Rent and Repairs Before a Turkish Apartment Legacy Is Delivered: Article 518 Accounts

Short answer: Civil Code Article 518 requires a specified legacy asset to be delivered in its condition when succession opens and allocates its benefits and risks to the legatee from that time. For expenses incurred and damage caused afterwards, the person charged with performance has the rights and obligations of a person managing another’s affairs without mandate. A Turkish apartment legacy therefore needs an account of income, preservation costs and damage for the period before delivery. Title transfer alone does not resolve that account.

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1. Identify the accounting period between death and delivery

A person left a particular apartment under a will can face a period in which the estate still administers the property while the legacy awaits performance. During that period, rent is collected, maintenance continues and physical condition can change. Civil Code Article 518 addresses the consequences attached to the specified asset rather than leaving them entirely to informal family arrangements.

First establish that the testamentary provision creates an effective specific legacy of the relevant interest. A gift of ownership, a usufruct and appointment to a fraction of the estate are different rights. This article concerns the Article 518 account for a specified asset; it does not assume that every person named in a will owns the whole apartment or receives every receipt connected with it.

Fix the opening-of-succession date and the dates of actual control, registration and physical delivery. Those dates can differ. Identify who managed the property during each interval and on what authority. The account should follow those intervals, allowing each income receipt, expense and alleged damage to be connected with the person responsible and the statutory rule relied upon.

2. Establish the apartment’s condition when succession opens

Article 518 requires the specified asset to be delivered in the condition existing at the opening of succession. This makes the starting condition legally important. Obtain dated photographs, inspection records, repair reports, tenancy inventories and available building-management records. A current photograph proves a present condition; it does not alone show whether the same condition existed at death.

Separate pre-existing defects from later deterioration. The legacy obligor’s duty under Article 518 should not be converted without analysis into a promise to supply a newly renovated apartment. Equally, a statement that the property was “always old” does not answer evidence of distinct damage after the relevant date. Identify the affected component, the earlier condition, the later change and its cause.

The legal interest also belongs in the baseline. Record the deceased’s ownership share and relevant rights affecting the property. An apartment subject to another person’s usufruct or a continuing tenancy presents a different benefit and delivery position from vacant unencumbered property. Explain those features before calculating income or alleging that the beneficiary should have enjoyed immediate exclusive occupation.

3. Apartment benefits pass from the opening of succession under Article 518

The article states that the benefits and risks of the specified asset pass to the legatee when succession opens. Rent generated by an apartment therefore requires attention even before the title-transfer process is finished. The account must identify what benefit arose from the particular asset and the period to which it belongs, rather than use registration as the only accounting date.

Distinguish rent accrued, rent actually received and amounts still owed by the tenant. A contractual payment schedule does not prove collection, while a later bank receipt can concern an earlier rental period. Match each entry to its legal character and covered period. Deposits, reimbursements and advance payments should remain separately identifiable because their treatment is not necessarily the same as earned rental income.

The allocation of benefits is also different from authority to issue binding instructions to the tenant. The legacy performance guide explains Article 600’s claim against the executor or heirs. Establish the person authorised to administer and receive payment before changing collection arrangements. A disputed beneficiary instruction should not create a second dispute over whether the tenant paid the proper recipient.

4. The statutory risk allocation does not excuse wrongful damage

Article 518’s allocation of risk must be read with its rule concerning damage caused by the person charged with performance after succession opens. These are distinct questions. A loss associated with the asset does not establish that the administrator caused it, and the statutory risk allocation does not eliminate a proven breach of the applicable duties of care.

Code of Obligations Article 527 imposes responsibility for negligence, assessed more leniently where the activity addresses the relevant person’s damage or danger of damage. Acting despite that person’s express or implied prohibition, where the prohibition is not contrary to law or morality, also brings responsibility for accidental loss. The manager escapes that latter responsibility by proving the accidental loss would have occurred even without the work.

For a damage claim, organise evidence of the condition, conduct, causal connection and loss. Record when the manager learned of the problem, what action was available, what was done and what followed. The legal analysis needs those facts. Neither the discovery of water damage nor the existence of a repair invoice alone establishes negligent administration or the recoverable amount.

5. Article 518 uses the rules on management without mandate for post-death expenses and damage

The second paragraph of Article 518 expressly connects the legacy obligor’s post-opening expenditure and damage to the rights and duties of management without mandate. The Turkish term is vekâletsiz iş görme. That reference should be applied to the issues it governs, rather than used to disregard the executor’s appointment or every other source of authority in the estate.

