They left $17 in a safe. Now they are being sued for more than $7,000
A Tel Aviv couple allegedly left a rented safe occupied for more than a year after their lease expired. Brickstone Safes says late fees under their contract turned the abandoned safe into a four-figure debt.
It turns out that keeping a single banknote in a secure safe can be a costly affair.
In June, a court authorized the evacuation of a private safe that had remained occupied long after its rental period expired. When the safe was eventually opened, it contained just NIS 50 ($17)
Now, Brickstone Safes, which operates the facility, is suing the Tel Aviv couple who rented the safe, seeking more than NIS 21,000 ($7,000) in fees, plus interest, linkage differences and legal costs.
According to the lawsuit, the couple rented a storage unit containing a personal safe but failed to vacate it when their lease expired in May 2025. The company says it repeatedly contacted them and asked them to empty the safe, but they failed to do so.
Brcikstone eventually went to court and obtained a ruling in June ordering the safe to be evacuated. According to the lawsuit, the couple still did not comply with the order, forcing the company to take further legal action.
Last month, after obtaining authorization to open the safe, Brickstone had it physically opened and emptied. Inside, the company says, it found just NIS 50.
The lawsuit claims that by the time the safe was actually opened, 399 days had passed since the lease expired. Under the agreement between the parties, Brickstone says, customers who fail to return a safe on time without arranging payment are charged twice the regular daily rental rate for every day of delay.
For the safe in question, the regular daily rate was NIS 50, meaning the contractual late fee amounted to NIS 100 per day. Over 399 days, Brickstone says, this resulted in a debt of more than NIS 21,000.
The company is seeking payment of the debt, along with linkage differences, interest, legal expenses and attorney's fees.
The woman involved in the case said the couple had not yet received the lawsuit. She also said they had paid everything they were required to pay and had returned the keys.
Attorney Dvir Indig, CEO of Brickstone Safes, said the company has provided secure storage services for valuables for a decade.
"The defendants are tenants of a secure safe who simply decided not to vacate the rented safe on the date they signed," Indig said. "There is no connection between the contents of the safe and the price or scope of the rental."
Indig said Brickstone has no way of knowing what customers keep inside their safes because they are opened privately by the customers themselves.
According to Indig, the couple had already violated an arrangement reached with their consent in 2024 concerning the evacuation of the safe. He said the company contacted them "dozens of times" by phone, WhatsApp and email in an effort to arrange the evacuation and collect unpaid rent.
"We have no ability to know what is stored in the box, and therefore there is no connection between what is stored and the rent," he said. "We also have no way to evacuate a box ourselves, except after a court order for eviction in accordance with the law."
