housing: The va'ad squad

| ok. well! read this through. it'll be great if
| we can have this type of a think in India. the so
| called housing co-operatives are all staffed by
| developers and their associates,.. dissent and
| you'll be beaten up!
|
| by the way, the new delhi going erections story,
| what is the word on land acquisition? we remember discussing
| all this with planners in 2001, and were poo-poohed for not
| being planners (and therefore not allowed to speak).
| how do the developers plan to acquire 5,000 m2 of contiguous
| land, and more important, have planners even thought if the
| buildings suggested by the limit (they will be sail buildings)
| actually work? (we guess not)

The va'ad squad


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Karin Kloosterman, THE JERUSALEM POST  Feb. 14, 2007

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There's a small war going on at number 119 Rehov Dizengoff in Tel Aviv. 
The 1936 UNESCO-registered Bauhaus building that sits next to the 
legendary Caf Kassit is the battlefield of a typical Israeli phenomenon 
- a va'ad habayit (house committee) dispute.

Caught in the crossfire is 32-year-old Yannai G., a London native who 
assumed the volunteer position as head of the va'ad bayit when the 
previous volunteer sold her apartment. She called Yannai two years ago, 
begging him to take the position, he said, because "no one else wanted it."

Since his family had owned a large apartment in the complex for 26 
years, Yannai reasoned that by being in charge of maintenance and 
repairs, he could help protect the building's property value. Assuming 
his duties, he decided to install a real-time security camera in order 
to ward off some of Dizengoff's swarthier characters, such as the 
heroine addicts who had been found shooting up in the building's 
backyard. The other residents in the building agreed that a camera was a 
great idea.

But Yannai's efforts to keep the building maintained to a high standard, 
he says, were sabotaged after new residents moved in. He and his brother 
Isaac observed that the new tenants let their dogs defecate on the roof 
and urinate on the freshly cleaned stairwell and foyer. The front door 
was "karate-chopped" twice, when one of the new tenants forgot her key; 
the security camera wires were cut when a resident decided that the 
cameras were an invasion of her privacy.

Yannai says that he had his door spat on, posters campaigning for 
captured soldiers ripped off, and va'ad habayit notices and receipts 
taken down. The new residents decided not to pay their monthly va'ad 
fees for at least the past year. And finally, in an ironic twist of 
fate, Yannai was taken to court.

With shaky Hebrew and tears in his eyes, Yannai sat before Judge Mira 
Arielli on January 31 at the Department of Inspectorate for Real Estate 
Property in Tel Aviv. Seated in front of him were the plaintiffs Dana B. 
and Shulamit E. - two apartment owners at 119 Rehov Dizengoff. Also 
present was their lawyer.

The plaintiffs claimed that the security cameras installed by Yannai 
were an invasion of their privacy, and that they demanded to see 
receipts for the va'ad habayit expenses but were not given them. Yannai 
brought forward a paper with signatures that the residents of the 
building all agreed to the cameras. In his dissertation he wrote that 
receipts were always posted, but often ripped down aggressively by 
residents in the building.

Shulamit E. and Dana B. were ordered by the court to pay their 
outstanding va'ad fees. On February 15, they were to attend, along with 
Yannai and the other apartment owners in the building, a meeting where 
the future head of the va'ad would be chosen. At that meeting they would 
vote on whether or not the security cameras would stay. Majority would 
rule.

'From what I've heard from both sides, I have reached the conclusion 
that Mr. Yannai [G.] did indeed serve as a va'ad representative even 
though he was not legally elected,' wrote Judge Arielli in her verdict. 
'I was not convinced that the installation of the cameras was performed 
after receiving consent from all apartment owners in the building, yet I 
was convinced that most of them did not object to the cameras until [a 
plaintiff] raised claims against having these cameras. The installation 
of cameras is not determined according to the whim or desire of one 
apartment owner or another, and a camera should not be removed according 
to the whim or desire of one apartment owner or another.'

The plaintiffs were not willing to speak to Metro that day. They did not 
return our telephone calls.

Brothers Yannai and Isaac are not sure if this will be the last time 
they meet their neighbors in court. "[Dana B.] sees our building as a 
personification of my brother," said Isaac after the verdict was handed 
down. "She is not happy with the camera. A situation like this never 
would have happened in England. Here in Israel, the laws need to be 
defined better. There is no accountability before a case goes to court. 
Every sign that my brother put up in the stairwell about the va'ad 
expenses has been taken down. When [a tenant] karate-kicked in the front 
door when she forgot her key, I told [her] -- it's not just where I 
live, but this is where you live as well."

