Late Delivery of an Off-Plan Apartment in Türkiye: Your Rights

A home sold on a pre-paid basis in Türkiye must be delivered within the period undertaken in the contract and, in any event, within 48 months of the contract date — a mandatory ceiling in Article 44 of Consumer Protection Law No. 6502 as amended by Law No. 7392 of 24 March 2022. If the seller has not performed its obligations at all, or has not performed them properly, the consumer may rescind without paying anything (Article 45/2), and the sums paid together with all documents must be returned within a maximum of 180 days from the rescission notice reaching the seller (Article 45/3). The alternative is to insist on performance and claim delay damages under Turkish Code of Obligations No. 6098. The position below is as at July 2026.

When does the pre-paid housing regime apply?

Article 40/1 defines a pre-paid housing sale contract (ön ödemeli konut satış sözleşmesi) as one where the consumer pays the price of residential property in advance, in a lump sum or by instalments, and the seller undertakes to transfer or deliver after all or part of the price is paid. The test is payment before delivery, not the label on the paperwork.

Three formal requirements follow, all in the buyer’s favour. A pre-contractual information form must be given at least one day before signing (Article 40/2). No such contract may be concluded before a construction permit (yapı ruhsatı) has been obtained (Article 40/3). And the contract must be made by registration at the land registry, or, for a promise to sell, before a notary in “düzenleme” form (Article 41) — otherwise, says Article 6/1 of the Regulation on Pre-Paid Housing Sales, the contract is invalid. Crucially, the seller cannot invoke that invalidity against the consumer, and without a valid contract it may not demand payment under any heading. A private paper signed in a sales office with a “reservation” receipt is not a contract in law, and the consequence falls on the seller.

What is the maximum delivery period?

Article 44 requires the home to be delivered within the period undertaken in the contract, and provides that this period may in no event exceed 48 months from the contract date. The two rules work together. The contractual period governs first: if the contract promises 30 months, the seller is in default when those 30 months expire and does not get to use the balance up to 48. The 48-month ceiling operates as an outer mandatory limit no agreement may exceed.

Delivery is a legal event, not a physical one. Under Article 44 and Article 10/2 of the Regulation it has occurred where the unit held under condominium ownership (kat mülkiyeti) is registered in the consumer’s name, or where construction servitude (kat irtifakı) is registered in the consumer’s name and possession fit for habitation is transferred. Keys to an unregistered unit do not end the default; nor, on the kat irtifakı route, does registration without habitable possession. One caveat: the 48-month ceiling was introduced in 2022 and is not retroactive — under the Regulation’s transitional provision a contract is governed by the rules in force when it was concluded.

What can the buyer do when delivery is late?

Three distinct exits exist, and conflating them is the common mistake.

Withdrawal within 14 days (cayma). Article 43 allows withdrawal within 14 days — running from the date the contract was concluded (Regulation Article 8/1) — with no reasons and no penalty; serving notice in time suffices, and the seller bears the burden of proving the consumer was informed of the right. Notice goes through a notary (Regulation Article 8/2), and the refund follows within 14 days of its arrival.

No-cause rescission within 24 months (dönme). Article 45 permits rescission up to 24 months from the contract date without reasons, but the seller may retain statutory costs such as taxes and fees plus graduated compensation — up to 2% of the price in the first three months, 4% between three and six, 6% between six and twelve, and 8% between twelve and twenty-four. This notice, too, goes through a notary (Regulation Article 9/2).

Free rescission. This is the delay route. Under Article 45/2, where the seller has not performed at all or not performed properly, it may not claim any amount: the graduated deduction disappears. The same free exit covers the consumer’s death; a permanent loss of earning capacity leaving the consumer unable to keep up the prepayments; the seller’s refusal, in that same situation, of a proposal to substitute an instalment sale on ordinary terms; and the sale of one home to more than one consumer (Regulation Articles 9/4 and 9/5).

In each case the refund and all documents are due within 180 days of the notice reaching the seller, after which the consumer returns what it received within 10 days. A separate exit applies to project changes: under Article 11 of the Regulation, any later change must be notified in writing or by durable medium, and a consumer who rejects it may rescind within one month paying nothing — unless the change stems from a legal requirement or force majeure, in which case the seller recovers the deduction allowed by Article 9/3.

If you do take late delivery, record an express written reservation of your right to delay damages or the contractual penalty. Article 179/2 of the Code of Obligations allows a penalty to be claimed alongside performance unless the creditor expressly waived it or accepted performance without reservation — and silently collecting the keys can be read that way.

