“Hi, we live on a small communal area which consists of six villas, no pool but has a garden, etc. My husband manages the upkeep of the garden and any maintenance [of walls, pump, etc., and gardener fees]. Five villas pay their TL 25 per month for this but one has not paid for five years and refuses. What can we do about this? Regards, Dawn.”
Dear Dawn, if you have an agreement which constitutes a management plan you can apply to the execution office/sheriff’s office for the collection of the last five years’ monthly fees. If you don’t have an agreement, then you should send a notice to the violator and ask for the payment. In the event of refusal or no response, you can go to a court to claim the overdue fees.
The second question is about a common off-the-plan problem, a “non-delivered tapu.”
“Merhaba… I am wondering if you could answer a question for me please. I bought a house five years ago off the plan. We have been using the house for the last four years now. There were to be 12 other houses on the site. Five are finished. The rest, half finished but are rented out by the builder. We never got our tapu [title deed] and the solicitor and builder are saying that he does not have the money to finish the rest of the houses and until he does the land owner will not release any tapus. I was under the impression that we should have been given our tapu on the signing of the contracts regardless of the agreement between landowner and builder. Can you clarify this situation for me please? Regards, Michelle.”
Dear Michelle, before I start I have to repeat a fact that is of the utmost importance for foreign buyers in Turkey. According to Turkish Civil Code Article 705, the transfer of property can only be done by transferring the title of an immovable property to a buyer in the Land Registry Office before an authorized officer under official records. There is no other way to transfer the title of an immovable property. A sales agreement does not constitute a valid document for the transfer of the title of an immovable property.
Although this is an absolute fact known to everybody in the real estate sector, foreign buyers are advised to make a sales agreement and the buyers in some cases do face problems of non-delivered title deeds.
It is very correct that you should not be affected by a problem between the land owner and the builder, but no legal protection for you was established for you to avoid this.
A “promise-to-sell agreement” could have been a good way to avoid the problem of a non-delivered tapu (title deed). A promise-to-sell agreement is only valid if it has been made before a notary public under Turkish law. In addition it would really only be effective when it is registered with the Turkish Land Registry Office as an annotation. The registration of the annotation is not made automatically and the beneficiary of the promise-to-sell agreement should apply to the Land Registry Office for the registration of the promise-to-sell agreement. This will disable the seller from transferring the title of the property to third parties.
You should immediately apply to a court requesting your tapu before it is too late.
Berk Cektir http://www.berkcektir.av.tr/ The information provided here is intended to give basic legal information. You should get legal assistance from a licensed attorney at law while conducting legal transactions and not just rely on the information in this corner. http://www.todayszaman.com/ This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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