Drama at the Execution Office: Widow’s debt balloons to 127,000 shekels
A 74-year-old widow paid over 56,000 shekels toward an original 18,000-shekel debt, only to see it rise to 127,000 shekels. The Execution Office registrar has now ordered the debt to be wiped clean.
Imagine a situation where you pay off a debt for 22 years, return from your own pocket more than three times the original amount, and in the end discover that your debt has not decreased, but has grown sevenfold. This is the trap in which a 74-year-old widow found herself, until a dramatic decision by the Execution Office registrar in Rishon LeZion, Yehiel Noizitz, put an end to the ongoing nightmare.
The story began in 2004, when two execution files were opened against the woman due to debts to the Holon municipality totaling 17,943 shekels. Over the years, she did everything in her power to pay, and for over a decade she met the payment schedule in the consolidated file. In total, the woman paid 56,210 shekels, an amount representing more than 313% of the original debt.
Despite meeting the payments, the debt continued to grow until it reached the absurd amount of 127,331 shekels, consisting entirely of interest and indexation. Behind the dry numbers stands a woman living on an income of only 5,606 shekels per month, earned through elderly care work and supplemented by old-age and survivor pensions.
Throughout the years, she dealt with chilling personal tragedies: the death of her husband in 2012, the loss of one of her sons, and the drug addiction of another, alongside a complex medical background. Despite her world falling apart, she persisted in making payments for over a decade.
The Execution Office registrar in Rishon LeZion, Yehiel Noizitz, ordered the cancellation of the entire remaining debt of 127,331 shekels and the complete closure of the consolidated file. This decision put an end to a 22-year nightmare.
The Holon municipality strongly opposed the cancellation, arguing that the interest constitutes "public funds." Registrar Noizitz rejected this position, relying on Amendment 75 to the Execution Law and Amendment 9 to the Interest and Indexation Adjudication Law.
"The new amendments grant Execution Office registrars broad authority to reduce and even cancel interest, including statutory interest of local authorities, to prevent the creation of a predatory snowball effect from which there is no exit," the registrar stated.
