LEGAL OBLIGATIONS TO BE FULFILLED AS PERTHE LAND REGISTRY REGULATION

The Land Registry Regulation (in Turkish, “Tapu Sicili Tüzüğü”; hereinafter referred to as the “Regulation”) was published in the Official Gazette numbered 28738 and dated 17 August 2013. The Regulation brings substantial arrangements to the land registry legislation in Turkey. Additionally, some of these arrangements are parallel with the Turkish Civil Code (in Turkish, “Türk Medeni Kanunu”; hereinafter referred to as the “Code”).

Below you may find the most important headlines about the new Regulation.

1) TURKISH REAL ESTATE PROPERTY NUMBER

The Article 6/2 of the Regulation foresees that the General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre (hereinafter, the “General Directorate”) shall determine a Turkish real  estate property number (in Turkish, “Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Taşınmaz Numarası”) for the real estate properties.

2) REQUESTS

The Article 16/4 of the Regulation sets forth the obligation to state the Turkish identity number of the querier or the block and parcel number of the real estate property, for all requests of queries regarding the land registry, including queries of seizure.

The Article 18/2 of the Regulation states that if the requesting right holder is a real person, it is required to submit the identity card bearing the Turkish identity number.

The Article 18/4 of the Regulation foresees that the proxies required for land registry transactions shall include the signature of the proxy giver.

If the request is being submitted on behalf of a legal entity, the Article 18/5 of the Regulation requires submission of the authorization document, which is obtained from the authorities stated in the laws and bearing the Turkish identity number of the representative, and the circular of signatures of the relevant legal entity.

According to the Article 19/2 of the Regulation, in the case that the Directorate of Land Registry (hereinafter, the “Directorate”) hesitates about the judicial capacity of the requestor, it shall require a medical report with the photograph of the requestor obtained from a public or private healthcare organization.

Moreover, in pursuance of the Article 24/2 of the Regulation, in the event that the requestor has speech, sight or hearing impairment, the transactions are optionally made in the presence of two witnesses.

3) OBJECTION

The Article 26/4 of the Regulation foresees that the objection against the Directorate’s decision of refusal of the request shall be submitted to the relevant regional directorate and the objection against the decision of the regional directorate shall be submitted to the General Directorate, within the fifteen days as from the notification of each decision.

4) PLEDGE

According to the Article 33/3 of the Regulation and in accordance with the Article 857/2 of the Code, if a share is pledged, the shareholders cannot pledge the entire real estate property thereafter.

5) PROMISE OF EASEMENT

The new Regulation recognizes the promise of easement (in Turkish, “İrtifak Hakkı Vaadi”) as a personal right, which can be annotated at the land registry. The Article 47/1/a of the Regulation states that a formal deed is mandatory for the registry of the promise of easement as a personal right in the annotations column.

6) PARTITION OF THE REAL ESTATE PROPERTIES

The Article 61/1 of the Regulation sets forth the requirement to obtain the approval of the pledgee for the partition of a real estate property. In parallel to this, in case of partition of a real estate property, the Article 64/2 of the Regulation requires the pursuance of the Articles 60 and 61 concerning the transfer of the annotations and declarations to the new real estate properties to be established, which causes the requirement to obtain the approval of the persons who hold a right upon the relevant real estate property.

7) AMALGAMATION OF REAL ESTATE PROPERTIES

The Article 66/3 of the Regulation states that the approval of the right holderis not required for the amalgamation of a burdened real estate property with an unburdened real estate property owned by the same proprietor.

8) DELETION

According to the Article 69/4 of the Regulation and in parallel with the Article 1026/2 of the Code, in the event that a real or personal right loses its legal value and is deleted from the registry upon the proprieotor’s request, any concerned person is entitled to bring lawsuit against the deletion within 30 days as of the notification.

In pursuance of the Article 69/5 of the Regulation, the seizures shall be deleted upon the request of the proprietor in the end of a period of two years following the annotation on the land registry, unless their renewal is not notified to the Directorate; except for the seizures arising from public receivables, the duration given by bankruptcy and bankruptcy agreement and real estate properties bearing the annotation related to the Article 150/c of the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law.

The Article 88/1 of the Regulation foresees that the documents, which are issued by state institutions and organizations, professional organizations with public institution status, courts, execution offices, banks and legal entities of private law and eligible to terminate the real and personal rights, cannot be submitted in person for land title transactions. Such documents shall be served to Directorates as per the provisions of the Notification Law (in Turkish, “Tebligat Kanunu”) numbered 7201.

Our Firm remains at your disposal for any further clarifications you may require.