Legal notice
This is a free information tool operated by an AI model. It explains the enforcement procedure, sets out the deadlines and the forms, and helps you organise your material so that you can write your own document. All of its output is produced automatically by an AI model, with no involvement, review or approval by an advocate. The output is not legal advice and not a legal opinion, only a general explanation: it does not read the full file, does not check current case law, and does not weigh your specific circumstances. An AI model can err, omit data, or present a wrong conclusion.
This tool does not draft an objection, a paraati claim, a request or an affidavit for you, and does not produce a document ready for filing. It assembles principles, available arguments and a list of what you must address, and you write the document yourself and file it in your own name. Do not rely on the output as evidence. It is not a substitute for advice that takes account of the particular data and needs of each person, and before taking a step, signing a document or filing with an authority or a court you should consult an advocate. Enforcement objection deadlines are short and missing one can forfeit your arguments irreversibly. All use of the output is at the sole responsibility of the user.
Problem
An Israeli enforcement file arrives as an azhara (warning) and starts a clock the recipient usually cannot read. The five file types look identical from the outside but carry different challenge routes, different forms and different deadlines, and choosing the wrong one wastes the window. Most people discover the file only when a bank account is frozen, by which point the 30-day objection period may already have run.
Instructions
Step 1: Establish which file type this is, before anything else
Everything downstream depends on this. The file type is stated on the azhara and in the personal area on the Enforcement and Collection Authority site.
| File type | Challenge route | Deadline |
|---|---|---|
| Bill or check (shtar / hamchaa) | Objection, form 218 | 30 days from service of the azhara |
| Fixed-sum claim (sechum katzuv) | Objection, form 218 | 30 days from service of the azhara |
| Money judgment (psak din kaspi) | No objection route. Paraati only, or set-aside/appeal of the judgment itself | Paraati has no deadline |
| Maintenance (mezonot) | Separate track. Wage protection does not apply, no ordinary payment order, arrest is possible | See the maintenance note below |
| Performance of an act (tzav aseh, eviction, delivery) | Separate track | Out of scope, see boundaries |
The single most common error is assuming a money-judgment file can be met with an objection. It cannot. An objection exists only for bill and fixed-sum files.
Maintenance files work differently. The registrar may order a maintenance debtor arrested for up to 21 days without first holding an ability examination, and the order is carried out only after a warning is sent and 7 days pass from its service. The warning itself carries information on getting a lawyer through legal aid; a debtor who receives one should use it at once. The ordinary payment-order request in Step 6 and the limited-means status do not apply to maintenance debt, and the monthly amount set in the judgment cannot be changed in enforcement. Accumulated past maintenance arrears can still be spread by the registrar after an ability examination, usually only where the debtor has paid current maintenance for at least two consecutive months, although the registrar may depart from that in exceptional circumstances. A debtor who has been arrested must be brought before the registrar within 24 hours, and the registrar may cancel the arrest order or shorten it.
Step 2: Fix the date the clock started
The 30 days run from service of the azhara (hamtzaat ha-azhara), not from the date printed on it and not from the day the user first noticed the file. Establish the service date and count from there. If service is disputed, that is itself an argument, and it belongs in Step 4.
Step 3: If within 30 days, understand what a timely objection buys
A timely objection does two things automatically: it stays collection in the enforcement office, and it moves the dispute to court, where the creditor's request is treated as a statement of claim and the objection is treated as an application for leave to defend.
A late objection does none of that automatically. Filing late requires three documents together: the objection itself, a request to extend time supported by an affidavit explaining the delay, and a separate request to stay proceedings. Until the court rules, the creditor may keep attaching.
If the user already knows they will miss the deadline, tell them about the pre-emptive notice: a general request filed before the deadline expires, stating why the objection will be late. It does not extend anything by itself, but it materially helps a later extension request.
Step 4: Assemble the grounds, do not write the document
Work through the grounds that actually exist for the user's file type and collect, for each, what the user would have to show. Produce an argument inventory and an evidence checklist. The user writes the document.
Grounds recognised on a bill or check file: failure of consideration (goods or services never delivered); forgery; theft of the instrument; absence of the debtor's signature; defective endorsement, which is only possible where the check is negotiable and not marked "payee only"; a security check used where there was no justification for presenting it; and a mortgage deed filed before six months elapsed from the debt arising.
Grounds on a fixed-sum claim come in two families, and the second is the one most people miss. Substantive grounds go to the debt itself. Technical grounds say the claim never qualified for this track at all, because the debt exceeded the 75,000 NIS ceiling on the filing date, or because the amount cannot be worked out by simple arithmetic and so is not a "fixed sum".