How are delay damages computed?

The measure comes from the Code of Obligations, not from consumer law. Default is the starting point: it arises on the creditor’s notice, but where the performance date was fixed by agreement it arises automatically once that day passes (Article 117) — the usual off-plan position, though a notarial notice remains useful evidence. The creditor then grants an appropriate additional period (Article 123), dispensed with where it would plainly be futile, where performance has become useless to the creditor, or where the transaction has a fixed date by its nature (Article 124). On expiry, Article 125 gives three options: performance plus damages for the delay; abandoning performance and claiming positive damages; or rescission, each side returning what it received, with negative damages on top unless the debtor proves absence of fault.

The practical lever is the penalty clause (ceza koşulu). A contractual delay penalty is governed by Articles 179 to 182, and its evidential effect is decisive: it is due even if the creditor suffered no loss at all (Article 180), so the buyer need not quantify damage. Loss exceeding the penalty is claimable only on proof of the debtor’s fault, and a court reduces an excessive penalty of its own motion (Article 182/3). Without a penalty clause the buyer must prove the loss the delay caused under the general rules — which in construction disputes usually means a court-appointed expert (bilirkişi), available under Article 266 of Civil Procedure Law No. 6100 where resolution requires technical knowledge outside the law.

What security protects the money paid?

Compensation that cannot be collected is worth nothing. Article 42 and Article 12 of the Regulation require a seller in a project of 30 or more housing units to arrange building completion insurance before sales begin, or at least one of three alternatives: a bank letter of guarantee that is definite, of unlimited duration and payable on first demand; the hakediş system, under which payments sit in a blocked account and are released only against actual construction progress, with the seller losing its rights over the account and the unpaid balance returning to the buyer if it fails to deliver; or security through linked credit. Compensation within the scope of completion insurance cannot be included in a bankruptcy or liquidation estate, attached, or made subject to interim measures (Article 42/2) — see our guide to developer bankruptcy and konkordato. Ask which of the four the project uses before the first payment.

Where is the claim brought?

For 2026, disputes worth less than TRY 186,000 must go to the district or provincial Consumer Arbitration Committee (Tüketici Hakem Heyeti); above that figure the committee cannot hear the matter at all (Article 68/1, under the Communiqué published on 23 December 2025 and in force from 1 January 2026). Above the threshold the consumer court has jurisdiction (Article 73/1), consumer claimants are exempt from court fees (Article 73/2), the claim may be brought where the consumer resides (Article 73/5), and it proceeds under the simplified procedure.

Mediation is a condition of suit before the consumer court (Article 73/A), with practically important exceptions: matters within the arbitration committee’s remit, objections to its decisions, collective actions, and disputes arising from the ayn of the immovable, such as title cancellation and registration. A claim seeking registration in the buyer’s name may therefore follow a different route from a refund or damages claim. Mediation itself is quick — three weeks, extendable by one — and time limits are suspended while it runs (Law No. 6325, Article 18/A). Foreign buyers sit fully inside this system: the definition of consumer carries no nationality or residence test, and Article 21 of Law No. 5718 subjects rights in rem over immovable property to the law of the country where it is situated, so a foreign choice-of-law clause cannot displace Turkish law on a Turkish home. Claims arising from the ayn of the immovable belong exclusively to the court where the property is located (Civil Procedure Law Article 12). The litigation route is set out in our guide to suing a developer in the Turkish consumer courts.

A last point where delay and defect overlap. A home is a good under Law No. 6502, so a unit handed over late and unfinished also engages the defective-goods regime: a defect appearing within six months of delivery is presumed to have existed then, repair or replacement in housing must be completed within 60 working days, and the limitation period is five years from delivery — with no limitation at all where the defect was concealed by gross fault or fraud (Articles 8 to 12). That is covered in our guide to construction defects and warranty periods.

Late delivery in Türkiye is a regulated situation, not a commercial fact to be negotiated in a vacuum: a binding contractual date, a mandatory 48-month ceiling, a cost-free exit where the breach is the seller’s, a fixed refund window, and compulsory security on larger projects. What usually weakens a buyer’s position is not a gap in the law but silence — accepting delivery without reservation, relying on email instead of formal notice, and waiting until the security has lost its value. For the wider framework see our guide to buying property in Türkiye as a foreigner, and for a contract-specific review, our real estate practice.

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