Do you own unregistered land? Why you should settle it now

Land settlement (hesder) is a public, cadastral and proprietary process that determines the rights (ownership) in land and fixes its areas and boundaries — for registration in the Rights Registry (Tabu) as binding, conclusive and final. In practice: the settlement process fixes the property's boundaries and its owners.

Unsettled land is land registered under the old, Ottoman-era registration method. It is usually recorded in the Deeds Registry — but it never went through settlement. Its recorded details may be inaccurate (size and boundaries), out of date (who holds the rights), and — unlike settled land — not binding, conclusive or final. In many cases, when unsettled land is finally registered with precise surveying, the plot's data turns out to differ, even substantially, from the old Deeds Registry entry.

• Settled land registered in the Rights Registry — the registration is conclusive evidence of its content; the registry warrants the validity of every registered right.
• Unsettled land — the Deeds Registry entry is only prima facie evidence; it warrants nothing.

• Settled land — no limitation period applies to a claim of right in the land.
• Unsettled land — the Limitation Law applies: 15 years for a claim of right in land.

In 2005, an American attorney appeared at the Israel Land Authority to clarify his family's rights in 2,500 dunams in the northern Negev. The background: in 1935, Rabbi Aharon Baruch Teitelbaum — a leader of the Satmar community in the US — arrived in the Land of Israel with funds the community had gathered for years to buy land. On 13.8.1935 he signed a sale agreement with Sheikh Ismail Khalil al-Azza for 2,500 dunams in the Negev, paying 80% at signing; the remaining 20% was paid on 12.4.1936, even though the transfer of rights had not yet been completed.

When the American attorney — the Rabbi's great-grandson — reached the registry, he presented the original 1935 agreement. But the land had been registered in the Deeds Registry in 1937 in the Sheikh's name. In court, the Sheikh's family honorably confirmed on the record that the sale had indeed taken place and that the Rabbi had paid the full price. And yet — because this was UNSETTLED land recorded in the Deeds Registry, the Limitation Law applied under section 5(2). The land remained with the Sheikh's family.

• Settled land — one who acquired a right for value, relying in good faith on the registration, prevails even if the registration was wrong.
• Unsettled land — no comparable protection exists.