 Hi, welcome back to my YouTube channel. My name is Daniel Rosell. As ever, I try to produce informative videos about everything to do with living in Israel. My current summer pursuit of choice is looking for a new rental apartment. I've done a few videos over the years about how much renting property in Israel generally sucks, but also about the massive cost of real estate in this country. As much as I like to complain about sucky landlords, I also believe that a well-regulated rental market would actually be a pretty great thing. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that if the rental market were decently regulated in Israel, it would make a great medium-term housing solution for new immigrants who didn't want to box themselves into living in one city for the indefinite future. In Germany, more than half the population lives in rental accommodation, and the market is well-regulated by tenant-friendly legislation. In Israel, stereotypes still prevail that renting is only something the poor people do, which makes no sense given the macroeconomics of this country. Looking at the cost of real estate in Israel would make more sense to say that home ownership is only something that rich people can afford to do. Perhaps for that reason, Israel has been very behind the curve in bringing any sense of order to its rental market, which many increasingly find is their only option to keep a roof over their head in this very expensive part of the planet. In 2017, Israel made some vastly overdue efforts to bring a measure of regulation to its wild west rental market. The Knesset passed the Fair Rental Contract Law called in Israel, Chok Shirut Hogenet. Long time subscribers may remember a video I made a few months ago introducing a rather hilarious Facebook page in Hebrew called Apartments That Depressed Me in Israel showcasing some of the very worst rentals on the Israeli market. These may be some of the dwellings that legislators had in mind when drafting this law. The Fair Rental Contract Law provides an uninhabitability clause which gives tenants the automatic right to exit their contract in the event that there is a lack of sewage connection, lack of lighting system, or lack of natural lighter ventilation among others. In that video I shared the story of the time that my landlord decided to rip out my toilet in order attempt to fix a leak. Yes, that's a true story. Had that incident occurred after 2017, I would have been on legally sent ground when I decided to bail apartment. One reform that the law attempted but failed to introduce for reasons we will soon see was to force landlords to actually bear the costs associated with rendering their property. One of these costs explicitly stated in the legislation was realtors fees. The practice in Israel is for realtors to charge one month rent plus VAT of 17% to both landlords and the tenants they found to take the property. According to the letter of the law, things made sense. If a landlord decided to work with a realtor then this was a cost that the landlord was expected to bear. Tenants who just needed a place to live would be exempted from the absurd practice of having to pay thousands of dollars to a realtor simply for the privilege of renting a place for maybe a year. Realtors in turn would be prevented from profiteering by continuing their practice of charging both sides of the rental transaction. Unfortunately, the machinations of the real estate market in Israel had other plans. Realtors as a group adopted the position that they would demand the tenants signed paperwork hiring them for the purpose of showing them prospective apartments even if they were only showing them one single listing. By foisting this jubilee legal paperwork on tenants, realtors would be able to legally claim that they had been hired by prospective tenants. In reality, the whole transaction is one based on juresse. If prospective tenants refused to sign the paperwork, the realtor will refuse to show them the property. And if the prospective tenants maintained this stance across town, then they will soon find themselves with very few prospective rentals to view. A friend was kind enough to forward me a voice note in which a realtor lays out the trap to somebody hunting for a rental. To protect the identity of the realtor, I've modulated the voice. Many years ago, I finished a law degree. Although I can't consider myself an expert in drafting legislation, I think that this is a great example of what happens when people unfamiliar with the facts on the ground attempt to write laws. If the law had simply stated that real estate agents were forbidden from charging prospective rental tenants a predatory fee for seeking rentals, then the matter might have been done in dusted. But by couching the prohibition in language about which third party fees the property owner was forbidden from pointing off in renters, the law left just enough wiggle room for Israeli realtors to come up with a plan B, which works thanks to the power of juresse and the powerful force of desperation, but which also totally defeats the intention of the law drafted. Thanks for watching today's video and if you want to get more from me about life in Israel consider liking and subscribing.