Development versus execution: two roles, and sometimes one company

Two professions, two regulatory systems, and one presentation to whoever is buying an apartment: the company. That gap is where liability goes missing.

The developer: the party signed opposite you

The Sale (Apartments) Law places its duties on the seller. The seller is the party signed to the sale contract, and that is usually the developer. Which means: the specification is theirs, the handover date is theirs, the security is their obligation, and the inspection period is their responsibility.

That holds even if the construction was carried out by another company. A buyer who finds a leak is not required to establish who poured the ceiling — they send the notice to the seller. The notice and its deadlines are explained in the article on the non-conformity notice.

The executing contractor: who needs a classification

Development is not a registered profession. Construction contracting is: anyone executing engineering construction works above a certain scope must be registered in the contractors' register, in the relevant branch and at a classification that defines the financial scope they may undertake.

So the classification is the only one of the two that can be checked in a public database. Classification, the branches and what grade 5 permits are explained in the article on contractor classification.

What happens with two bodies

That structure is legitimate and common. It also adds a seam, and the seam holds three things worth knowing:

• Liability — it stays with the seller towards the buyer, but the actual repair depends on the arrangement between the seller and the executor.
• Continuity — if the executing contractor changes midway, the schedule changes. That is a question worth asking.
• Quality — the executor's classification and experience are not the developer's, so vetting the company that sells is not vetting the company that builds.

What happens with one company

When the same body both develops and executes, the seam does not exist. In practice that means:

1. One address — whoever signed the contract also runs the site.
2. The classification is checked on the seller itself — not on a supplier who is not a party to your contract.
3. History accumulates under one name — what was built before sits with the same body selling now.

Tawfik Zidan Ltd is a company of development, planning, execution and handover under the company's own management, through 165 professionals, working in three fields: residential, public buildings and urban renewal. Building for local authorities and institutions — Afula, Nesher, Yokneam, Hof HaCarmel, Misgav, Ruppin, Jezreel Valley, Rishon LeZion — is execution by definition, because there is no sale to a buyer there but execution for a client. The list is in the article on the public buildings.

Four questions that separate the two

1. Who is signed to the sale contract — the exact registered name, not the brand name.
2. Who the executing contractor is — and if it is another body, its full name.
3. What the executor's classification is — branch, grade, and whether it is current.
4. What the arrangement between them is — and to whom I send a non-conformity notice.

How to verify both bodies in public databases — the contractors' register and the companies registrar — is explained in the article on vetting a contractor before signing, and the full mapping of the parties to a project in the article on who is who.