Calcalist, Shlomit Tzur, 29.04.2021

The dragging of the legs in regulating the short-term rental industry deepens the quarrels between Airbnb apartments and neighboring tenants. The occupants of such a building on Rothschild Street in Tel Aviv tried to protest this phenomenon in the neighboring apartments, but the owner of the apartments, the insurance company Menora Mivtachim, chose to respond with its own attack.

This is a four-story building above a commercial floor, one wing of which includes four apartments owned by private individuals and a second wing including a commercial floor and four apartments that are all owned by the Menora insurance company. For several years, Menora's apartments had small start-up offices that did not disrupt the building. After the start-ups left, Menora rented the apartments to an development and development company. According to the tenants' testimonies, two of the apartments have been split up and divided and are for short-term rent as a number of housing units, and the apartment on the top floor is rented as an event apartment and creates a real nuisance.

"Do not contact me"

The occupants of the building contacted Menora in writing and informed it of what was happening in the apartments. "The properties as you know have been split illegally so that three offices have become three accommodation units or in short your whole side has become a cheap hostel that hosts dubious people," one tenant wrote to the property manager at Menora Nira Eater last February. "Every week there are parties here that are stopped, but not always, only after we involve the police. A train of people 24 hours a day, which passes through the stairwell. We bought and hung signs from our pockets trying to keep quiet, but they don't really help. I don't want to think what It will happen here during the tourist season. " Menora replied to the tenant that the property had been rented, and therefore "any problem should be directed to the tenant and not to me."

At the same time, the tenants contacted the Tel Aviv Municipality's Department of Construction Supervision and announced that the apartments had been split illegally. The department sent inspectors to the site, and in response to one of the tenants, engineer Haim Zilberman, director of the central area in the construction supervision department, replied last summer: "We conducted an on-site audit and located the distribution works. At the end of December 2020, Zilberman sent an outrageous message to the tenants, according to which the opinion of the municipal attorney general was received, according to which no claims can be filed on the spot, "because there are no building permits for the building in the building file."

The tenants claim that life in the building, on one of the most prestigious streets in Tel Aviv, has become unbearable, especially on weekends and nights, when parties are held in the event apartment, and tenants are frequently changed in the guest apartments. "The stairwell of the building has become a promenade, carrying luggage, but also catering and amplification equipment for music," the tenants describe. "Guests who come to these apartments knock on our doors at night, shouting and cursing. One of the occupants of the building is pregnant and unable to sleep. The situation has worsened especially during closures and during the period when the bars and restaurants were closed.

Ari Kalman, CEO of Menora

( Photo: Guy Asiag )

One of the tenants in the building sent Menora another message in which she describes her plight: "My mother, who has cancer, who is in our care over the weekend, could not sleep all night yesterday because of a party in the banquet apartment. "

In response, Menora sent a threatening letter to the same tenant, through attorney Galit Kalantroff Klein: In recent months you have been contacting my client's representative, Mrs Nira Eater, repeatedly due to such and other complaints that you have in connection with the leased properties, while referrals are made all days of the week including weekends, and at hours that are not acceptable to all. It will be unequivocally clarified that your many inquiries amount to harassment and invasion of privacy. You are required to stop contacting my client's representatives immediately. Relevant inquiries, if any, can be forwarded by e-mail. To the extent that the referrals are not stopped, I will take measures available to my client in accordance with any law. "

"Need regulation"

Menorah stated: “The company leases a number of properties in the building, and the responsibility for the use of the tenant applies to the tenants according to law. With regard to the specific request, the company examines the issue and will forward the request to the tenant. "To the extent that illegal conduct is carried out by any of the tenants, it is certainly not acceptable to the company and to the extent that it acts in accordance with the law."

The municipality stated: “Dividing apartments without a building permit is a violation of the law. When this is done for the sake of greed, it is even more serious. The solution to the problem of short-term residential apartments should come through state regulation. In the case in question, an audit was carried out and the treatment will be carried out in accordance with the law and the situation on the ground. "With regard to apartments that are used for one-time events and cause noise nuisances, this is a new phenomenon that is increasing throughout the city and its enforcement is the responsibility of the police."