Under the new Turkish Rental law, mediation is now compulsory for all rental disputes in Turkey. This means that if you have a disagreement with your landlord, or with your tenant, you must first try first try to find a solution through mediation before you can file a lawsuit. Law No. 7445 on the Amendment of the Execution and Bankruptcy Law and Certain Other Laws, which was published in the Official Gazette on April 5, 2023, introduced the change, and the new law came into effect on September 1, 2023.

From now on, when landlords and tenants have a dispute, before they are allowed to file a case and they must first submit their petition to the Mediation Office. The mediation process will be conducted by an appointed neutral third party, known as a mediator, who will help the parties to communicate and negotiate, and thus find a mutually agreeable solution to their dispute.

The mediation process is confidential and voluntary, and the parties do not necessarily have to reach an agreement. If the effort succeeds and they do reach an agreement, the agreement will be legally binding. If it fails, then, they may take their dispute to the courts and file a lawsuit.

In our opinion, the introduction of mandatory mediation for rental disagreements, which are quite common in Turkey,  is a positive step to reduce the workload of the courts and in most cases will speed up the process to solving a dispute in a more efficient, cost-effective and amicable way, than going to court.

If you have any questions about Turkish Rental law, please do not hesitate to contact us.  UT Legal, through its offices in London and Istanbul, can handle all the procedures for you.