Cet article est publié en anglais. Une question à son sujet ? Écrivez-nous sur WhatsApp.
Who really decides — the committee or the owners?
Picture your building: aging, 2 years of hallway talk about renewal, and suddenly 1 energetic neighbor recruits 2 more and starts introducing the trio to a developer as "the building's committee." Half the building is glad someone is finally pushing. The other half is quietly asking: who appointed them, and what exactly can they do on our behalf?
The answer surprises most owners: an urban-renewal committee has almost no footing in Israeli statute — what it has is an official playbook. The Government Authority for Urban Renewal publishes a guide, "Principles for Building an Owners' Committee," and most of the rules you will hear about these committees come from it: official recommendations, not binding law. The one hard legal line comes from the Land Law itself. Here it is in 4 numbers.
Wait — isn't that just the house committee?
No — and the distinction matters. The Land Law recognizes exactly one such body — the one your building already has:
"Every condominium shall have a representation for the management of the affairs of the condominium; …" — Land Law, 5729-1969, Section 65 (unofficial translation)
That statutory "representation" is the house committee — think of your condo board. It is born of statute, and its playing field is the building's day-to-day management. The renewal committee is a different animal: a voluntary group the owners elect to push a specific project forward. None of Israel's renewal statutes establishes it. The official guide fills that vacuum, as long as you remember that its rules are recommendations.
Bottom line: the house committee draws its power from statute. The renewal committee draws its power from consent — with the official guide as its compass.
What is the committee not authorized to do?
Sign in your name, or settle the big questions. The official guide puts it bluntly:
"The committee is not a legal entity and is not authorized to sign on behalf of the property owners or to make material decisions in the project." — Principles for Building an Owners' Committee, Government Authority for Urban Renewal (unofficial translation)
And the legal anchor? Section 69 of the Land Law. Even the house committee — the "representation" the statute itself created — holds only a limited agency:
"The representation shall serve as agent of all the apartment owners in every matter concerning the sound maintenance and management of the condominium, and in those matters it is entitled to enter into contracts…" — Land Law, 5729-1969, Section 69 (unofficial translation)
"In those matters" — maintenance and management, and no further. A renewal deal, whether it tears the building down and rebuilds or strengthens and expands it, is a transaction in the rights to the apartments themselves, far outside that agency. And if that is true for the body the statute itself created, all the more so for a voluntary renewal committee: without an explicit power of attorney, nobody signs for an owner.
What counts as a "material decision"? The guide defines it: any decision with a direct, significant effect on the planning outcomes, the expected compensation, or future costs — plus anything that meaningfully changes living conditions during the project and after it. On those, the committee must convene all the residents and consult them before anything is decided.
Bottom line: the committee leads the way; only the owner signs the deal. That line does not move.
So what can the committee decide — and where does the power come from?
From the agreement, and only from it. The guide notes that an agreement with a developer or with a deal organizer — as defined in the Urban Renewal (Agreements for Organizing Transactions) Law, 5777-2017 — usually includes a fast-track mechanism authorizing the committee to decide the project's routine matters. And in the same breath comes the recommendation people tend to miss: limit the committee's role in the agreement to routine decisions only, ones with no material effect on the project's character. That is the clause the owners' attorney locks down in drafting.
So what fills a working committee's agenda? The guide spells out the full list:
The work is almost always volunteer, and it runs for years. The guide is candid about where the power really comes from: legitimacy is built on trust, on translating the professional language into plain terms, and on collecting the residents' needs and carrying them to the professionals — not on a title.
Bottom line: the committee's power is set in the written authorization and the agreement — not in announcements. Routine inside, material outside.
How do you seat a committee whose mandate holds up?
At a properly run owners' meeting, with a written authorization. The mechanics are all in the guide, as recommendations: notice with the date, time, place, and agenda goes out to every resident and property owner at least 7 days ahead — the lobby bulletin board, the mailboxes, phone calls to owners who live elsewhere, email or WhatsApp too. At the meeting you decide how information will be shared going forward, particularly with older residents, with neighbors who do not read Hebrew, and with off-site owners; everything is recorded in minutes circulated to everyone.
And when is the committee actually authorized? Here is the number everyone quotes and few can source:
"…the authorization shall take effect only after 51% of the property owners have signed, and shall remain in force until the next election." — Principles for Building an Owners' Committee, Government Authority for Urban Renewal, p. 5 (unofficial translation)
Note where it lives: in the guide, not in the statute books. And don't confuse this authorization threshold with the statutory majorities that move the deal itself — those are a separate article: how much owner consent urban renewal takes.
One clarification the guide says to state out loud at the meeting: signing the authorization is not a commitment to sign any agreement or to pay anything. The authorization gives the committee a mandate to act — joining the deal remains your decision, made with a separate signature on the agreement itself.
Bottom line: a properly noticed meeting, an authorization text presented in advance, and signatures from 51% of the property owners — that committee is hard to challenge.
