Late handover: the sixty days, 1.5× and 1.25×

Late handover is the only risk in an Israeli off-plan purchase that the legislature translated into numbers. Not into principles, not into "appropriate compensation", not into judicial discretion — into a formula you can work out on a single sheet.

The formula sits in Section 5A of the Sale (Apartments) Law, and it has three parts: a grace period, a multiplier, and a payment date.

The first sixty days

A delay does not trigger compensation on the day after the contractual date. The law gives the seller a margin: the right to compensation opens only once sixty days have passed from the end of the date set in the contract. A one-month delay does not, under the statutory formula, create a right to compensation.

The point most often missed: once the delay exceeds the grace period, the calculation does not start on day sixty-one. It runs from the contractual date — so the first two months are counted in.

The multipliers

The basis for the calculation is "rent for an apartment comparable in size and location". On that basis the law applies two multipliers, by the length of the delay:

The logic of the reduction from the ninth month is an assumption that the buyer has adjusted: found housing, signed a lease, settled. The higher multiplier is aimed at the early months, when the delay produces the unplanned expense.

The payment date

The law also fixes when the money moves: the compensation set out in the section is paid at the end of each month. It is not a sum that accrues until handover and is then credited. It is a monthly debt.

What the law leaves open — and where disputes are born

The statute points to "rent for an apartment comparable in size and location" and does not say how that figure is established. That is where most of the argument begins: which lease transactions are used for comparison, within what radius, in which month, at what finish level. A buyer who wants to be ready keeps comparable local lease transactions as they happen, rather than reconstructing them later.

What to check in the contract before signing

1. The contractual date itself — a calendar date, or a function of an event ("months from receipt of a permit")? The statutory formula is measured from the date in the contract, so vague drafting weakens the right.
2. Extension clauses — which circumstances the contract defines as extending the date, and what is required to invoke them.
3. The notice route — to whom, how and within what period a demand for compensation is given.
4. Handover itself — which event stops the clock: occupancy approval, notice of handover, or actual delivery of possession.

The other side of the same section

For a development company, Section 5A is a cash-flow clause. It turns every month of delay into a measurable cost, which is exactly why it rewards conservative programme planning over a marketing timetable. A project that announces a handover date it cannot hold pays for it twice: in compensation, and in trust.

Anyone assessing a project should read the contractual handover date alongside the actual state of construction. The projects page sets out the status of each of the company's projects, and the contact page is the way to obtain the full details of a specific one.