Can heirs cancel a gift of property a parent made while suffering from dementia in Israel?

A lifetime gift does not fall under the Succession Law, so the will-challenge rules in Section 30 of that law do not apply directly. The claim is contractual. Under the Legal Capacity and Guardianship Law 5722-1962, every adult is presumed capable unless a court has ruled otherwise, so heirs must prove that the donor did not understand the nature of the transaction when signing. Where some capacity remained but was badly weakened, Section 18 of the Contracts Law allows rescission of a contract obtained by exploiting a person's distress, mental weakness or inexperience. Courts deciding undue influence in gifts often borrow the dependence and isolation tests developed for wills. A gift already registered at the Land Registry can still be reversed by court order.

For heirs living abroad, the hard part is evidence. The donor has died, the recipient is often the sibling who provided daily care, and the people who saw the donor at the time may be reluctant to testify. Request the donor's hospital and health fund records, look for cognitive assessments recorded near the signing date, and ask whether the lawyer who drafted the gift deed obtained a medical capacity certificate. A retroactive opinion from a geriatric psychiatrist is standard in these cases. The right to sue passes to the estate, so heirs usually need a succession order first. The guide to capacity and undue influence challenges explains how Israeli courts weigh this kind of evidence.

From the full guide: Gifting Property in Israel to Family

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