Article 526 requires a person managing another’s affairs without mandate to act in that person’s interests and presumed wishes. The expenditure review therefore asks what purpose the work served and why it was appropriate in the circumstances. The person paying a bill should explain the connection to the apartment and the beneficiary’s relevant interest instead of treating payment itself as complete justification.

Separate preservation from redesign for the manager’s preferences. The statutory framework requires evaluation of the work actually undertaken, the information available and the benefit or protection sought. A description such as “improvement” is not enough. Obtain the scope, timing, quotations, communications and payment documents that allow the work to be assessed under the applicable rule.

6. Article 529 governs necessary and useful expenditure in the beneficiary’s interest

Where the work is performed in the relevant person’s interest, Article 529 requires reimbursement with interest of expenditure necessary and useful in the circumstances. It also addresses obligations undertaken through the work and damage assessed by the judge. The provision is more precise than either a blanket right to deduct every bill or a blanket refusal because prior written permission was absent.

The same article protects a manager who exercised the required care even where the expected result did not occur. Successful completion is therefore not the only test. Investigate whether the work was justified when undertaken, whether the manager acted carefully and what obligation or expenditure actually arose. The later outcome remains evidence, but it should not replace the statutory assessment.

A repair schedule should separate the amount invoiced, amount paid, work performed and legal category claimed. Record tax, common charges and other expenditure individually rather than quietly including them in a renovation subtotal. Where interest is requested, identify its legal basis, relevant dates and applicable calculation; no fixed percentage should be inserted merely because the parties use a familiar historical rate.

The claim should also distinguish reimbursement from an outstanding contractor obligation. Article 529 addresses both expenditure and obligations undertaken, but the account must show who remains liable and whether the obligation has already been discharged. Otherwise, the same contractor cost can appear once as a cash deduction and again as an unpaid liability transferred to the beneficiary.

7. Work done for the manager’s own interest has a different reimbursement limit

Article 530 addresses work not performed in the other person’s interest. The person whose affairs were managed can claim the resulting benefits, but responsibility for the manager’s expenses and undertaken obligations is limited to the enrichment received. This is a different legal analysis from Article 529’s treatment of appropriate work in the beneficiary’s interest.

Identify the actual benefit retained in the apartment. The cost of work and the value added are not necessarily equal. Evidence should explain what was installed, whether it remains, whether it serves the property and how it affected value or avoided expenditure. A manager cannot establish the enrichment figure merely by presenting an expensive invoice selected without reference to the beneficiary’s interest.

Conversely, the beneficiary should not ignore a demonstrable retained benefit simply because relations with the manager deteriorated. State which part of the claimed expenditure produced enrichment and which part did not. This permits a legally grounded adjustment without converting the entire account into a moral assessment of the family relationship.

8. Approval, instructions and prohibitions must be documented

Article 531 provides that mandate rules apply where the person concerned approves the work. The existence and scope of approval can therefore affect the legal framework. Preserve the actual communication: what work was approved, what budget or limitation was stated and whether the approval covered the finished activity. Agreement to an inspection is not necessarily approval of every later alteration.

A claimed prohibition also requires accurate evidence because Article 527 attaches consequences to acting despite a legally effective express or implied prohibition. Identify who gave the instruction and that person’s authority. Estate and beneficiary roles can be disputed, and a message from one relative should not automatically be treated as the legally relevant instruction for everyone concerned.

The safest accounting record distinguishes agreed work, disputed work and urgent action taken before communication was possible. Explain the factual reason for the last category. An emergency label is not a substitute for the circumstances showing why intervention was needed, just as the absence of a reply does not automatically establish unlimited approval.

9. Preserve technical evidence before conditions change again

Repair work can remove the evidence of the original problem. Keep pre-work photographs, diagnosis, measurements where relevant, the contractor’s scope and records of materials removed. The purpose is to establish the condition and necessity of the work, not to create a staged presentation after the dispute has arisen. Dates and property identifiers should remain consistent across the record.

Where loss is alleged, separate reasonable repair work from an upgrade or redesign. A cost estimate should identify the remedial task and the condition it addresses. A single figure for complete refurbishment can conceal work unrelated to the alleged damage. Technical evidence should assist the legal questions of cause, necessity and amount rather than decide who is entitled under the will.

The income file needs comparable precision. Connect the lease, receipt and relevant period, and preserve messages instructing payment to a particular account. Identify receipts retained, sums transferred and any reimbursement already made. An account based on traceable entries allows disputes over entitlement to be resolved without first having to reconstruct the underlying arithmetic.

10. Present benefits, permitted expenditure and damage as distinct claims

The Article 518 account should show benefits attributable to the asset, expense claims under the relevant management rule and any damages allegation separately. Only after legal classification should the proposed net result be calculated. Combining all three into one unexplained “amount owed” makes it difficult to identify whether the disagreement concerns entitlement, evidence or arithmetic.

