Unpaid Sea Freight and Charter Hire in Turkey: The One-Year Limitation Period
An unpaid sea-freight invoice does not automatically carry the ordinary ten-year contractual limitation period. Article 1246 of the Turkish Commercial Code provides a one-year limitation period for claims arising from ship-lease, time-charter and freight contracts, bills of lading and their issuance, while expressly reserving Article 1188. The period begins when the particular claim becomes due. Identifying the debt and its due date is therefore more important than the date on which a creditor finally refers an unpaid account to lawyers.
Have a general question about this article? Ask anonymously
This guide addresses overseas shipowners, carriers, charterers and commercial creditors pursuing Turkey-linked receivables. Its central subject is a claim for payment of freight or hire, not a cargo owner’s compensation claim for damaged or missing goods. The distinction matters because Article 1188 regulates a separate rights-extinguishing period. The Turkish Commercial Code, Law No. 6102, and the Turkish Code of Obligations, Law No. 6098, must be read with the actual contract and applicable international rules.
1. Determine whether Article 1246 governs the receivable
Article 1246(1) identifies several maritime contractual sources. They include a ship lease, a time charter, a freight contract, a bill of lading and the issuance of that document. A creditor must identify the actual relationship generating its claim. The provision is not a general rule that every invoice associated with a port, ship or international shipment expires after one year.
A terminal-services invoice, an overseas seller’s purchase-price claim and a separate forwarding agreement require their own classification. The same commercial transaction can contain several contracts and several creditors. Calling an account “shipping charges” does not establish that every item falls within Article 1246, and placing several items on one invoice does not make their legal sources identical.
Under Article 8 of Law No. 5718 (MÖHUK), limitation is governed by the law applicable to the substance of the legal transaction or relationship. A Turkish debtor or proceedings in a Turkish court do not, by themselves, make Article 1246 the applicable limitation rule. Establish the governing substantive law separately from jurisdiction. Our guide to international carriage and MÖHUK Article 29 addresses that preliminary enquiry. The rules below explain the Turkish statutory position where it applies.
2. Maturity, not the collection campaign, starts the period
Article 1246(2) starts the limitation period when the claim becomes due. Identify the event or contractual term which makes payment demandable. A debt acknowledged as commercially outstanding can still have a disputed maturity date; the legal calculation must resolve that issue rather than select the latest date appearing in the correspondence.
Keep the original invoice, agreed payment provisions and evidence of the relevant performance event. Reissuing an invoice, moving the balance to a new account statement or forwarding it to a collection department should not be assumed to create a new underlying debt or restart limitation. Any asserted change needs its own legal basis and supporting agreement.
The same discipline applies to instalments. Separate amounts which became due on different dates instead of assigning the closing date of the entire commercial relationship to every unpaid item. A consolidated spreadsheet is useful administration, but it cannot replace the contractual and statutory analysis for each receivable.
3. Freight maturity and the person owing freight are different questions
Article 1197 provides that freight becomes due when delivery of the goods is requested and, in any event, by the end of the discharge period. The relevant contract and any legally effective payment terms must also be examined. An invoice sent before arrival is not, on its own, proof that the statutory delivery-related event has occurred.
Article 1200 identifies the carriage-contracting party, the taşıtan, as the freight debtor. Article 1203 separately addresses the duties of a third-party consignee requesting delivery under the relevant transport instrument. Establish who owes the particular sum before relying on a communication as an acknowledgment by the debtor.
The freight-payment and consignee-liability guide explains those allocation questions. Payment by a buyer to its seller and payment of freight to the carrier are not interchangeable evidence. Equally, a local agent’s involvement in collection does not automatically make that agent the creditor in its own name.
4. Time-charter hire needs an instalment-by-instalment review
Article 1136(1) provides for payment of time-charter remuneration monthly in advance from the day the vessel’s commercial management is actually left to the charterer. The contract, actual handover and any applicable variation must be checked. For a claim governed by Article 1246, each matured hire item needs an identified starting point.
Do not assume that all hire becomes subject to limitation only when the vessel is returned. Nor should a later adjustment automatically be treated as a new maturity date for every earlier instalment. Distinguish the initial payment obligation, disputed deductions and any genuinely separate balancing claim.