It seems that just about everyone you ask in Israel - immigrants or 
sabras - who have lived in an apartment building complex have horror 
stories to share about their house committee experience. Unique to 
Israel, the va'ad habayit system came into effect in 1968, when the 
Association for Better Housing (Ha'aguda letarbut hadiyur) was initiated 
as a non-profit organization to protect tenants' rights in apartment 
blocks. While some of Israel's land laws, modeled after British laws, 
may need to be updated, admits the association's legal advisor Sami 
Israel, having a va'ad in one's building can increase property values. 
It may also be the perfect way for Israel's culturally diverse 
population to work out its differences.

Monthly va'ad fees (usually between NIS 50 and NIS 100) cover shared 
costs such as lighting, cleaning and heating the lobby and stairwell, 
elevator maintenance, landscaping and covering the janitor's National 
Insurance payments. A va'ad head is elected or appointed to ensure that 
the cleaning is done, supplies paid for and that everything - including 
repairs to the roof - is shared equally among all the residents in the 
building.

Israel told The Jerusalem Post that in Tel Aviv about 80 percent of 
apartments subscribe to the va'ad habayit system, compared to about 50% 
of apartments in periphery cities like Dimona. "There are more people 
belonging to the Association for Better Housing in Tel Aviv because 
people want to maintain the high value of their homes," he says. "Where 
the value of the house is less, people care less."

To become a member of the association, each apartment owner needs to pay 
NIS 25 per year to receive legal services and council. The person who 
volunteers to head the va'ad, says Israel, needs to take care of all the 
maintenance problems associated with the building. "Usually no one wants 
this position," he notes, "but it is an important one, especially to 
ensure that property values increase. We check houses where there is no 
va'ad. They are dirty and no one wants to live there - the value of the 
house goes down. Where there is a va'ad in place you can see a garden 
and other facilities that are well maintained."

He finds stories where neighbors fight - like that of 119 Rehov 
Dizengoff - the most disturbing. "I think the most difficult problems I 
have seen are quarrels between neighbors. Sometimes the quarrels lead to 
unbelievable places and when I check to find the reason, I just can't 
understand how it all started," says the Association for Better 
Housing's legal adviser.

If relations between tenants in a building become unbearable, the 
association puts the disputing parties in a room with a counselor. "We 
try to solve most of the problems," says Israel, who notes that the 
worst problems are usually over fees. "Seventy percent of the conflicts 
we resolve are over money. Israelis just don't want to pay."

The situation becomes especially difficult when the monthly outlay goes 
beyond day-to-day maintenance, such as building expenses incurred during 
renovations, he says. "A hole in the roof doesn't mean that only the 
apartment on top has the problem. In Israel we have a law - rehush 
meshutaf (joint property law) - and all of us have to share the burden 
of the costs."

This is exactly the problem that Sharon Sleeper from Bat Yam was up 
against with representatives from the association last week. "I'm at 
'war' with my va'ad," wrote Sleeper, an immigrant from the US. "I live 
on the top floor across from the sea, and my balcony ceiling fell in 
again this week. The people in my building just don't seem to understand 
that the problem is outside," laments Sleeper, who feels she is being 
discounted because she is American and not fluent in Hebrew.

"All I want is to live in peace in my house without being afraid that 
it's going to come tumbling down," she says, adding, "What I have found 
here [in Israel] is that the absent landlords have it the best - they 
just collect the rent."

Jerusalem-born Dana Halevi pays about NIS 70 a month in her Ramat Gan 
rental flat. Unlike Sleeper, she has a problem with her present - not 
absent - landlord. She writes Metro, "The head of our va'ad habayit 
hasn't asked the neighbor living directly above him for va'ad money for 
close to three years," notes Halevi, who suspects that the va'ad head 
"has his eyes" on the elderly woman's apartment.

"I rent my place," she continues, "so I'm not that involved in what's 
going on, but if I was a homeowner in our building I'd probably want to 
do something to resolve this issue. She is a very nice lady, but we are 
all basically paying for upkeep that will later enable her to rent or 
sell her place. It's all pretty frustrating. If I complain to the guy 
who collects the va'ad habayit fees, he says, 'Fine. I can quit and you 
can do all the work.'"

