Who is who on a project: developer, contractor, supervisor, architect and financing bank

In a sales conversation you meet one person. On the project itself there are at least five parties, and they are not interchangeable. A buyer who knows the division knows whom to write to — and that is usually the difference between an answer and another round.

The developer

The developer is the party to the sale contract. It sells the apartment, and it is therefore the address for everything flowing from that contract: the specification, the handover date, the payment schedule, the security and inspection-period repairs. All the duties discussed in the article on securing a buyer's funds are its duties.

Sometimes the developer is also the executing contractor, and sometimes not. From the buyer's point of view that makes no difference: the contract is with the developer.

The executing contractor

The executing contractor is the party actually carrying out the engineering construction works. It is the one that must be registered in the contractors' register and hold a classification matching the project's scale — branch, group and grade. See the article on contractor classification.

Where one company is both developer and executing contractor, that has a practical meaning: there is no extra link in the chain to which responsibility can be passed. Tawfik Zidan Ltd is a development and construction company, and is registered in the contractors' register in branch 100 — building, group C classification 5.

The supervisor

A construction supervisor checks that execution matches the drawings, the specification and the standards. On a private project the supervisor acts for the developer; on a public project for the client — a municipality or an institution — and then produces documentation outside the contractor's control. That is one of the differences between housing and public buildings, discussed in the article on public buildings.

A private buyer can, and sometimes should, appoint their own professional — not for the whole project, but for handover day and the inspection of the apartment. See the article on the handover protocol.

The architect

The architect is responsible for the design: the building, the apartment, the shared areas and the development. Their name sometimes appears on a project page, and they matter to a buyer in two ways: first, they explain the design logic of the apartment; second, the drawings they prepared are attached to the sale specification — and therefore form part of the undertaking.

In the company's projects, the architects named are Schwartz Besnosoff Architects (Mitzpe Kalaniyot; Dira LeHaskir Nof HaGalil) and Schwartz Architects (Achuzat Zemer, Ra'anana).

The financing bank

The party buyers forget, and the one with the most direct interest in the project being completed. In a bank-financed project, the financing bank issues the voucher book, supervises the use of funds and issues the security. The buyer may approach it and verify that the voucher details match its records — and the contact details must appear on the book. See the article on the voucher book.

A referral table: whom to write to, about what

One rule that settles everything

Every approach in writing, with a date, a precise description and a reference to a document. A conversation with a representative is not notice to the seller, and that is the mistake that keeps recurring. See the article on notice of non-conformity.

This is a practical guide and not legal advice. In the transaction itself it is advisable to take advice from your own lawyer — not the seller's.