Keep time-charter hire separate from freight calculated on a time basis under a freight contract. Commercial shorthand can obscure different legal arrangements. The article providing the payment obligation, the identity of the payer and the agreed accounting period should be visible in the creditor’s file.
Establish the payable hire before calculating limitation
The monthly advance-payment rule must be read with Article 1136(2). That paragraph excludes hire for a period in which the vessel is not commercially usable, subject to its condition that the vessel’s idle period has exceeded twenty-four hours. Record the period of non-usability, its cause and the governing charter terms before treating the full invoice as a payable debt. This concerns the existence and amount of hire; it is not itself a suspension or interruption of limitation. An off-hire dispute does not automatically postpone the due dates of other, genuinely payable instalments. Keep the disputed reduction and the maturity of each remaining item separate.
5. Loading demurrage has its own payment trigger
Article 1155(5) makes loading-port demurrage payable at the end of the time unit used to calculate the demurrage period and excludes a demand for an unused time unit. A limitation analysis for that receivable therefore requires the agreed unit and the relevant waiting record, not merely the date of a final invoice issued after the voyage.
The loading laytime and demurrage guide explains the calculation and debtor rules. Those issues should be resolved before a time-bar schedule is prepared. A contested operational start can affect both the amount owed and the maturity analysis.
Container-equipment detention and terminal storage are not automatically the same claim as voyage-charter demurrage. Identify the service, contractual source and actual debtor. A one-year conclusion based only on the English word demurrage risks applying the wrong rule to a different receivable.
6. Article 1246 and Article 1188 must not be merged
Article 1246 is framed as a limitation provision, zamanaşımı, and expressly preserves Article 1188. The latter concerns compensation against the carrier for cargo loss, damage or late delivery and is framed as a rights-extinguishing period, hak düşürücü süre. The shared reference to one year does not make their triggers and legal consequences identical.
For ordinary limitation, Article 161 of the Code of Obligations states that the judge cannot take limitation into account of its own motion unless it is raised. That must not be paraphrased as saying that a creditor can ignore limitation or that every late action is necessarily successful. The defendant’s procedural position and the applicable rule remain material.
Our cargo-compensation time-bar guide covers Article 1188 separately. Its recourse provisions, starting events and extension mechanism should not automatically be transplanted into a freight creditor’s Article 1246 calculation.
7. A reminder and a statutory interruption are different events
Article 154 of the Code of Obligations identifies events interrupting limitation. These include acknowledgment by the debtor, with the statutory examples of interest payment, partial performance, provision of a pledge or nomination of a surety. It also identifies specified court, arbitration, enforcement and bankruptcy steps taken by the creditor.
An ordinary reminder sent by the creditor is not, merely because it demands payment, one of the debtor-acknowledgment events. A message stating that an invoice is being checked should be read for its actual meaning; it should not automatically be treated as an unequivocal admission of the entire balance.
Preserve the original communication, attachments and the sender’s authority. An agent’s operational acknowledgment of receipt and an authorized acknowledgment of debt are different propositions. The general limitation-interruption guide examines those distinctions in more detail; this article applies them to the separately classified maritime receivable.
8. Partial payment must be connected to the particular debt
A bank transfer should be matched to its remittance advice, invoice references and the parties’ allocation records. In a running account containing several voyages or services, a payment cannot simply be attributed to whichever old item most benefits the proposed limitation calculation. Establish what was paid and what was acknowledged.
Where only part of an account is admitted and the remainder is expressly disputed, preserve that qualification. Do not rewrite a limited admission into acceptance of every invoice. Conversely, do not ignore an actual acknowledgment merely because it was made during a wider disagreement.
Article 156 provides for a new period after interruption and contains a separate rule for acknowledgment in a written instrument or determination by a court or arbitrator. Its special ten-year consequence should not be assigned to every email or payment receipt without checking the statutory requirements. Record the legal classification of the event, not just its date.
