Can I buy an Israeli apartment that has a court attachment (ikul) registered against it?

An attachment is a court or Execution Office order that freezes a specific asset so a judgment can later be satisfied out of it. Once the order is recorded on the title extract it operates against everyone, and no conflicting transaction will be registered until it is deleted. Priority between a buyer and a creditor is decided by the order of registration. Section 127(b) of the Land Law 5729-1969 provides that once a caution note (he’arat azhara) is registered in favor of a buyer, a later transaction cannot be registered against it, which is why a caution note filed on the day of signing usually defeats an attachment recorded afterwards.

Order a fresh title extract on the morning of signing and again immediately before every payment date, because an attachment can be recorded overnight and the extract you read last month proves nothing. Structure the contract so the sum needed to release the attachment sits in the escrow account of the two lawyers and is paid directly to the creditor against a signed release and a deletion confirmation. Register the caution note within hours of signing rather than days. Where the apartment is held through a housing company instead of the Land Registry, the attachment sits in that company’s books, so the same searches must be run there as part of property due diligence.

From the full guide: Israeli Property Due Diligence: A Complete Guide for Foreign Buyers

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