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Private property, public problem By Ranit Nahum Halevy Tags: real estate, Israel The year is 1960. The street: Jaffa, in Jerusalem. The situation: a two-story iconic building owned by the Mizrahi family is on fire. From that day on the stone edifice, an architectural gem, remained blackened and empty, without windows, doors or even a roof. Before the blaze the building had been a symbol of bustling commercial life in Jerusalem; today, it stands as mute testimony to the helplessness of the authorities to force property owners to renovate such eyesores. There are other examples in Israel's capital city: the Clal building, also on Jaffa Street, and the Bank Hapoalim building at Zion Square - both relatively modern buildings which were embodied with great hope in the 1970s. But the 15-story Clal building seems to be cursed. Barely any business goes on there and its facade is tatty, despite a recent face-lift. As for Bank Hapoalim, part of its ground floor seems to serve as a public urinal. Advertisement Thousands of buildings like these are scattered throughout the country. Their paint and plaster are peeling, the porches seem about to fall and pipes are exposed. The problem is everywhere, mainly, though not exclusively in old neighborhoods, in the form of grubby, dirt-streaked, smelly, dilapidated buildings. Environmental anarchy. Just stroll down Hillel and Shlomzion Hamalka Streets in Jerusalem, or Allenby and Ben Yehuda in Tel Aviv. Neglected buildings make an entire street or neighborhood look bad and can actually pose a danger to passers-by. Once such structures deteriorate beyond a certain point, tenants jump ship and leave the asset vulnerable to squatters, who don't as a rule treat the property with respect and tend to accelerate its deterioration. What is going wrong? Why are our cities dotted with properties like this - squalid, vermin-infested structures, reeking of human waste? Simply put, it is the neglect of the owners that causes so many buildings to fall into ruin like this. How is it that local authorities allow the urban fabric of their locales to be sabotaged in such a way? Apparently, the legal means to combat this phenomenon don't exist. The United States and many European countries have fairly draconian laws that force property owners to keep their assets up to a certain standard. However, in this respect, Israel's laws are limited. Lacking fundamental legislative backing, cities try to contend with recalcitrant property owners and "house committees" - tenants' groups - using sticks and carrots: Municipal bylaws are the sticks, and subsidies and loans to fix up the place are the carrots. In extreme cases, the authorities may sue and threaten to seize property. Yet, in general, cities' efforts to whip landlords into shape have borne little fruit. "We know about the situation," says Tzachi Katz, head of the Jerusalem Municipality's building licensing and supervision division. "There are buildings like these in the city centers, in tourism areas, where not even minimal maintenance has been carried out on the facade since they were erected. When the city wants to force the renovation of the facades, it approaches the building owners or the committee, sending notices with demands based on bylaws. If [the city] doesn't get any reaction, the only recourse is to sue." And that is not a useful measure: Lawsuits over property can take years. The cities thus tend to turn to the courts only in acute cases, Katz explains, such as those involving demolition of illegal buildings. When it comes to forcing facade face-lifts the city is helpless, he notes: What's needed is the equivalent of federal law to combat this situation. Local Champs Elysees Tel Aviv's case is rather different than Jerusalem's. With the participation of the municipal renovations company Ezra U'Bitzaron Housing Co., renewal is being planned in several areas of the seaside city: At present the company is focusing on Ibn Gvirol Street. Out of the street's roughly 200 buildings, no less than 67 are getting face-lifts. The company provides property owners with convenient financing terms, including outright grants and loans of between NIS 17,000 to NIS 30,000 per tenant, repayable in 40 to 70 installments. The renewal work is being carried out by contractors supervised by Ezra U'Bitzaron. "It began 10 years ago when, in consultation with the municipality, we sought to stop the physical deterioration and to encourage the public to fix up the facades of their buildings," says Eli Ginzberg, CEO of Ezra U'Bitzaron. "Unless we made a move, the occupants wouldn't have done anything. At the end of the day the renovation increases the value of their property. Ibn Gvirol is going to become the Champs Elysees of Tel Aviv." It should be noted that Ezra U'Bitzaron is a municipal company acting under the sponsorship of the government as a whole. It's involved in a number of other projects with residents of Tel Aviv, and has redone buildings on Hayarkon, Matalon, Wolfson, Uri, Namir and Har Zion Streets, and in the Shapira neighborhood. But as a government entity, its activities are limited due to the absence of an appropriate legal infrastructure supporting it: For example, during the last year it renovated 105 facades of residential buildings in Tel Aviv - compared with 150 two years ago. One reason is that property owners tend to prefer to renew their assets according to the stipulations in Master Plan No. 38, which has yet to undergo final approval. "If a building has 12 tenants and two balk, we can still go ahead with the project. We assume the costs and in parallel sue in court for an injunction," says Ginzberg. But there could be a problem: If the city decides that a building needs to be fixed up and the owners don't agree, it may sue to seize the asset even though there is no national law in place that allows it to do so. The city of Tel Aviv has hired a lawyer, Ilan Charcon, to handle cases of such tenants. One case, for example, involved renovations of a building abutting Dizengoff Square. The tenant's lawyer, Avidan Romanov, says the edifice may have been unsightly, but it wasn't dangerous. The owners first began to fix up the facade facing Reines Street, but when they erected scaffolding to work on the Dizengoff Street side, municipal inspectors demanded it be dismantled - on the grounds that the city wanted a more comprehensive renewal job. "The city forced a technical blueprint and certain types of materials for the renovation on my client," claims Romanov, who adds that the client ultimately decided the whole thing was too much trouble and sold his property. The whole affair never passed the test of the courts. "The city hired a lawyer who took legal steps unprecedented in Israel," says Romanov. "For example, if the landlord refuses to renovate, the city can seize the property, expropriate it, and carry out the renewal in the owner's stead. Maybe that's a good idea but it isn't covered by law in Israel and in my opinion, it can't be done through municipal bylaws. The city's 'heavy hand' can convince property owners to sell." So far the city has sued recalcitrant residents on 20 occasions, says Charcon. Half the cases were settled and in the others, the court ruled in the city's favor. Haifa hazards In Haifa, the municipality's concern is hazardous buildings, not ugly ones. In the last two years it has initiated more than 1,000 cases against residents in dangerous buildings. It only formulated a city ordnance regarding facades six months ago. The city has the power to order a property owner to fix a building, and if the owner doesn't comply, he is seen to be in violation of the ordnance, explains Haifa city legal counsel Reshef Cheyne. While Haifa's municipality piled up victories in court, city officials began to sense that the people were feeling trampled. So, Cheyne explains, the city decided to introduce a "civil" option: It carries out the renovation through a municipal company and charges the property owners for it later. Attorneys Moshe and Oren Valero have handled several cases of cities versus private individuals, and argue that the cities do have legal tools at their disposal - for instance, the Maintenance of Cleanliness Law, which applies to building facades, too - but they aren't invoked very often. In principal, if the city notices a building that it believes to be dangerous, it opens a file and sends over an inspector. A demand is issued to fix the structure, and if the owners don't comply, then the case winds up in court. But because of the red tape, it can take years for a dangerous building to actually be made safe, and meanwhile it is endangering the public, says Valero. He believes the solution lies in financial incentives. At a minimum, fixing up a single building can cost hundreds of thousands of shekels, he points out. At most the cities grudgingly hand over a few thousand. But if the municipality were to open its clenched fist more, it would be spared the delays and costs of the legal process, and spare the public the danger of a building collapsing on it. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Beatle terror Islamic militant leader threatens to kill former Beatle, Sir Paul McCartney, over Israel gig. 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