Arnona is not a bill in the ordinary sense. It is a record.
When you move into or out of an apartment in Israel, the municipality keeps a record of who is responsible for that property. Arnona is the tax that follows that record. Whoever is written there is the person the city charges.
Nothing about that record changes automatically.
What Arnona is
Arnona (ארנונה) is the municipal property tax. It pays for things that belong to the city itself: garbage collection, street lighting, sidewalks, parks, and the basic functioning of local government.
Every apartment has an Arnona account inside the local authority. That account is always attached to one person for a specific period of time. That person may be a tenant or an owner. The landlord only pays if they are the one registered.
Why moving does not update Arnona
When people move, many systems are touched. Keys change hands. Utility accounts are updated. Sometimes even the official address is changed.
But the municipality’s Arnona system does not see any of this.
From its perspective, nothing has happened until someone submits a formal request.
Who must report the change
The person leaving should report that they left. The person arriving should report that they arrived.
If neither does, the municipality continues charging whoever is still written in the record.
How the record is changed
To update Arnona, a resident must provide three things to the local authority:
Their identity
The date the change took effect
Proof that the change is real
That proof is usually a rental contract or ownership document.
A municipal clerk reviews the documents and updates the record. Only then does the tax responsibility change.
Why mistakes last so long
Arnona is often updated retroactively. This means errors in dates or missing documents can keep the wrong person on the record for weeks or months.
Bills continue to be issued based on whatever the system shows.
Arnona and utilities
Electricity, water, and gas are not part of Arnona. They belong to different companies.
Some services, such as Mazekal ( העברת חשבון ארנונה), submit all of these changes together during a move, but they are still processed by separate authorities.
The simple truth
Arnona follows the record, not the reality.
If the municipality’s record is wrong, the tax will be wrong.
That is all there is to it.
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