An objection may be filed against part of the amount only, conceding the rest.
Step 5: If the deadline has passed, the paraati route is still open
A paraati claim states that the debt has already been discharged. It can be raised at any stage and at any time, with no deadline, using form 236 (Hebrew form label: טופס 236), marked relief number 119. This is the route for a user who arrives too late to object.
Two constraints matter. On a judgment file it reaches only payments or acts made after the judgment, and cannot be used to argue about the judgment itself. And a claim found to have no foundation exposes the user to special costs.
Grounds go beyond literal payment: performance of what the judgment ordered, set-off where each side holds a judgment against the other, limitation where the execution request was filed after the limitation period ran, and a post-judgment settlement.
Note the separate 21-day clock. A paraati claim filed within 21 days of service exempts the user from attending an ability examination while it is pending. If it is rejected, they must attend or pay within 21 days.
Step 6: If the debt is not disputed, the payment-order track
Most debtors do not dispute the debt. They cannot pay it at once. That is a different request entirely, and it has its own clock, shorter than the objection clock.
File on form 233, with form 529 (questionnaire and confidentiality waiver) signed and attached. The document list is long and is the real work: six months of payslips or a form 106 for the debtor, spouse and adult household members, six months of bank statements and credit-card detail, pension-clearing-house balances, utility and arnona bills, a rental contract if renting, vehicle and property ownership papers, and a divorce or property agreement if there is one.
Timing, and note these are a third and fourth clock distinct from the 30-day objection:
- Money judgment or bill file: within 20 days of service.
- Fixed-sum claim file: within 30 days of service.
- The 20 days is the statutory default, and the azhara may set a different date, so read the date printed on it.
- Later is still possible, but interest and advocate fees may be added. The bigger cost: a debtor who neither complies with the azhara nor files a payment-order request is presumed to be a debtor with means who evades payment, unless they give the registrar a reasonable explanation. That presumption is what opens the way to restrictions, the evaders register and bring orders.
In files up to 50,000 NIS the azhara itself carries a repayment proposal, and this request is how the debtor says they cannot meet it.
Three things that decide the outcome:
- Start paying immediately. The debtor must pay the monthly sum they proposed, from filing, until the registrar rules otherwise. The minimum that can be offered is 150 NIS.
- Approval does NOT lift existing restrictions or attachments. This is the trap. A debtor who gets a payment order and assumes the freeze lifts is wrong; a separate request is required to lift each one. Pair this with Step 7.
- Complying with the order may earn a benefit: no arrears interest added to the principal, or a 25% reduction of the interest in the file.
- Watch the length of the spread you propose. A debtor who asks to spread the debt over more than two years (debt up to 20,000 NIS), three years (above 20,000 and up to 100,000 NIS) or four years (above 100,000 NIS) may be declared a limited-means debtor (chayav mugbal be-emtzaim). The debt counted for these bands includes interest and linkage up to the declaration. The status cuts both ways: the registrar gives an interim payment order and consolidates all pending files into one, including files opened later; but it can also carry restrictions (exit, special restricted customer, cards) and a register anyone can search. A proposal inside those limits does not open that door; a longer one does.
- Know the ceiling on any payment order. The payment period may not exceed three years for debt up to 100,000 NIS, or four years above that. The registrar may extend it by further periods totalling up to three more years when satisfied the debtor can pay within the longer period, and longer periods are possible only if creditor and debtor both agree. A debtor who cannot pay even within those limits files a notice saying so. Where total debts do not exceed 150,000 NIS (a fixed figure in the Enforcement Law, not the index-linked insolvency threshold in Gotchas), that notice is treated as an application to open insolvency proceedings; above it, the office gives information on applying to the insolvency commissioner. Either way the matter moves toward insolvency, which this skill routes out (see Gotchas).
The registrar may grant the order, demand more documents, summon the debtor to an ability examination, or reject it. Where the debtor has several files, the registrar may consolidate them so one order covers all the debts. A request to consolidate files does not by itself stop attachments or other proceedings; a stay has to be asked for separately. If the debtor's situation worsens later, they can apply at any stage to change the order.
Step 7: Work the restrictions layer
The law lists five restrictions the registrar can impose: exit from the country; receiving, holding or renewing a passport or travel document; declaring the debtor a special restricted customer (lakoach mugbal meyuchad), which bars drawing checks and opening a new bank account; use of charge cards (credit cards); and founding or holding an interest in a corporation. The card restriction does not apply to an immediate-debit card usable only against a credit balance, or to a card loaded only with a Bituach Leumi benefit or another protected payment. The passport and exit restrictions are not imposed where leaving Israel is needed for the health of the debtor or of a family member who depends on them. A driving-licence restriction is not one of them.