Preserve alternative calculations for genuinely disputed entries. State the result if a particular expense qualifies under Article 529, if only enrichment is recoverable under Article 530 or if the claim lacks proof. These are documented legal positions, not invented outcomes. The account should identify the supporting evidence and the issue requiring agreement or judicial determination.

Keep other estate obligations outside the account unless a legal basis connects them to it. A beneficiary’s separate debt to an heir, executor remuneration and general administration expenses are not automatically deductions from the apartment’s benefits. Each proposed adjustment needs its own source and authority. This also prevents an agreement over delivery from silently resolving unrelated disputes.

11. Physical handover and title transfer should preserve the unresolved account

A delivery record should identify the apartment, keys, documents, occupancy, condition and the date control changes. It should also state whether income and expense issues have been settled or remain open. Accepting keys does not supply an itemised account of earlier rent, while a broad release can reach further than the beneficiary intended. Read the settlement language before signing.

Article 600’s performance claim and Article 602’s limitation rule require separate attention from the classification of the expense or damages claim. Do not apply a single deadline to every entry merely because it arose during the inheritance process. Identify the legal basis of each request and the events relevant to maturity, knowledge or another statutory starting point.

After handover, agree how later-discovered receipts or unpaid contractor claims will be documented. Close the physical-delivery record without concealing unresolved financial items. The beneficiary should retain the account and evidence even after registration so that a later demand can be compared with what was actually transferred, paid or released.

12. A foreign beneficiary can organise the evidence around the statutory questions

MÖHUK Article 20 expressly applies Turkish law to Turkish immovable succession and separately addresses other succession connections. Supply the complete will, relevant opening and service records, property identification and the management chronology. Foreign execution of the will does not eliminate the need to establish the applicable rules for the Turkish apartment and its legacy account.

The power of attorney guide for overseas clients explains preparation of representation. Instructions should distinguish obtaining records, requesting payment, accepting delivery and settling disputed amounts. The representative needs to know which financial items are agreed and which require the beneficiary’s decision before a release or alternative performance is accepted.

The useful end product is a documented handover and a legally classified account for the pre-delivery period. Article 518 establishes the asset-related starting point, while the management-without-mandate rules determine the treatment of expenditure and damage. Applying those provisions to dated records allows the apartment transfer and the financial consequences of its interim administration to be resolved with precision.

Frequently asked questions

Does the Article 518 account begin only when title is registered?

The article allocates benefits and risks from the opening of succession. Registration and delivery dates remain relevant to implementation, but they should not automatically replace that statutory starting point for the specified asset’s account.

Must the apartment be delivered fully renovated?

Article 518 refers to its condition when succession opens. Establish that condition and any later change. The duty should not be treated as an automatic promise of refurbishment, while separately proven post-opening damage requires analysis.

Can the legatee claim rent collected before delivery?

Article 518’s allocation of benefits is relevant to that claim. Identify the precise legacy, rental period, actual receipts and lawful adjustments. The existence of a rent schedule alone does not establish how much a particular person collected.

Can every repair invoice be deducted from the rent?

No automatic deduction follows from an invoice. Article 518 refers post-opening expenses to management-without-mandate rules. Examine the work’s purpose, necessity, usefulness, evidence and applicable reimbursement rule before calculating the account.

What if careful repair work did not achieve the expected result?

Article 529 can apply despite failure of the expected result where the manager exercised the required care. The circumstances at the time of work and the actual expense or obligation still need to be established.

What if the work mainly served the manager’s own preferences?

Article 530 provides a different analysis for work not performed in the beneficiary’s interest. The beneficiary can claim resulting benefits, while expense and obligation responsibility is limited to enrichment. Cost alone does not establish that enrichment.

Does the beneficiary’s approval change the rules?

Article 531 directs approved work to mandate rules. Preserve the communication and its scope. Approval of a limited task should not be assumed to cover an unrelated or larger programme of works.

Does passing risk to the legatee excuse the manager’s negligence?

No such blanket conclusion follows. Article 518 separately addresses damage caused after succession opens, and Article 527 governs relevant responsibility. Identify the conduct, causal link and loss rather than confuse risk allocation with immunity.

Should I sign a general release when accepting the keys?

Examine whether the release also settles rent, repair costs, damage or unrelated estate rights. The handover document should identify settled and reserved issues so that physical delivery does not obscure the financial position.

Is every claim in this account subject to the same deadline?

Do not assume one period covers all items. The legacy performance claim, expense reimbursement and damages request must be classified separately. Calculate the applicable time rules from the relevant legal basis and dated evidence.