Revital Yaron, a business lawyer, says she has "a lot of personal 
experience" with va'ad habayit issues. "I live in Tel Aviv in a building 
with 16 floors and 64 apartments. We had times with and without a 
maintenance company; we have a doorman, central heating, a garden and so 
forth. There are non-stop issues to deal with," she wrote to Metro.

Not to fret, suggests Israel. He has seen the worst apartment building 
conflicts resolved. The best formula, he says, is to "learn how to 
forgive one another. Forgive, forgive and forgive. Then it will be 
better," says the Morocco native who has at least 10 years' experience 
in bridging cultural gaps among Israelis.

Israel also suggests that tenants should rotate the position of va'ad 
head every year. "Va'ad heads must put it in their minds that they are 
working to improve their own property and understand that if it's not 
done, the property value will drop. It is not easy to organize a va'ad 
bayit, but if people divide the job, it's easier to understand the 
process."

And, he adds, lawyers and counselors at the association are always on 
call to answer questions - including on damages laws if someone is 
injured while in your building, or if property owners have problems with 
their builders.

"Or," he laughs, "As a final solution, you can always escape to a moshav 
like I did."

The va'ad in Dutch and German
'In Germany,' writes Ofra Kleinberger from Givatayim, 'there are 
maintenance firms that own houses, and they are responsible for repairs. 
A representative from each building is appointed to communicate between 
the neighbors and the firm which owns the house. This representative, 
the 'Haustmeister,' may also be required to solve problems between 
neighbors at times - this is expected of them although it is not a 
duty,' explains Kleinberger, who lived in Germany for three years.

'On the whole, Germans tend to be more organized and everything is 
straightforward. In Germany one plus one is always two. People in 
Germany also tend to take care of their houses themselves - a well-kept 
apartment inside and out is very important although it seems as though 
the majority of Germans live in rented quarters. In Israel, without the 
va'ad, I guess that some tenants would do a better job with maintenance 
and upkeep than others, but overall there would be much less effort put 
in than in Germany, especially in rental housing units. In Israel you 
also can find companies that manage maintenance and repair for large 
apartment towers (I lived in one), but this is only required and common 
in the new tall towers.'

Her verdict?

'Israelis take care of things for themselves, while Germans do it for 
the general welfare of their surroundings.'

Debra Dejong immigrated to Israel from Holland in 1996. Today she lives 
in Ra'anana's Lev HaPark and pays NIS 140 per month in va'ad fees. She 
writes, 'I know that in Holland, there is a similar system [as in 
Israel] for owners of apartments and it is called 'bewonersvereniging.' 
In Holland, only the owners of the apartment pay, never the renters. My 
sister in Holland is paying around 500 Euros a month; my parents used to 
pay 250 Euros. Most of the money is spent on heating systems, security 
systems, elevators, roofs and gutters to prevent water damage from rain 
and frost. The legal structure of the bewonersvereniging is a 
non-profit, ruled by strict accountancy and liability rules. In Holland, 
they hold monthly meetings where the conduct of the building's residents 
is also discussed (littering is a hot issue!).'

Her verdict?

'This meeting is far more a social event than it is in my building here 
in Israel,' concludes Dejong.

No Volunteers?
It happens on occasion that a building's va'ad habayit has no volunteers 
willing to take on the job of heading the committee. If this is the 
case, explains lawyer Sami Israel from the Association for Better 
Housing (Ha'aguda letarbut hadiyur), there are two options:

The residents of the building can inform the association that no one 
wants to volunteer for the position. The court will assign a va'ad head 
from outside the building. Expect to pay an extra 20 percent in fees per 
month.

Alternately, tenants can hire a company to coordinate maintenance and 
repairs for the building. Expect to pay more than 20% per month on 
building fees; in this case 66% of the tenants in the building must agree.

Do new immigrants have it harder?
"Yes, there is no doubt that new immigrants to Israel have a harder time 
with the va'ad habayit system," says Sami Israel. "They ask more 
questions than the average Israeli - especially Ethiopians. Sometimes 
the cultural differences in a building lead to quarrels. Solving them is 
a great exercise for creating unity among Israelis."

"Sometimes we find the Va'ad Habayit is made up of Russians, Ethiopians 
and Moroccans and it is good to see how they live together."

For questions about va'ad habayit call the Association for Better 
Housing (Ha'aguda letarbut hadiyur) at 1-800-40-4040 - English-speakers 
should ask to speak with Odelia or Carmit. www.tarbut-hadiur.gov.il