Who decides what?
| The decision | Who decides | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Routine project matters | The committee — where the agreement authorizes it | A mechanism set in the agreement; the guide advises limiting it to routine matters only |
| Material decisions — planning, compensation, costs | All the property owners, consulted in advance | The official guide's definition (p. 4) |
| Signing the renewal deal | Each owner personally, or an expressly appointed attorney-in-fact | Section 69 of the Land Law limits the agency to maintenance and management |
| Day-to-day management of the building | The house committee — the statutory body | Section 65 of the Land Law |
How to set up an owners' committee — 6 steps
- 1Step up. It takes 1 owner to draft an agenda and set a meeting date.
- 2Get notice to everyone, at least 7 days ahead — bulletin board, mailboxes, phone calls to owners who live elsewhere, email or WhatsApp.
- 3Hold the meeting and elect the committee — presenting its roles, the limits of its authority, and the text of the authorization.
- 4Collect signatures on the authorization. Per the guide's recommendation, it takes effect once 51% of the property owners have signed, and runs until the next election.
- 5Set the update and record-keeping channels — minutes for every meeting, circulated to the owners who missed it, too.
- 6Bring in the owners' attorney early — chosen through the organized bid process the guide recommends; the attorney is the one who locks the authority boundaries into the agreement.
What to verify before signing the authorization
Your questions, answered
A group of 3 neighbors introduced themselves to a developer as "the building's committee" — no meeting, no signatures. Does that bind us?
No. A renewal committee is not a legal entity and cannot sign on behalf of the property owners — that is the official guide's own emphasis, and it squares with the statute: even the house committee's agency is limited by Section 69 of the Land Law to maintenance and management. Without a written authorization from you, this is an enterprising group of neighbors — nothing more.
The initiative itself is welcome. A mandate is earned at a properly noticed meeting, with a signed authorization, not announced to a developer.
I signed the authorization. Did I commit to the project — or to paying anything?
No. The guide instructs that owners be told exactly this at signing: signing the authorization is not a commitment to sign any agreement, and not a commitment to pay anything. It gives the committee a mandate to organize and advance — whether to join the deal remains your call.
The distinction: the authorization empowers the committee; only the agreement binds you. Count them: 2 documents, 2 separate signatures.
Our committee wants to approve the developer's agreement for the whole building, "to keep things moving." Can it?
That's not how it works. Approving a developer's agreement is a textbook material decision — a direct effect on planning, compensation, and costs, per the guide's definition — and a decision of that kind must go to all the property owners. The agreement itself is signed by each owner separately.
Real efficiency lives elsewhere: a well-defined routine-decisions mechanism in the agreement, and properly run meetings for the big moments. Speed comes from the process, not from shortcutting authority.
An owner living abroad learned about the meeting after the fact and feels bypassed. How do we fix it?
Go back to the guide's mechanics, built for exactly this: phone notice to owners who live elsewhere, updates by email or WhatsApp, an explicit meeting decision on the information channels — and minutes circulated to everyone.
And if the authorization was already signed without them? Better to cure than to argue: another meeting, a full update, and their signature added. Legitimacy is a committee's most valuable asset — and it is built on trust and transparency, in the guide's own words.
We have an excellent house committee. Can't it simply serve as the renewal committee too?
The same people can serve — but the second hat isn't automatic. The house committee is the statutory body under Section 65 of the Land Law, and its agency under Section 69 is limited to the maintenance and management of the building. A renewal deal — a transaction in the rights to the apartments — sits outside that mandate.
So even an active, well-regarded house committee needs a dedicated election at an owners' meeting, and a separate written authorization, to act as the renewal committee. Same neighbors, new mandate.
The committee organizes. You decide.
A good committee is the project's engine: it centralizes information, builds consensus, and sits beside the attorney at the negotiating table. Its power is borrowed: from your written authorization, from the boundaries drawn in the agreement, and from the trust built meeting after meeting. The Gottlib firm represents apartment owners in urban renewal: we guide the committee's formation and the drafting of the authorization, lock the boundaries of its authority into the agreement, and represent you across the table from the developer — from the first idea to keys in hand.
Getting organized? Already have a committee — or just 1 energetic neighbor? Message us on WhatsApp: tell us where your building stands, and we'll get back to you with a step-by-step map.
A committee doesn't come ready-made — you build it: a properly noticed meeting, a clear written authorization, and authority boundaries locked into the agreement. Owners who set it up right from the first meeting keep the whole building moving — and close with confidence.
Sources: The Land Law, 5729-1969 — Sections 65 and 69; "Principles for Building an Owners' Committee for Organizing and Advancing an Urban Renewal Process" — Government Authority for Urban Renewal (published April 7, 2019, updated April 29, 2026); the Urban Renewal (Agreements for Organizing Transactions) Law, 5777-2017. Current versions verified on August 31, 2026. The above is general information, not legal advice or a substitute for it; consult an attorney before acting.
Informations générales, sans valeur de conseil juridique.