The Israeli company, which has denied transactions for the purchase of apartments in Berlin signed by its former owner Adi Keisman, has been required to file a warning note in the German Land Registry • Many investors are now considering going to court

• Young people in Berlin, Germany, today (illustration)

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The Berlin District Court in Germany has ordered Berlin Aspire, which denied transactions signed by its former owner, Israeli businessman and real estate agent Adi Keisman, to file a warning note in the German Land Registry in favor of an Israeli buyer who filed a lawsuit against the real estate company for non-compliance. .

All the customer's claims were accepted, and at the same time all the company's legal claims were rejected. This is a legal breakthrough for dozens of Israeli clients, who purchased apartments in the city from the company, which was sold by Keisman to lawyer Moshe Bar-Shelton.

In May 2018, the plaintiff signed a preliminary contract in Tel Aviv to purchase an apartment in Berlin. On the part of the recognized company, Keysman himself signed the agreement, although at that time he no longer actually served as a signature representative authorized by Berlin Aspire. As in other cases of purchasing an apartment through Keisman's group of companies, the contract is drafted in the Hebrew language and stipulates that the law applicable to it is Israeli law.

In light of the fact that the purchase of an apartment in Germany requires the signing of a notarized contract with a German notary, the contract also stipulates that the selling company will soon contact a notary in Germany to obtain the signing of a valid real estate contract under German law. Upon signing the contract in Tel Aviv, the buyer transferred - according to the customary pattern in the purchase transactions of "Berlin Aspire" - more than half of the purchase amount as a down payment. The advance payment, as in all other cases, was made without the provision of collateral by the seller, and in particular without the registration of a warning note with the German Land Registrar.

Following the signing of the agreement, the plaintiff approached the selling company demanding that it fulfill its contractual obligations and sign a notarial contract of sale under German law. To the plaintiff's surprise, Berlin Aspire denied its obligations on the ground that it did not have a contract of sale in the plaintiff's name and that there was no valid obligation between the parties.

The Berlin law firm Gelbert Legal filed a request with the German Land Registrar for a special order against the company to file a warning note in favor of the buyer. In the proceedings before the Berlin District Court, the seller claimed, inter alia, that the contract signed in Israel was not valid as a real estate contract under German law and that Adi Keisman was not at all authorized to represent the seller. Therefore, the agreement in question does not constitute a legal basis for registering a warning note in its favor.

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In the expedited procedure for issuing the order through the joint teamwork of Israeli and German lawyers, the court ordered Berlin Aspire to register a warning note in the Land Registry in favor of the buyer and accepted all the allegations against it. The court rejected the company's claim that the contract signed in Israel is merely a memorandum of things, and even if it was a contract of sale, it is not valid in Germany because it was not drawn up and signed in a notarized format. The court ruled that the agreement in question is a preliminary contract for the purchase of real estate to which Israeli law applies. Due to the validity of Israeli law, the contract is valid, even if it is not drawn up in a notarized format and in accordance with the requirements of a real estate contract in Germany.

The seller's additional allegations, such as the one Keisman signed the contract without authority, were also rejected by the court. The seller's recognition of the agreement in question was based on the fact that she received the down payment from the buyer without any reservations and even issued a receipt for the payment, in addition to paying part of the guaranteed return from that agreement. In so doing, the seller confirmed the transaction through her conduct.

The ruling is of great significance to the Israeli investor public who bought real estate from Keisman, the husband of model Estee Ginzburg, and from the companies of "Berlin Aspire" in Germany. According to the pattern described, during which a contract was signed in Israel in accordance with Israeli law, with an undertaking to sign a notarial contract in Germany.