9. Identify the effective procedural act against the relevant debtor
Article 154 includes bringing the specified claim before a court or arbitrator, commencing enforcement and applying in bankruptcy within its terms. The actual step, competent forum and parties require examination. A draft pleading, a lawyer’s internal file opening and a threat to start enforcement are not the same as the completed procedural act.
Where several companies use the same trading brand, identify the contracting legal person before filing. The carrier-identity guide illustrates why a logo or operational contact does not settle that question. The debtor side requires the same care over company names, capacities and representative authority.
Retain the filing or commencement record and check its effect in the actual proceeding. This guide does not guarantee that an application to an inappropriate body, against an unrelated person or concerning a different claim preserves the intended receivable. The procedural record must match the debt being protected.
10. Do not import a cargo time-extension agreement into every freight debt
Article 6 of the Commercial Code states that the limitation periods prescribed by laws containing commercial provisions cannot be altered by agreement unless the law provides otherwise. A creditor should therefore not assume that a general clause giving all parties more time overrides Article 1246.
Article 1188(4) provides a particular post-event extension mechanism for the claims governed there. Its existence does not itself create an equivalent contractual extension power for every maritime receivable. Identify the statutory exception relied upon before recording a new agreed deadline as effective.
A settlement, acknowledgment or rescheduling agreement can raise further questions about the obligation and limitation. Read its exact legal effect rather than using the label standstill as a universal answer. A request for an extension, unanswered by the relevant debtor, is not proof of a concluded agreement in any event.
11. Mandatory mediation pauses time where its statutory rules apply
A Turkish commercial payment claim falling within Article 5/A must be assessed for pre-action mediation. Article 18/A(15) of Mediation Law No. 6325 suspends limitation and stops rights-extinguishing periods from running between application to the mediation bureau and preparation of the final record.
This protected interval is different from interruption by an event under Article 154. Do not automatically give the creditor a fresh one-year period after unsuccessful mediation. Keep the application date, final-record date and the calculation of the remaining time together. Ordinary negotiations outside the statutory process should not be treated as the same event.
Article 18/A(18) excludes the mandatory-mediation provisions in the situations it specifies, including an arbitration agreement. Establish the agreement’s validity and application before choosing the procedural route. Neither an unnecessary application nor a late application should be assumed to revive a claim or protect every possible defendant.
Voluntary mediation has a different starting point
Absence of a mandatory-mediation requirement does not mean that a properly commenced voluntary mediation has no effect on time. Article 16 of Law No. 6325 excludes the period between commencement and termination of that mediation from limitation and rights-extinguishing calculations. Before proceedings, commencement requires the invitation to the first meeting and the agreement between the parties and mediator to continue, documented in a record under paragraph 1. A unilateral proposal to negotiate is not automatically that event. Apply the correct starting mechanism rather than importing the mandatory bureau-application date into every voluntary process.
Do not use protected mediation admissions as ordinary debt evidence
Article 5 of Law No. 6325 restricts reliance in court or arbitration on mediation invitations, settlement proposals, admissions made during mediation and documents prepared solely for that process. Do not treat an alleged admission within protected mediation discussions as an ordinary correspondence acknowledgment without addressing that restriction. Paragraph 3 preserves disclosure to the extent required by law or necessary to implement or enforce the mediated agreement. Under paragraph 5, independently admissible evidence does not become inadmissible merely because it was also presented in mediation. Keep pre-existing invoices and payment records separate from protected negotiation material.
12. Build a receivable-specific deadline register
A useful register explains the legal reason for each date. Separate the original maturity from later acknowledgments, procedural acts and mediation intervals. Keep a disputed date visibly disputed rather than replacing it with a later, more convenient assumption.
| Record | Evidence to retain | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Source of the claim | Complete contract, bill and relevant amendments | Determine whether Article 1246 applies |
| Debtor and capacity | Legal identity and contracting or representative records | Direct the claim to the relevant party |
| Maturity | Payment terms, delivery request or hire handover and instalment records | Identify the starting event |
| Interruption | Acknowledgment, payment allocation or procedural filing | Assess the actual Article 154 event |
| Mediation | Bureau application and final record | Calculate the excluded statutory interval |
| Next action | Confirmed instruction and competent forum | Take the required step before the calculated deadline |
For overseas instructions, provide the earliest unpaid item first, together with the full agreement and material communications. A lengthy invoice bundle without an allocation or due-date explanation can hide the most urgent receivable. Identify any existing court, enforcement, arbitration or mediation file and provide its actual records.
