TÜRKİYE Law and Practice Contributed by: Serkan Gül, Nazım O Kurt and Türkay Avanaş, Hergüner Bilgen Üçer Attorney Partnership
tion of businesses is prohibited in residential buildings. Restrictions on a tenant’s use of real property are typically found in lease agreements, and these are binding on lessees under contract law. 6.13 Tenant’s Ability to Alter and Improve Real Estate Tenants may alter leased premises if this is per - mitted under their lease agreement. Structural improvements may require a licence from the local municipality, and these licences are only issued to landowners. As such, a tenant would have to obtain the landlord’s consent to struc - tural improvements. Landlords typically give their consent to such improvements by issuing a power of attorney to their lessees for improve - ment purposes, under which lessees obtain the requisite licence and commence construction of improvements. If the landlord has consented to alterations to be made by a lessee, they may not demand the return of the property to its previous condition. