Buying a Tenanted Property in Turkey: Legal Checks Before Completion

Short answer

Buying a tenanted property in Turkey normally makes the buyer the landlord under the existing lease; it does not automatically remove the tenant. Article 310 of the Turkish Code of Obligations establishes that starting point. A buyer who genuinely needs the premises for a qualifying personal or family use must satisfy the separate conditions in Article 351. Buying for a higher rental return is not the same legal ground. Assess the actual tenancy, financial records and possession arrangements before completion, rather than assuming that a new title deed produces an empty apartment.

Purchase checklist at a glance

1. Define the transaction you are buying

An occupied apartment is not necessarily a defective investment. It can provide continuity of rental income and a documented occupancy history. The difficulty arises when the buyer prices an empty home but acquires a property subject to an ongoing lease. The legal and financial review should therefore begin with the intended use: continuing the existing tenancy, moving into the apartment, housing a qualifying family member, or carrying out works that require a separate legal assessment.

Record that purpose in your instructions to the lawyer and in negotiations with the seller. An investment spreadsheet should not assume an immediate increase to the agent’s suggested market rent. A relocation plan should not assume that the tenant will leave merely because the sale date appears in a reservation document. Ask the seller to identify precisely which obligation they accept: transferring ownership, transferring a rental business with specified records, or delivering actual vacant possession by an agreed stage.

This article concerns the tenancy issues at the purchase stage. For the separate title and registry examination, consult the English guide to property and land-registry matters. Neither review replaces the other.

2. What happens to the existing lease?

Under Article 310 of Law No. 6098, a change of ownership after the lease is established makes the new owner a party to that lease. The relevant starting point is continuity, not the creation of a brand-new tenancy on whatever terms the buyer prefers. The statutory provision reserves the rules concerning expropriation, which involve a different situation.

Consequently, a sale contract between the owner and purchaser cannot by itself strip the tenant of rights under the tenancy. Nor does the absence of a tenancy annotation on the title automatically establish that the apartment is unlet. A registry search and an occupancy enquiry have to be conducted together. The buyer should request the full lease, any amendments, renewal communications and documents affecting its duration or performance.

Where the seller says that there is no written lease, investigate the underlying facts rather than treating the property as vacant. Payment records, messages, possession, utility arrangements and the parties’ conduct can be relevant to proving the relationship. The absence of a signed document changes the evidence problem; it does not reliably answer whether an enforceable tenancy exists.

3. Verify the occupancy evidence instead of relying on the advertisement

A useful occupancy schedule records the named tenant, the actual occupants, the apartment’s independent-unit number, the lease commencement date, the stated term and the address used for notices. Compare those details with the title information and the property physically inspected. In a development with several similar units, a mismatch between an apartment door number and the registered independent unit deserves immediate attention.

Ask whether there are subletting arrangements, a company occupying through an employee, a family-home issue, or a person who claims a right different from the seller’s description. Do not ask an agent to resolve a disputed legal status by obtaining a hurried signature. The lawyer should examine the documents and determine which facts require confirmation from the tenant or another source.

Preserve communications in their original form. A screenshot showing one message about moving out is weaker than a complete, dated exchange showing who wrote it and in what context. Any contact with the tenant should remain factual and non-coercive. Explain the proposed ownership change, request verification of the lease records through appropriate channels, and avoid statements that suggest the sale has already terminated the tenancy.

4. Check rent, arrears and prepaid amounts

Prepare a rental ledger that separates the contractual amount, the amount actually paid, the periods covered and any disputed balance. A payment received in September might relate to August, several months in advance, or a negotiated settlement of an older debt. Its date alone does not establish which accounting period it belongs to. Compare bank references with receipts and correspondence rather than accepting a single total supplied by the seller.

The purchase documents should allocate rent around completion and explain how prepaid rent will be credited between buyer and seller. Historic arrears need their own legal assessment, including who holds the claim and whether an assignment is required. Do not assume that every debt previously owed to the seller can automatically be collected in the buyer’s name after the title transfer.

Rent-review questions are distinct from ownership transfer. Article 344 contains the statutory framework for residential and roofed workplace rent determinations, including different treatment of ordinary renewals and the longer-term review addressed in that article. The buyer cannot simply replace the existing amount with a market quotation because the purchase price was high. Build the investment decision around the legally supportable position and identify any rent litigation already pending.

5. Deal expressly with the tenant’s security deposit

Article 342 regulates security in residential and roofed workplace leases. Where contractual security is required, it cannot exceed three months’ rent. The article also contains a bank-holding and release mechanism for money or negotiable instruments provided as security. A purchaser should identify whether the deposit was actually placed in that arrangement or paid directly to the seller, and obtain the available proof.

