New Ruling: Local Authorities Can Limit Accessible Parking Allocation

In May 2025, the district court issued a precedent-setting ruling regarding a local planning and building committee’s authority to demand that accessible parking spaces remain part of the common property and not be assigned to apartments in a new building. This ruling, which seeks to maximize accessibility for people with disabilities, has broad implications for developers and apartment buyers, since it increases uncertainties about accessible parking spaces in condominium buildings.

Until the Ruling: Accessible Parking Spaces Were Assigned to Apartments  

Complex real estate transactions (such as urban renewal transactions, combination transactions, and new apartment sale transactions) often include demands from apartment owners or buyers with disabilities to assign an accessible parking space to their apartment to satisfy their specific needs throughout the period of apartment ownership. The quality of life of people with disabilities depends upon accessible parking spaces, considering their critical need for spaces of customized length, width, and height near the building entrance, and which are always available to them.

Although the Second Addendum to the Planning and Building Regulations (Permit Application, Conditions and Fees) of 1970 imposes a statutory obligation to allocate accessible parking spaces for people with disabilities in every new residential building, the legislature has not yet regulated the issue of assigning accessible parking spaces to specific apartments. The position of the Commission for Equal Rights of Persons with Disabilities is that if a developer wants to assign parking spaces to apartments, it must first prioritize assigning standard parking spaces to non-handicapped apartment buyers and accessible parking spaces solely to apartment buyers possessing a handicapped parking permit. Only if all standard parking spaces have already been assigned to apartments of non-handicapped tenants may a developer assign an accessible parking space to a tenant not possessing a handicapped parking permit.

Zitrin Case: Dispute Over Assignment of Accessible Parking Space in a Residential Project

Zitrin Projects and Investments constructed a residential project in central Israel and applied to the municipality to assign an accessible parking space to a specific apartment in the project. The municipality rejected the application on the grounds that it was an “extra-standard” parking space, i.e., a parking space added beyond the obligatory standard and that was intended for use by all tenants and visitors with disabilities. The municipality’s position was that allowing the developer to assign an accessible parking space to a specific apartment would merely enable unlawful enrichment of the developer and undermine the public purpose of the parking space.

Zitrin filed a lawsuit with the district court, claiming the local planning and building committee’s rejection of its application to assign the accessible parking space constituted a violation of its property rights and a retroactive change in the city’s customary policy at that time without any legal authority. Zitrin further argued that the local authority’s decision was contrary to the position of the Commission for Equal Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and was not brought to its attention in advance in the information dossier presented to the developer when submitting its permit application, thereby undermining the principle of reliance on the local planning and building committee.

Precedent-Setting Ruling: Local Planning and Building Committee Does Have Such Authority

The court ruled that the local planning and building committee does have the authority to demand that accessible parking spaces that are “extra-standard” remain part of the common property and not be assigned to any apartment, in order to reserve them for future use by all persons with disabilities.

The court made this authority contingent upon the fulfilment of three cumulative conditions:

1. Addition beyond the standard – The accessible parking space was indeed allocated over and above the standard parking space standard (pursuant to the parking space regulations).
2. Advance notice was issued – The planning and building committee issued advance notice in the information dossier presented to the permit applicant that accessible parking spaces cannot be assigned, or published such notice in some other effective manner, such as on the website of the local authority’s engineering department or on the website of the local planning and building committee.
3. An explicit stipulation is included in the building permit or in the Registration Regulations – The building permit or a permit application pursuant to Regulation 27 of the Registration Regulations must stipulate that accessible parking spaces must be allocated to the common property.

It is salient to note that, in the Zitrin case, the court allowed the developer’s claims, since the local planning and building committee failed to issue advance notice that it intended to include the accessible parking space in the common property.

Practical Recommendations Considering the Ongoing Uncertainties

Unlike the customary practice up until this precedent-setting ruling, developers and apartment buyers can no longer assume that accessible parking spaces will be assigned to particular apartments, even if this is not clearly stipulated in the information dossier. This means that people with disabilities who own apartments may face constant uncertainty as to whether accessible parking spaces in the building will be available to them or to any visitor to the building. For people with disabilities, this uncertainty significantly disrupts their normal daily life.

We note that the Knesset is currently promoting a new memorandum of law, whereby apartment owners who themselves, or family members residing with them, are persons with disabilities, can swap the parking space assigned to their apartments for accessible parking spaces, provided they exist in the common property.

Although this heralds an important and just legislative measure, the legislation has not yet been completed and the situation on the ground remains ambiguous due to the court’s precedent-setting ruling. The ruling thus harms mainly the population it intended to protect.

Today, people with disabilities who purchase apartments have no way of knowing for a fact whether accessible parking spaces will be assigned to their apartments, or whether the accessible parking spaces will be common property for use by all people with disabilities who visit the building, or whether they will ultimately be assigned to a non-handicapped apartment buyer. Developers will now also have to deal with uncertainties about accessible parking spaces and are often caught between an apartment buyer’s desire for an assigned accessible parking space and the local authority’s demand to consider it part of the common property.

Until enactment of the legislation regulating assignments of accessible parking spaces, and considering this recent ruling which has merely increased uncertainties in this regard, we recommend that developers and apartment owners include flexible and clear contractual mechanisms in their engagement agreements. These mechanisms should be forward-looking and take possible regulatory amendments into account, in order to avoid disputes and ensure maximum legal certainty for both parties.

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Adv. Alon Abcasis is a partner and heads of the firm’s Residential and Urban Renewal Department, and Adv. Assaf Nachmias is an associate in the firm’s Real Estate Department.

Barnea Jaffa Lande’s Real Estate Department is a leader in its field in Israel, with vast expertise in providing legal services in diverse and complex real estate transactions, including commercial real estate, income-generating properties, urban renewal, planning, and construction. The department’s staff has extensive experience advising developers, real estate companies, and apartment owners throughout all transaction stages, from planning to delivery. Barnea Jaffa Lande is at your service to provide advice and answer any questions.