Check whether a restriction could be imposed at all. The law requires one of three grounds: the debtor was brought or came before the registrar and was shown to have means and to be evading, with debts over 500 NIS; the debt is maintenance under a judgment (other than maintenance collected by Bituach Leumi); or the debtor is presumed to be evading and either six months have passed since full service of the azhara with debts over 2,500 NIS, or a year has passed with debts over 500 NIS. The six-month and one-year periods belong only to the third ground. So on an ordinary (non-maintenance) file where the debtor has never appeared before the registrar, a restriction imposed before those periods have run does not meet the conditions; check which ground the decision relies on.
Act inside the 30-day warning. A restriction does not take effect until the office has sent the debtor a warning and 30 days have passed from its service. Inside that window the debtor can stop it by paying, or by asking to be summoned to an ability examination on form 400 (code 159) and persuading the registrar that they are not a debtor with means who evades payment. If the registrar imposes the restriction in the debtor's presence, no warning is sent and the 30 days run from the day it was imposed. In a maintenance file the maintenance debt is itself a ground for restrictions, so showing that you are not evading does not answer it. Once a restriction is in force, the route is cancellation. Separately, where judgment debts exceed 10,000 NIS in total, the registrar may enter a debtor with means who evades payment in the register of evading debtors. That requires the registrar to be satisfied that no less harmful collection step would work, and in the usual case an invitation by registered mail to a hearing, which the debtor can answer by paying, or by appearing and persuading the registrar that they are not evading.
Cancellation is requested on form 214 (online code 311) and is granted on three grounds: the debt was paid in full, the user is complying with a payment order, or the user is complying with an agreement with the creditor approved by the registrar. The registrar may condition cancellation on security.
Practical points that decide outcomes:
- The request is per file. One restriction sitting across several files needs a separate request in each.
- A restriction can be re-imposed immediately and with no warning if compliance stops.
- Cancellation is notified to banks, credit companies and the Interior Ministry within 24 hours.
- For an exit order, file a reasonable time before the travel date, not on the eve of it.
- A decision on a restriction cannot be appealed as of right. Leave to appeal is required.
Step 8: Check what cannot be attached
Where wages have been attached, the protected floor for 2026 is:
| Family status | Monthly | Daily |
|---|---|---|
| Single | 2,596 NIS | 103.82 NIS |
| Couple | 3,893 NIS | 155.73 NIS |
| Couple with one child | 4,516 NIS | 180.65 NIS |
| Couple with 2+ children | 5,139 NIS | 205.56 NIS |
| Single parent with one child | 4,250 NIS | 170.01 NIS |
| Single parent with 2+ children | 5,289 NIS | 211.54 NIS |
Two rules govern how that table is applied, and both are commonly got wrong:
- If the table figure is higher than 80% of net pay, the user keeps 80% of net instead, meaning at most 20% of net can be attached. Net means after income tax, national insurance, health tax and any other deduction the employer must make by law.
- In a maintenance file the protection does not apply at all and the whole wage can be attached.
Wage protection follows the money into a bank account for one month from deposit. After that the funds are attachable like any other balance, so a user sitting on several months of protected wages in an account is not protected on the older ones.
A frozen bank account: check what is in it. Bituach Leumi benefits and payments may not be attached. Once paid into the account they stay protected for 30 days, after which they can be attached. In a maintenance debt the benefits can be reached, except income support. Other payments are protected too, including rent assistance, certain welfare payments, and pension and severance savings before the debtor may withdraw them; read the Kol Zchut list of protected assets before explaining what is protected. Where protected money was frozen, the request to the registrar is for cancellation or stay of the proceeding (form 214 covers cancellation, stay or renewal of proceedings and restrictions).
Step 9: Produce the deadline calendar
Close by giving the user a dated list computed from their service date. The first four clocks run from service of the azhara; the last two run from later warnings. They are not interchangeable:
| Clock | What it governs |
|---|---|
| 30 days | Objection (bill and fixed-sum files only) |
| 20 days | Payment-order request in a money judgment or bill file |
| 30 days | Payment-order request in a fixed-sum file |
| 21 days | Ability examination, and the paraati exemption from it |
| 30 days from a restriction warning (or from imposition, if imposed in your presence) | Pay, or ask for an ability examination on form 400, before the restriction takes effect |
| 7 days from an arrest warning | Maintenance files only: the last point before an arrest order is carried out |
Add any travel date that interacts with an exit order. State for each what is lost if it passes.
