Turkish Insurance Claims: Recovering Surveyor, Expert and Evidence Costs Under TCC Article 1426

The exact Article 1426 duty

Article 1426(1) of Law No. 6102 imposes a specific expense-payment duty on the insurer. The provision concerns reasonable expenditure incurred by the policyholder, insured or beneficiary to determine the risk or the scope of the insurer’s obligation to pay indemnity or an insured benefit. The expense must be connected with that statutory purpose. A business cost does not become payable merely because it was incurred after an insured event.

The provision expressly includes reasonable expenditure that proves unproductive. The relevant assessment therefore cannot consist only of asking whether the report ultimately supported the claimant’s original valuation. Work that genuinely investigated a disputed cause or quantum can have a legitimate purpose even when the result is adverse to the claimant. Its scope, price and justification at the time of instruction must still be established.

Article 1452(3) protects Article 1426 against contractual changes detrimental to the policyholder, insured or beneficiary. A general policy condition stating that independent reports are always purchased at the customer’s own expense does not, by that wording alone, displace the statutory rule. The insurer remains entitled to dispute whether a particular expenditure was reasonable and fell within Article 1426. Mandatory protection and proof of an individual expense are different questions.

Paragraph 2 expressly makes Article 1462 applicable by analogy in underinsurance cases. That cross-reference must appear in the claim analysis rather than being ignored because the disputed invoice concerns an expert instead of replacement property.

Identify the claimant before requesting reimbursement

The policyholder, insured person and beneficiary are not necessarily the same individual or company. A policy may have been purchased by a property manager for an owner, by a company for an insured business interest, or by a contracting party for another person’s benefit. Read the schedule and endorsements to establish the legal roles instead of inferring them from the bank account that paid the premium.

Next identify who commissioned the report, who was invoiced, who paid and in whose interest the investigation was conducted. A shareholder who funds a company’s expert bill is not automatically the insured under the company’s policy. Conversely, payment arranged through an authorised representative does not make the representative the holder of the substantive insurance claim. Authority records and accounting entries should explain the relationship.

Preserve the engagement letter, invoice, proof of payment and any reimbursement arrangement between the parties. Where an invoice remains unpaid, state that position accurately and identify the legal obligation incurred; do not describe an unpaid invoice as a completed bank transfer. The request should explain the expense and its legal basis without concealing who ultimately bore or remains liable for the charge.

A broker’s coordination email is useful evidence but does not itself establish that the broker is the insured or beneficiary. Similarly, an adjuster’s report does not establish the expert’s authority to settle the claimant’s rights. Separate technical instruction, legal representation and authority to accept payment.

Evaluate the work and its reasonable cost

Technical inspections, engineering measurements, laboratory analysis and stock valuations should be assessed by their actual purpose. A report concerning the cause and extent of physical damage is different from a general business valuation commissioned for a sale. The report should identify the relevant insured interest, the questions investigated, the method used, the evidence examined and the limits of the conclusions.

Reasonableness concerns both scope and amount. Record why the examination was needed, whether equivalent evidence was available, the professional qualification required and why the timing mattered. An emergency inspection before evidence disappears can have a different justification from a second report repeating measurements already accepted by both sides. Neither the invoice label nor the expert’s job title decides the issue alone.

Require an itemised account of site visits, testing, measurements, travel and report preparation. A single unexplained professional fee makes it difficult to assess proportionality. Where the invoice includes several properties, unrelated projects or advice on business strategy, identify the portion connected with the insured event. Present the allocation transparently rather than asking the insurer to fund the entire mixed engagement.

An insurer-appointed adjuster and a claimant-appointed expert also perform different roles. Preserve both reports and identify the actual disagreement. A reasoned explanation of missing tests, disputed measurements or incomplete valuation can justify further work more clearly than a general statement that the first report was unsatisfactory.

Separate assessment expenses, mitigation and repairs

Article 1448 addresses the duty to prevent or reduce loss, stop its increase and protect the insurer’s recourse rights within the policyholder’s possibilities. Paragraph 3 requires the insurer to reimburse reasonable protective expenditure separately from the insurance indemnity or benefit, even where those steps fail. Paragraph 4 provides for an advance, on the policyholder’s request, to meet the necessary expenses.

