Interest rates for 83-year-old Holocaust survivor, debtor reduced
The debtor allegedly owed a total of NIS 350,000 dating back to portfolio created 2006, from debts accumulated in the 1990s.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFUpdated: JUNE 19, 2021 12:52Illustrative photo of Israeli money(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
The Registrar of Execution at the Tel Aviv Bureau has reduced the interest rates for an 83-year-old debtor under special circumstances, according to a statement by the bureau.The debtor allegedly owed a total of NIS 350,000 dating back to portfolio created 2006, from debts accumulated in the 1990s.According to the statement, the debtor "suffers from cognitive decline, was born in 1938 in Libya, survived the Nazi persecution, did not study [at a university], worked in a household, immigrated to Israel in 1945, is widowed, a mother of 6 children and lives in Netanya.""Walking with a cane, suffering from three falls in the last three months, helping others with dressing, bathing and preparing food, not controlling her braces, living alone and receiving hours of nursing care from the National Insurance Institute," were the reasons the Tel Aviv bureau Registrar Yaniv Dayan decided to reduce the debt.Other reasons were attributed to her lack of assets, and within the context, debt collectors' claims about her assets were not proven nor did the collectors act on the debt within the last 16 years.It was proven that the debtor is without any assets or collateral, along with the portfolio of the debts being old and accumulated sometime in the 1990s.From the accumulation of the initial debts, the woman did not rack up any new debts over the years, and it was found that her son had complicated her financial situation when his business went under.The Registrar emphasized in his decision that "if these are not special reasons then what are special reasons for which the legislature gave the registrars the authority to raise on their own initiative the issue of interest rate reduction, subject to accepting the winners position?"He added that there is no point in bringing the debtor in for proceedings to pay back the debts owed, and that even so, the case would have been dismissed immediately."It seems that her son's consent to grant the financing to the settlement has in it some recognition of the past and the release of the 83-year-old debtor from the burden of the [financial] cases."
It was determined that the debtor would pay back a fraction of the total debts, to a tune of NIS 35,000 through seven installments, which will be distributed among the debt collectors listed in the portfolio.