At completion, record the deposit amount, currency, receipt date, account details where applicable and the obligations accepted by each party. A clause saying merely that the buyer has inspected the property does not settle the deposit issue. Neither does the seller’s oral assurance that the deposit was used to pay a final utility invoice. The underlying deduction must be identified and supported.

The allocation between buyer and seller must also be distinguished from the tenant’s rights. A private settlement between the two owners is not a safe basis for telling the tenant that their security has vanished. Before agreeing any release or deduction, establish the legal recipient, the contractual basis and the evidence. The practical objective is a traceable chain rather than a dispute between three parties at the end of the tenancy.

6. Make vacant possession a real purchase condition

When the buyer needs an empty apartment, the transaction documents should address what happens if the tenant remains. Matters to negotiate include the stage at which vacancy must be demonstrated, inspection access, delivery of keys, treatment of belongings, any agreed retention of purchase money, and the consequences of failure. Those are drafting issues, not automatic protections supplied by the phrase “ready to move in”.

A seller’s undertaking to obtain vacancy gives the buyer a question to enforce against the seller. It does not necessarily create a right to evict the tenant. Keep those relationships separate. A purchaser who completes unconditionally and later discovers that the seller’s promise was unrealistic may face both a seller dispute and a continuing tenancy.

A written undertaking to vacate under Article 352(1) must be given after delivery of the premises and must identify a date for leaving. If the tenant does not leave on that date, the provision allows enforcement or a lawsuit within one month of that date, subject to any applicable statutory extension or suspension rules. A clause signed before the tenant receives the premises must not simply be treated as a compliant undertaking. Verify the original document, signature, delivery chronology and stated date; do not create or accept a blank or backdated instrument. A separate consensual surrender must also reflect a genuine agreement and a properly documented handover.

7. Understand the new owner’s need-based route

Article 351 addresses a new owner’s genuine need to use the premises for themselves, their spouse, descendants, ascendants or other persons whom the law obliges them to support. Under the acquisition-based route, the statutory text requires written notification to the tenant within one month of acquisition and permits an action after six months. It also provides an alternative route tied to an action within one month from expiry of the contractual term.

Six months is not a guaranteed eviction date. Article 351 distinguishes the acquisition-based route from proceedings tied to lease expiry. Record the acquisition, effective written notification and lease-expiry dates separately. A postal dispatch receipt must not be treated as proof that the required notification to the tenant has been completed.

Article 353 contains a separate extension rule: where the landlord gives written notice of an intention to sue no later than the applicable filing period, the period for bringing the action is extended by one rental year. Whether a particular notice meets that rule requires its contents and timing to be checked. Do not assume that an ownership announcement, rent-payment message or late letter automatically preserves a possession claim. See the Code of Obligations, Articles 351–353.

Evidence of need should match the stated purpose. A buyer relocating to Turkey should organise the documents supporting that plan; a buyer relying on a family member’s need should identify the qualifying relationship and the actual housing or workplace requirement. Purchasing solely to replace the current tenant with someone paying more does not become a need-based case by changing the wording of a letter.

Article 355 also places restrictions on reletting following need-based evacuation, including the three-year rule subject to a justified reason. It is therefore important to consider what will happen after possession, not just how to request it. A litigation position and an investment strategy should not contradict each other.

8. Use mediation and lawful proceedings, not self-help

Article 18/B of Law No. 6325 requires an application to mediation before lawsuits arising from a lease relationship, while expressly reserving the specified non-judgment enforcement eviction provisions under Law No. 2004. This exception should not be stretched into a statement that all tenancy disputes bypass mediation. Classify the particular claim and procedural route.

Article 18/A(15) of Law No. 6325 suspends limitation periods and stops forfeiture periods from running between the mediation-bureau application and the final record. Preserve both dates with the lease and notification records. This rule concerns the relevant legal time limits; mediation must not be used as a substitute for the separate written notification required by Article 351. It does not revive a period that had already expired before the application. The statutory text is available through the Ministry of Justice mediation legislation page.

Changing locks, cutting services, entering the tenant’s home without lawful authority or removing belongings is not an acceptable substitute for the required process. Ownership does not authorise those methods. Where continued occupation is disputed, use the appropriate legal procedure. The existing guide to tenancy enforcement for landlords abroad explains the broader post-purchase context, while the English mediation guide addresses participation from overseas.

