Lodging a Claim Against the Peleg HaGalil Water Company

You have just recently, or will soon be, receiving another water bill. If you are like us, your meter will once again show an impossibly large water use.

Please be advised that we have reported "Peleg HaGalil" to the police in Tzfat for fraud and, in our case, abuse of physically reduced and disabled people.

Another woman who called me told me that she reported them to the fraud division in Chaifa.

One of the phone calls we received was from the owner of the heated pool in Tzfat. He said his water bill was beyond belief. He told me that other businesses in the industrial area of Tzfat also said they received far-out bills.

We would recommend that anyone who feels physically and/or emotionally harmed from their fraudulent and strong-arm threats to turn off our water if we don't pay their extortion prices do the same.

The policeman I (Doreen) spoke with told me to go to the Court Building, right next to the Police station, and ask for a Claim form from Small Claims.

Doreen did and we are in the process of preparing that suit now.

Instructions as to how to lodge a small Claim are to be found here:

http://elyon1.court.gov.il/heb/info/choveret/hesb_ktanot.htm

No lawyer is necessary. Small Claims are up to 30,000 NIS. You will need to know the name of an individual to sue. The name of the company is not enough. The name of the CEO of "Peleg HaGalil"is Amos Rudin.

Claims must be made in Hebrew. If you'll require translation services, please contact us.

We have placed two ads in the local paper, "Chadash B'Galil", encouraging the public to take action against "Peleg HaGalil". The second one will come out this Friday, B"H.

Since placing the first ad, we have received many calls from every area of Tzfat, both from private individuals and owners of businesses.

We encourage you to put in a Claim against "Peleg HaGalil" if you feel you have been charged unreasonable water usage. Every Claim and Complaint at the Police Department strengthens the others.

We are intentionally not organizing the Claims into one group claim. We want to make cheating the public as expensive and difficult for "Peleg HaGalil" as possible. We want them to have to pay for individual suits. That's a lot of lawyer time.

Another avenue of recourse is to turn to the TV Program "Uvdah". They investigate fraudulent business practices of these kinds of companies ("Ta'agidim") and do exposes.

A multi-pronged approach against "Peleg HaGalil" is called for. They have proven to be obdurate in their determination to threaten us with cutting off our water supply if we do not pay their outrageous bills.

This extortion will continue, and escalate, if we do not take action as a Community.

Ilan Schochat, the new Mayor of Tzfat, has been made aware of this horrific company that Yishai Maimon brought in and we have been made to understand that he is sympathetic to the public.

Daniel and Doreen Dotan, Tzfat
DoreenDotan@gmail.com