The importance of independent impartial legal advice

Buying property is always a major undertaking. If you are planning to invest in the Turkish property market, we recommend that you take expert, independent legal advice.
In reality, however, the vast majority of people who buy a home in Turkey do not obtain independent legal advice. Most seek legal advice only after having paid a deposit and signed a contract, or - more commonly - once they have already run into problems.
As a general rule, we advise you not to sign anything or pay any money until you have sought legal advice in a language in which you are fluent from a lawyer who is experienced in Turkish property law.
Trying to save money on legal costs can be very dangerous when a large sum of money is at stake.
It is dangerous to rely on advice given by the seller , estate agents or seller and estate agents's lawyer mainly because:

(a) they are not lawyers;

(b) they both have a financial stake in selling the property to you, which inevitably means that their different interests will not coincide with yours. Some of them may not want you to know the truth. Put another way, they might be telling you what they want you to know, but not necessarily what you need to know. This explains why some estate agents are so often elusive and obstinate in negotiations, and why they are at the best lukewarm, if not outright hostile, at your taking separate independent legal advice.

The importance of ad hoc advice

You should consider yourself and your transaction to be unique. Therefore, by all means listen to, but never rely on, anecdotal or other general advice - however well intentioned it may be - given by friends or other people who already own or are in the process of buying Turkish properties. At the risk of sounding self-serving, from our experience we strongly urge that no-one should attempt to buy any Turkish property by relying solely on the advice of a notary or an estate agent, without having all documents checked by bilingual specialists.

Turkish law, language and translations

All formal documents relating to Turkish convincing must be written in the Turkish language and are always governed by Turkish law, regardless of the nationality, residence or domicile of the parties. Therefore neither party may designate a different foreign legal system to govern their property in Turkey, nor a foreign language of their choice for the transaction. Turkish legal jargon often bears as little resemblance to standard Turkish as does its counterpart in English law to spoken English. It is important to ensure that nothing gets misunderstood or lost in translation. Do not therefore sign any document in Turkish without understanding precisely what you are committing to in plain English. A number of estate agents use printed contracts which have English translations. None of these is ever correct, in the sense that either the translation itself is wrong or, more usually, some terms of English law have been used which conveys a wrong impression of the meaning of the original Turkish term. Even if you sign an extract or summary in English, it is usually the full Turkish version only that will have legal force. Do not presume that any claim that the document in Turkish was not understood can be upheld as a legal defence. In any country, ignorance of the law and language is no excuse.
If the Turkish authorities believe that your command of Turkish is inadequate, they may insist that you appoint a qualified translator/interpreter in Turkish for the whole of the Turkish conveyancing transaction, or at least for the completion. The costs of this for one meeting may involve significant expense. If you want a professional interpreter involved at any stage, please ensure that he is qualified and totally independent. This would exclude, for example, a bilingual estate agent, a retired school teacher or an English-speaking relative of the seller, or others who might offer to explain the documents at the notary's office at the moment of completion.
Your separate independent legal advisor will be able to communicate with you in plain English, and at the same time communicate with Turkish professionals in the technical Turkish language that they understand. This usually requires a degree of seniority and experience.