9. Build a completion and handover file

Before the transfer, organise a dated set containing the title information, the entire lease, amendments, rent ledger, deposit evidence, notice history and any court or enforcement documents. Add the seller’s written disclosures about occupancy and the buyer’s decision on whether the purchase is subject to the tenant remaining. This makes it possible to identify which facts were known when the price and obligations were agreed.

After completion, document the ownership change and provide the tenant with verified payment instructions using an appropriate communication method. Bank-account changes should be confirmed carefully because a fraudulent message can divert rent. The handover between owners should identify who holds original documents, who receives payments already in transit, and how any accounting discrepancy will be resolved.

If the apartment is delivered vacant, record the physical condition, meters, keys and remaining items through a proper handover record. If the tenancy continues, do not manufacture a vacant-possession record simply because the sale has completed. The file should describe reality. Accurate records are more valuable than a standard form with every box marked as satisfactory.

10. Worked example: a relocation purchase with an existing tenant

Consider an illustrative buyer living in the United Kingdom who plans to move to an apartment in Mersin. The seller says the tenant will leave “soon”, but the proposed sale document contains no vacancy condition. The tenant’s lease has several months left to run, rent has been paid in advance, and the seller holds a security deposit personally.

The first decision is commercial as well as legal: should completion be conditional on a properly documented empty handover, or is the buyer willing to acquire the property with the tenant in place? The next tasks are to reconcile the prepaid rent, record the deposit arrangement and review the possible possession route against the acquisition and lease dates. None of those tasks is answered by the buyer’s flight booking.

If the buyer completes with the tenancy continuing, a new-owner need case must stand on its own legal and evidential basis. If the seller separately breached a clear vacancy promise, that issue is assessed against the seller under the transaction documents. The example is hypothetical and illustrates issue separation; it is not a reported case or a prediction of success.

11. Coordinate the purchase from abroad

Bakırcı & Keskin Law Office has offices in Istanbul and Mersin. The Mersin-based practice works throughout Türkiye with an Istanbul and Mersin focus, within the agreed mandate and the applicable jurisdiction, registry and procedural rules. The property’s location, not a marketing label, determines which local authority or court is relevant. An English consultation does not change the language requirements for official Turkish documents.

A first review can be organised around readable copies of the proposed purchase terms, title information and tenancy records. Do not send original documents until their purpose and delivery arrangements are agreed. Where representation is required, the scope of the power of attorney should match the transaction; see the guide to authorising a Turkish lawyer from abroad.

The review should end with a clear list of unresolved issues, documents still needed and decisions required before payment or signature. It should not end with a guarantee of an eviction date. The buyer can then evaluate whether the property still meets the intended investment or relocation purpose.

Before paying to reserve the apartment, review the separate guide to property reservation deposits and cancellation in Turkey. A vacancy condition and the treatment of an advance payment should be addressed together in the purchase documents.

Frequently asked questions

Does buying the apartment cancel the tenant’s lease?

No. Article 310 makes the new owner a party to the existing lease. A lawful ground and the correct procedure are needed to end it.

Can I demand a new lease at a higher rent immediately?

The sale does not itself give that right. The existing terms and the rent-determination provisions, including Article 344, must be assessed.

Is a property unlet if the title deed contains no tenancy annotation?

No. Check actual occupation and the tenancy evidence separately. A registry entry is not a complete substitute for that enquiry.

Does Article 351 guarantee possession six months after purchase?

No. Its six-month reference relates to the acquisition-based court route. The outcome and duration of proceedings are separate matters.

Should the seller transfer the tenant’s deposit to me informally?

Use a documented arrangement identifying the amount, existing holding method, agreed adjustment and responsibilities. The tenant’s rights must be considered independently.

Can I rely on a promise made only by the estate agent?

Do not treat that promise as proof of authority or as an obligation accepted by the seller or tenant. Verify who undertook what in the actual documents.

Is mediation required for every eviction route?

The statute contains a specific exception for the identified non-judgment enforcement provisions. The actual claim must be classified rather than generalising the exception.

Can the office review a property outside Istanbul and Mersin?

Yes. The Mersin-based practice coordinates work throughout Türkiye through its Istanbul and Mersin offices within the agreed scope. Necessary steps before the competent local authority are identified for the individual transaction.

Legal sources and scope

The principal statutory references are Turkish Code of Obligations No. 6098, Articles 310, 342, 344 and 350–355, and Mediation Law No. 6325, Article 18/B. The Presidency’s official property-acquisition guidance addresses the separate foreign-acquisition framework. This is general information about Turkish law, not an opinion on a particular lease. Source review date: 7 September 2026.