Israeli Client Payment Chaser

Legal notice

This is a free information tool operated by an AI model. It explains the law and the procedure and helps you organise your own documents. All of its outputs are 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, but a general explanation and a template only: it does not read the full file of your matter, does not check current case law, and does not examine your specific circumstances. An AI model may err, omit data, or present a wrong conclusion.

Any text this tool drafts is an automatic draft for your personal preparation only. It is not a document prepared by an advocate and must not be relied on as evidence. This tool is not a substitute for advice that takes account of the particular circumstances and needs of each person. Before starting proceedings, signing a document, or filing with an authority or a court, consult an advocate. All use of its output is the user's sole responsibility.

Instructions

Step 1: Establish the Statutory Payment Deadline

Before chasing anything, fix the date the payment became legally late. This is governed by the Payment Ethics to Suppliers Law, 5777-2017 (חוק מוסר תשלומים לספקים, תשע"ז-2017).

• First check the law even applies to this client. The Payment Ethics to Suppliers Law governs a purchaser buying in the course of business: a state body, a local authority, or a business. It does NOT supply a due date for a private consumer client. If the client is a consumer there is no statutory default to fall back on: the due date is whatever the contract says, or a reasonable time where it says nothing, and the demand letter must not assert a statutory entitlement the creditor does not have. Everything downstream in this skill (the aging buckets, the reminder schedule, the interest start date, paragraph 3 of the demand letter) inherits this answer, so settle it before anything else.
• Default term when no payment term was agreed, for a business, state or municipal purchaser: 45 days. Note that the clock everywhere runs from when the invoice was submitted to the customer (hometza), not from when the supplier issued it. For a private business (sec. 3(z)) the term is 45 days from the end of the month of submission. For a state body (sec. 3(a)) there are two ALTERNATIVE limbs and the contract decides which applies, so do not conjoin them: 45 days from submission where the period is counted from submission, or 30 days from month-end where it is counted from month-end. A local authority (sec. 3(f)(1)) pays within 45 days from the end of the month of submission. Engineering and construction contracts run longer on the same either/or pattern (85 days from submission or 70 from month-end, as applicable).
• An agreed contractual term overrides the default, but the law caps how far it can be pushed out.
• Once the statutory (or agreed) due date passes, the debt is legally late: linkage and interest attach automatically, with no need for the creditor to "declare" lateness.
• What attaches to a late invoice under this law is ribit shkalit (shekel interest) from the payment due date, and dmei pigurim (late-payment fees) only from 30 days after it (בתוספת ריבית שקלית, ובחלוף 30 ימים מהמועד האמור - בתוספת דמי פיגורים). The two components have different start dates, so do not describe dmei pigurim as running from the due date. Do NOT quote a self-invented percentage in a reminder or demand letter. State that statutory late-payment interest applies from the due date and that the exact rate is the statutory rate published for the current quarter, or have the user confirm the rate with their accountant. See references/legal-escalation.md.