Recommended MCP Servers
| MCP | Why |
|---|---|
kolzchut |
The Kol Zchut rights base carries the enforcement procedure pages this skill is built on. Use it to pull the current text of a procedure before relying on a figure, since the protected-wage amounts and the insolvency threshold are updated annually. |
Gotchas
Agent failure modes specific to this domain:
- Answering a debt-discharge question inside enforcement. A user who wants their debts written off is asking an insolvency question, not an enforcement one. Since the September 2019 reform the route depends on total debt against a threshold of 176,923.12 NIS (2026). Route them out rather than answering in place. Sending someone to the wrong forum costs them the window.
- Reciting a remembered insolvency threshold. The commonly repeated round figure is out of date. The value is index-linked and changes annually, so read it from the source rather than recalling it.
- Collapsing the clocks. There are four, all running from service of the azhara: 30 days to object, 20 days for a payment order on a judgment or bill file, 30 days for a payment order on a fixed-sum file, and 21 days for the ability examination. Two more run from later notices: 30 days from a restriction warning, and 7 days from an arrest warning in a maintenance file. Quoting one where another applies costs the user the window.
- Saying there are four restrictions. The law lists five. The one usually left out, special restricted customer, is the one that blocks checks and new bank accounts, which is exactly what a user with a "blocked account" is living through.
- Sending a maintenance debtor to form 233. The ordinary payment-order request and the limited-means status do not apply to maintenance debt, and arrest is available without an ability examination. Use the maintenance note in Step 1.
- Offering to write the objection. The skill assembles arguments; the user drafts and files in their own name. Producing a ready-to-file pleading is the one thing this skill must not do.
- Assuming a money judgment can be objected to. It cannot. Reaching for form 218 on a judgment file wastes the user's time on a route that does not exist.
- Telling a user a payment order lifts their attachment. It does not. Approval leaves every existing restriction and attachment in place until a separate request is filed for each.
- Applying the wage table without the 80% rule or the maintenance exception. Both change the answer, and in a maintenance file they change it completely.
Reference Links
| Source | URL | What to Check |
|---|---|---|
| Kol Zchut, objection to a bill | https://www.kolzchut.org.il/he/התנגדות_לביצוע_שטר_בהוצאה_לפועל | The 30-day deadline, form 218, stay mechanics |
| Kol Zchut, objection to a fixed-sum claim | https://www.kolzchut.org.il/he/התנגדות_לתביעה_על_סכום_קצוב_בהוצאה_לפועל | The 75,000 NIS ceiling and the technical grounds |
| Kol Zchut, paraati claim | https://www.kolzchut.org.il/he/טענת_%22פרעתי%22_של_חייב_בהוצאה_לפועל | Form 236, relief 119, the 21-day rule |
| Kol Zchut, cancelling a restriction | https://www.kolzchut.org.il/he/בקשה_לביטול_הגבלה_שהטיל_רשם_ההוצאה_לפועל | form 214, code 311, the cancellation grounds |
| Kol Zchut, protected wages | https://www.kolzchut.org.il/he/שכר_עבודה_שלא_ניתן_לעקל_או_לשעבד | The current-year table and the 80% rule |
| Kol Zchut, assets that cannot be attached | https://www.kolzchut.org.il/he/נכסים_וכספים_שאסור_לעקל_בהוצאה_לפועל | Benefits and other protected money in a bank account |
| Enforcement Law, consolidated text | https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/חוק_ההוצאה_לפועל | Sections 66א to 66ה (restrictions, warning, register), 69ג (limited means), 74 (maintenance arrest) |
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| User does not know their file type | The azhara is not to hand | Have them open the personal area on the Authority site, or call *35592. Do not guess the type; the whole route depends on it |
| The 30 days have already run | Late discovery, or service to an old address | The paraati route has no deadline and stays open. Separately, defective service is itself an argument for an extension request |
| Bank account frozen with no azhara ever seen | Service may have been to a former address, or the file may be at a different office | Establish the service date first; it is the anchor for every deadline and for the argument that service was defective |
| Restriction lifted, then reappears | Compliance with the payment order or agreement lapsed | Re-imposition is immediate and carries no warning. Check compliance before filing again |
| Restriction cancelled in one file but still biting | Cancellation is per file | A separate request is needed in every file carrying that restriction |
| Account frozen but it holds only Bituach Leumi payments | Benefits are protected in the account for 30 days from deposit | Ask the registrar to cancel or stay the attachment on those funds, promptly, before the 30 days run |