Separate limitation from security. The existence of cargo, a guarantee or a retention dispute does not itself establish that the necessary step to preserve the payment claim has been taken. Likewise, security wording should not be assumed to admit the full debt without reading the instrument.
Frequently asked questions
Does an unpaid sea-freight invoice always have a ten-year collection period?
No. Article 1246 provides a one-year limitation period for the maritime claims within its scope. Classify the actual contract and receivable before using a general contractual period.
When does the Article 1246 period begin?
Paragraph 2 starts it when the claim becomes due. The latest reminder or referral to a collection department is not automatically the maturity date.
Do all time-charter hire instalments necessarily wait until redelivery?
No. Review the matured instalments individually against the contract and Article 1136 payment framework. Do not assign the end of the entire relationship to every earlier payment.
Is Article 1246 identical to the cargo-damage rule in Article 1188?
No. Article 1246 expressly reserves Article 1188. The limitation provision and the separate rights-extinguishing cargo-compensation rule require their own claim and starting-point analysis.
Does another demand letter necessarily interrupt limitation?
No. A creditor’s reminder alone should not be treated as the debtor’s acknowledgment or a completed procedural act under Article 154.
Can partial payment matter?
Article 154 identifies partial performance among the relevant acknowledgment events. Connect the payment, debtor and allocation to the particular claim being assessed.
Can the parties simply change every commercial limitation period by contract?
Article 6 restricts such changes unless the law provides otherwise. An exception for a different claim cannot automatically be imported into Article 1246.
Does mandatory mediation automatically restart a fresh year?
No. Where Article 18/A(15) applies, the protected interval is excluded from the running of time. Calculate the remaining period using the actual application and final record.
Can a court apply ordinary limitation of its own motion?
Article 161 states that the judge cannot do so unless limitation is raised. This must be distinguished from the treatment of a separate rights-extinguishing period.
Which documents are essential for an overseas freight creditor?
The complete carriage or charter agreement, invoice and payment schedule, maturity evidence, acknowledgments, payment allocations and records of existing proceedings or mediation.
Primary legal references
Turkish Commercial Code No. 6102: Articles 5/A, 6, 1136, 1155, 1188, 1197, 1200, 1203 and 1246. Turkish Code of Obligations No. 6098: Articles 154, 156 and 161. Law No. 5718 (MÖHUK), Article 8: the law governing limitation. Ministry of Justice publication of Mediation Law No. 6325: Articles 5, 16 and 18/A(15) and (18). Official statutory wording is also available in the Ministry’s Commercial Code reproduction, Article 1246 on PDF pages 249–250. The Turkish legislation and the claim’s applicable law govern over this English explanation.
Ask about a Turkey-linked freight receivable
State the type of contract, earliest unpaid due date and current collection stage. Do not send confidential invoices or bank records through the initial form, and do not assume an enquiry extends a deadline.
Istanbul and Mersin offices
Bakırcı & Keskin Law Office is Mersin-based and works throughout Türkiye with an Istanbul and Mersin focus.
Istanbul — Polaris Plaza
Maslak Ahi Evran Caddesi, Polaris Plaza No:21, Floor 9, 34475 Sarıyer/İstanbul.
Mersin — Profit İş Merkezi
İhsaniye Mahallesi, 4903. Sokak, Profit İş Merkezi No:23, Floor 3, Office 14, 33070 Akdeniz/Mersin.
Call +90 552 224 43 66. An enquiry does not establish representation or suspend a legal deadline.
Contact regarding a legal matter
In your first message, you may briefly state the subject, your country or city, and any relevant notification or recent procedural date. Please do not send identity numbers, medical data, or personal documents. Messaging alone does not constitute legal advice or create a lawyer–client relationship.
Discover more from Bakırcı & Keskin Hukuk Bürosu
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.