an important ruling, which affects every citizen in the State of Israel: the owner of 4 apartments in Petah Tikva will be exempt from retroactive property tax charges, since the municipality did not respond in time to the objections he submitted, and therefore they should be considered as if they had been received;
In this important decision, the court makes it clear to the municipalities - just as a citizen has deadlines that he is required to meet (90 days to submit an application to the property tax administrator and another 30 days to the appeal committee), the municipality also has deadlines that it must respond to.
If you do not meet the deadlines, the citizen's claims will be accepted without examination.
These days, the municipalities are sending business and apartment owners the property tax slips for 2024. Anyone who wants to challenge the property tax assessment for any reason (wrong area, incorrect classification, etc.) is going to go through a long and complicated road that very quickly takes the wind out of their sails, because in the absolute majority of cases The appeals committee will reject the achievement and appealing it to a court costs a lot of money and requires exhausting dealings.
Most of the public does not know that the property tax administrator has 60 days to respond to the request and that the property tax law states that if he does not do so, it will be seen as if he has decided to accept the request.
In the specific case under discussion, the Municipality of Petah Tikva was two days late in total, but the court ruled that the citizen was right, even if it was a "slight delay", according to him.
"The court ruled with great courage as it sends a clear message to the local authorities"
According to attorney Moti Itzkowitz, a founding partner of the Katz, Geva, Itzkowitz (KGI) law firm that deals with municipal taxation, "The court ruled with great courage as it sends a clear message to the local authorities that the law also applies to them and that the same responsibility of punctuality is required of them as it demands of the citizen.
Anyone who is familiar with the issue of submitting a claim for the amount of the property tax, is aware that the property owner works through undercover agents and usually, when he already chooses to go to court, he does so with the rest of his strength, after going through the bureaucracy at the local authority.
Only a few, whose hands reach, appeal to the court."
"The courts are aware that the existing system is very favorable to the local authority, and greatly disadvantages the property owners, therefore, rightly, the court made sure to send a clear message to the Petah Tikva municipality that the law will not be more flexible just because that this is a public authority.
There is no doubt that a change is needed that will make the obtaining procedure more effective and easier for the citizen and above all fairer.
It is appropriate for the legislator to make a change in the matter and reduce the first stage of submitting the request to a standard and simple form that will be submitted to the property tax administrator, in which the disapproval of the charge will be detailed and at the same time it will be possible to challenge it at the same stage," continues Attorney Itzkowitz.
"On the sidelines, perhaps we should examine the establishment of an independent body instead of the appeals committees in their current form - a body that would itself appoint the various appeals committees, set clear criteria, budget for the work of the members of the appointed committee and supervise their work. It should be established that the appeals committees will not sit in the local authority building , and this is due to the importance of appearance and in order to prevent a phenomenon of excessive "familiarity" between the members of the committee and the representatives of the local authority", concludes Attorney Itzkovitz.
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