I am not used to the phone ringing at night, certainly not when I'm abroad. The number was not my wife's or one of the children's either, but an unidentified local number. I thought it was a mistake and did not answer. By the third ring I could no longer ignore it. On the other end of the line I heard the tired but familiar voice of Yossi (a pseudonym).
“Hi, sorry about the hour,” he said. “I need you to come to the casino. I want to make an agreement to sell the apartment.”
“Are you crazy? In the middle of the night? Can't it wait until morning?”
“Come now. I have to sell the apartment now.”
It is 1:30 in the early morning. There is hardly a soul on the streets, and I order a taxi and within 45 minutes I meet him in a private room that has been set aside for us at the casino. He tells me that the evening actually began with a few rounds in which he won considerable sums, but little by little he started losing what he had won, took a loan and then another loan in order to keep trying his luck, and now he has no way to pay unless he sells the apartment he bought less than a year ago.
We began drawing up an inventory of the assets he owns, funds he could raise, and so on. I tried to help him find ways to pay the debt other than selling the apartment. It was not simple, partly because of the state of mind he was in, the late hour and above all the pressure he was under, with one of the casino's managers coming into the room every few minutes to ask how things were progressing. The more I tried to persuade Yossi and show him that there might be other ways to handle this so as not to “lose” the apartment, the more he seemed to shut down. The cigarette smoke in the room (Yossi was chain-smoking) clouded my senses a little, and I asked Yossi to step out for a short break to get some air.
I invited Yossi to go outside to breathe some air, and there Yossi began to be open and attentive to the solutions I proposed.
In total the debt stood at almost 200,000 euros. Yossi had liquid cash in the local account of about 56,000 euros, and I suggested that we raise the balance in Israel within a week, and that if we did not succeed, a power of attorney to sell the apartment could always be sent from Israel as well.
We went back to the room. At first the proposal was rejected. They wanted the apartment here and now, but I insisted, I pushed, until in the end they gave in. We signed a memorandum of understanding on the debt; I signed as the representing lawyer alongside Yossi's signature, and I accompanied Yossi to his apartment.
I greatly appreciated that Yossi knew how to hand the reins to a professional and did not keep managing the situation after realizing that he had lost control, and this decision reflects Yossi's inner abilities as a manager and as a person.
What do you think of Yossi's decision to “hand over the reins” to a professional?
Stories are based on real situations, with identifying details changed. Not legal advice.
Translated from the Hebrew original. עברית