Classification must follow the service performed. An engineer’s investigation of structural damage concerns assessment. Emergency support installed to prevent further collapse concerns protection. Permanent reconstruction concerns repair of the underlying damage. Each can arise from the same event without becoming the same legal head of claim. A mixed invoice should identify the individual tasks and the amounts allocated to them.

Maintain a chronology showing the risk event, discovery, notification, insurer instructions, examination, emergency measures and permanent works. Explain urgency through dated records rather than retrospective assertions. Preserve the condition before repair through lawful photographs, measurements and professional observations. Safety measures should not be delayed simply to obtain attractive evidence, but the reason for immediate intervention should be recorded.

Do not recover the same cost twice. Any payment already included in the indemnity, paid as an advance or reimbursed by another responsible party must be disclosed and reconciled. Article 1426 is a separate basis for reasonable assessment expenditure, not a mechanism for duplicating the same invoice under multiple labels.

Prepare an evidence schedule that can be audited

The written request should identify the policy number, insured interest, claimant, event date, first notice and insurer’s claim reference. For each expense, provide the supplier, service date, purpose, amount, currency, tax treatment, invoice reference and payment status. Connect the item to the corresponding report or work product so that the reviewer can verify what was actually delivered.

Keep the original professional instruction and the final report together. Where testing was inconclusive, explain the information available when it was commissioned and the question the testing sought to answer. The statutory protection for unsuccessful work does not remove the need to prove genuine work or an objectively reasonable instruction. It prevents rejection based solely on the lack of a successful result.

Retain original digital photographs and files rather than relying exclusively on images embedded in a presentation. Save relevant emails with attachments, laboratory receipts, access permissions and site attendance records. Identify versions: a revised report should not silently replace the original document in a chronology that depends on what was known at an earlier date.

Foreign-language material should be accompanied by a reliable Turkish explanation for the insurer. Preserve the original document and determine the translation requirements of the eventual forum before filing. A translation should reproduce the expert’s qualifications and reservations, not strengthen the conclusion beyond what the original report supports.

Managing the Turkish claim while the owner is abroad

Distance makes an organised evidence file particularly important. Obtain the complete report, attachments, invoice and proof that the insurer received them. A message from a manager saying that the paperwork has been sent does not identify the version delivered, the recipient or the delivery date. A communications record should distinguish instructions to the expert from submissions to the insurer.

Arrange lawful access to the insured premises and preserve the insurer’s opportunity to investigate. The expert’s instruction should ask answerable technical questions rather than demand a predetermined coverage conclusion. The report should record contrary evidence and limits of access. A sound claim is based on the actual condition and contractual coverage, not on excluding inconvenient facts.

Confirm the representative’s mandate. Authority to arrange an inspection is not identical to authority to settle, receive indemnity or commence arbitration. For litigation and other formal proceedings, the power of attorney and any foreign execution formalities must match the intended act. Our guide to legal matters in Türkiye without travel explains the distinction between remote preparation and acts requiring formal representation.

Nationality and residence do not themselves answer which country’s law governs the policy or which court has jurisdiction. This article addresses the Turkish statutory expense rule. For the separate forum question, see international insurance jurisdiction under Law No. 5718, Article 46.

Underinsurance affects the expense analysis

Article 1426(2) refers expressly to Article 1462. Under Article 1462, where the sum insured is below the insured interest’s value and only part of the interest is damaged, the default indemnity calculation is proportionate to the ratio of the sum insured to the insured value, unless the contract provides otherwise. The analogous treatment of assessment expenses requires a reasoned calculation.

Do not confuse insured value, sum insured and event-related loss. They answer different questions. Identify the property or interest, applicable valuation basis, valuation date, currency and any contract term changing the default treatment. An unexplained percentage on an insurer’s settlement sheet is not a complete demonstration of underinsurance.

Request the valuation evidence and contractual provision relied on. Check whether an agreed-value or other relevant policy arrangement affects the analysis. Do not apply the ratio twice to the same expense or use a reduction already embedded in another figure without explaining it. The claimant’s schedule and the insurer’s calculation should be capable of direct comparison.

The existence of an expense claim does not remove a coverage dispute, and an underinsurance dispute does not prove that every professional charge was unreasonable. Keep the separate issues visible: statutory purpose, reasonable amount, proof of expenditure, coverage and any applicable proportional adjustment.

