The Supreme Court has held that the joint owner of a property has no right to give another person, who has no property rights in the apartment, permission to live there where this would infringe upon the other owner’s occupation and use of the property. This is so whether the person in question is a stranger or an adult child. Where there is no legal obligation on a parent to supply an adult child with accommodation, there is no reason to depart from this precedent.

This was clarified in a case before the Tel Aviv Family Court where an apartment was jointly owned by a couple locked in a long-standing legal battle. The husband applied for a temporary order forbidding their adult children from entering/sleeping there. The court held that one joint owner can invite guests providing it does not interfere with the other’s reasonable use of the property, even without the other’s permission. Jewish law, it said, recognised the right of a parent to host grown up children, and incorporates this in a woman’s maintenance. Rejecting the husband’s plea the court held that the adult son could visit his mother at the apartment during reasonable hours but could not stay overnight.