Knesset eases laws to allow people to easily build safe rooms

The process to get approval for extensions in apartments to build safe rooms will become easier, after the Knesset passed an amendment to the Real Estate Law on Monday.

The new amendment states that people living in houses that are made up of multiple sections or in buildings with multiple entrances will only have to get the consent of 60% of people in their section to extend their apartment for the sake of building a safe room.

Previously, adding an extension of any kind to an apartment required the consensus of at least 60% of all the building’s or house’s residents.

The new law was passed to make it easier for Israelis to build safe rooms in their apartments, considering many older buildings were built with only one safe room for the whole building or no safe room at all.

Any other rights dictated by the Real Estate Law that the other residents are entitled to remain the same.

Other bills passed

Aside from this law, the Knesset also passed a number of other bills in first readings. The bills will now be sent to the relevant committees for approval and preparation for the second and third readings.

The first such bill would allow the defense minister to declare a foreigner as a terrorist even if no qualified entity outside of Israel had done so before.

The next bill seeks to enable the National Headquarters for Economic Warfare Against Terrorism to directly get information from the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Authority.

The third bill proposes changes to inheritance laws for 18 months to make the inheritance process easier for people whose relatives were murdered on October 7 and throughout the war.