Summary
The office created by the Absentees’ Property Law, 5710-1950: the chairman of a Custodianship Council for Absentees’ Property appointed by the Minister of Finance, in whom all absentees’ property vests automatically, with the owner’s own status, and who manages, leases, and in the cases the Law states sells or releases that property (Absentees’ Property Law, 5710-1950, PDF p.2-3).
Details
- Appointment and succession: the Minister of Finance appoints the Council by order in Reshumot and designates its chairman as the Custodian; the Custodian may sue and be a party to proceedings, is represented by the Attorney-General or his representative, and on ceasing to hold office his functions pass automatically to the Minister of Finance and then to a successor (section 2, PDF p.2). He appoints inspectors with the Minister’s written approval, agents to manage held property, and officials and employees (section 3, PDF p.2-3).
- Vesting: all absentees’ property vests in him from his appointment’s publication or the day it became absentees’ property, whichever is later, every absentee right passes to him, and his status is the same as was the owner’s; he may take vested property over wherever he finds it, and possessors and debtors must hand property and payments over to him (sections 4 and 6, PDF p.3).
- Management: he must take care of held property and may spend and invest for its care, maintenance, repair or development; he may manage, sell or lease an absentee’s business and liquidate or wind it up, grant dependants’ and absentees’ maintenance allowances capped at 50 pounds per month per person, and expend trust income for its purposes (sections 7-9, PDF p.3-4).
- Enforcement: his certificate that an occupier of vested immovable property has no right to occupy it has the effect of an expulsion judgment, executable within seven days; he may order unauthorised building stopped and demolished, and order a protected occupier to vacate for development after providing suitable alternative accommodation (sections 10-12, PDF p.4-8).
- Limits: he may not sell or otherwise transfer ownership of vested immovable property except to a Development Authority, if established, at not less than official value, and may lease it for over six years only to that Authority or to a lessee undertaking to cultivate or develop it (section 19, PDF p.9-10).
- Release and confirmation: under section 27(a) he shall, on application, confirm as not an absentee a person definable under section 1(b)(1)(iii) who left his place of residence for fear that the enemies of Israel might cause him harm, or otherwise than by reason or for fear of military operations; he may in his sole discretion release vested property under section 28 and confirm a person lawfully in the area of Israel as not an absentee under section 27(b), in each case only on a government-appointed special committee’s recommendation — the sole-discretion and committee requirements apply to sections 27(b) and 28 only — and may withhold a confirmation or certificate until the 4 per cent remuneration and his expenses, with 6 per cent interest, are paid (sections 27-29 and 32, PDF p.15-17).
- Evidence: his certificates that a person is an absentee or property is absentees’ property stand until the contrary is proved, and his certified copies and confirmations are prima facie evidence (section 30, PDF p.16-17).
Related pages
Absentee Property Law, Absentees’ Property Law, 5710-1950, Development Authority, Present Absentees, Knesset, Israel