What can a buyer do if an Israeli seller refuses to hand over the apartment on time?

Israeli contract law treats enforcement as the primary remedy, not the exceptional one. Section 3 of the Remedies Law entitles the injured party to specific performance unless the contract cannot be performed, enforcement would be unjust in the circumstances, or it requires personal services. A buyer who has paid the price is therefore entitled to an order compelling delivery of the property, and the court can add a claim for fair use payments (dmei shimush ra'uyim) covering the period the seller stayed on. Where the purchase agreement defines late handover as a fundamental breach, Section 7 also opens the alternative of rescission with restitution and damages, though buyers rarely want that outcome.

In practice the contract does most of the work, and foreign buyers should read those clauses before the completion date arrives rather than after. Israeli agreements typically allow the seller a grace period of one to two weeks, then charge daily or monthly compensation pegged to roughly one and a half to two times market rent. The single most effective protection is structural: leave the final instalment, commonly around ten percent of the price, in the lawyers' trust account and release it only against actual delivery of vacant possession and the keys. Self-help is not an option. Changing the locks or entering without a court order exposes the buyer to criminal trespass liability even though the title may already be theirs.

From the full guide: Property Purchase Agreement in Israel: What Foreign Buyers Must Know

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