Notice and payment periods must be stated accurately

Article 1446 requires notification without delay after the policyholder learns that the insured risk has occurred. It also regulates the consequences of missing or late notice and the insurer’s prior actual knowledge. Article 1447 requires reasonably expected information, documents and access necessary to establish the risk or the extent of the claim. Assessment expenses should be integrated into that documented claims process.

Article 1427 governs the maturity of the insurer’s indemnity or benefit-payment obligation. It links payment to the insured event, provision of relevant documents and completion of the investigation, and states a 45-day period from the Article 1446 notification. The statutory 15-day period applies to insurance of persons, described in Turkish as can sigortaları; it must not be translated as a rule limited exclusively to life insurance. The provision also addresses investigation delay attributable to circumstances for which the insurer is not responsible.

Where investigation remains incomplete after three months from the relevant notification, Article 1427(3) provides for an advance of at least half the promptly established damage or benefit amount, determined by agreement or a court-ordered preliminary assessment in a dispute. The provision is not a promise to advance half of any amount a claimant chooses to demand.

Keep separate dates for risk notice, submission of documents, the expense request, any rejection and any procedural application. Do not automatically apply the main indemnity timetable to every separate expense without analysing the nature and maturity of that claim. Calendar arithmetic cannot replace proof of the statutory entitlement.

Challenge a refusal with a defined legal request

Ask the insurer to identify each disputed expense and its reason for rejection: purpose, necessity, price, evidence, claimant identity, underinsurance or another specific ground. A statement that independent reports are always at the insured’s expense does not answer the Article 1426 and Article 1452 questions. Conversely, citing those articles does not prove the reasonableness of an unsupported bill.

The objection should separately state the main insurance payment, assessment expenditure under Article 1426 and protective expenditure under Article 1448. Reconcile advances and prior payments. Attach the policy, instructions, reports, invoices and the schedule. Request the precise outstanding relief rather than combining unrelated business losses into a single unexplained total.

The Insurance Arbitration Commission’s official application guidance requires an initial application to the insurer. A final response that does not satisfy the claim, or absence of a written response within the applicable period, is relevant to eligibility. The guidance distinguishes 15 business days generally from 15 days in traffic insurance and explains membership and compulsory-insurance rules.

The Commission’s official application-form guidance states that foreign nationals making personal applications use the physical application route because online filing relies on e-Devlet verification. It also requires a representative’s power of attorney to contain the special authority contemplated by Code of Civil Procedure Article 74 for alternative dispute resolution or application to the Commission. Those procedural requirements should be checked before preparing an overseas filing.

Limitation and procedural deadlines are separate

Article 1420 provides a two-year limitation period from maturity for claims arising from an insurance contract. Its additional six-year period concerns indemnity and insurance-benefit claims, with Article 1482 reserved and provisions in other legislation preserved. A separate assessment-expense claim must be classified correctly; an adviser should not automatically treat every expense as identical to the main indemnity for all limitation purposes.

The request to the insurer, arbitration eligibility waiting period and substantive limitation period serve different purposes. Do not assume that correspondence or a complaint to a regulator, without examining its legal effect, preserves a claim indefinitely. Record the event, maturity, acknowledgments, proceedings and other legally relevant acts in a limitation chronology.

The competent court and any pre-action requirement depend on the legal character of the insurance dispute and the relief claimed. International jurisdiction, domestic venue and subject-matter competence are separate assessments. The same factual file can contain a coverage question, a valuation question and a procedural defect, and each needs a precise answer before proceedings are commenced.

Frequently asked questions

Legal file review in Türkiye

Bakırcı & Keskin Law Office handles legal matters across Türkiye through its İstanbul and Mersin offices, including instructions from clients abroad. A review of assessment expenses requires the policy, notification records, professional instruction, reports, invoices, payment evidence and the insurer’s response. No result is guaranteed by an initial enquiry or by the existence of an expert report.

Related reading: rejected motor insurance claims, international insurance jurisdiction and remote legal file preparation.

Do not send confidential documents or identity numbers in an initial message. An enquiry does not establish representation or suspend a legal deadline.

bakircipartners@gmail.com · +90 552 224 43 66 · WhatsApp