What a residential lease in Türkiye should cover
Leases in Türkiye don’t need a particular form: a signed document, a notarised one or a lease created on e-Devlet are all valid. What matters is that the content follows the Turkish Code of Obligations (TBK, Law No. 6098), which protects residential tenants with rules the parties can’t contract out of.
- Parties and property: names, T.C. ID numbers, addresses for notices, the full address, type and fixtures.
- Rent and payment: amount in Turkish lira, due day and bank account. Residential rent should be paid through a bank so there is a record.
- Term: start date, length and handover date.
- Deposit: at most three months’ rent, placed in a time-deposit account in the tenant’s name (TBK 342).
- Yearly increase: never above the 12-month average change in CPI (TBK 344). After five years a court can set a fair market rent.
- Repairs and use: the landlord keeps the home fit for use (TBK 301); the tenant does small cleaning and maintenance (TBK 317) and needs written consent to sublet (TBK 322).
Rules you can’t write your way around
- The tenant can leave at the end of the term by giving notice at least 15 days before it ends. Without notice the lease renews for another year (TBK 347).
- The landlord can’t end the lease simply because the term ended. Only after a ten-year extension period can the landlord end it without a reason, with three months’ notice before each extension year (TBK 347).
- Penalty clauses against the tenant and clauses making the tenant pay for anything other than the rent and usual costs are void (TBK 346).
- An eviction commitment signed together with the lease is void (TBK 352).
- A guarantor must handwrite the maximum amount, the date and the words “müteselsil kefil”, and a married guarantor needs their spouse’s written consent (TBK 583–584).
- Before going to court over rent or eviction, the parties must try mediation (Law No. 6325, art. 18/B).
Stamp duty and e-Devlet
Leases of homes let by individuals, and any guarantee notes on them, are exempt from stamp duty under Table (2), IV/31 of the Stamp Duty Law. If the landlord is a company, stamp duty is 0.189% of the total rent for the term; the tool works this out. You can also create a lease through the “Lease Contract Transactions” service on e-Devlet: there, the registered owner creates the lease from the title deed and the tenant approves it within three days.
On-screen signatures in this tool are simple electronic signatures. Many landlords and tenants use them together with printed, wet-signed copies. For guarantees, always use a printed copy that the guarantor fills in by hand.