Around 500 families that bought apartments from developer Heftsiba have been left with nothing: They have neither their apartments nor bank guarantees.

These 500 apartments were sold and partially or completely paid for but the banks who provided financial backing for the projects had not been informed about the sales. So the buyers never received the legally required bank guarantees for their investment, according to a report submitted to the court Thursday by the official receiver, attorney Shlomo Shahar, who was appointed as the trustee at the beginning of the week for the ailing construction firm.

According to the report, the number of apartments at various stages of construction in all of Heftsiba's projects reaches 4,048. Of these, the company reported that 2,808 had been sold, but the banks had only been informed of sales of 2,311 apartments.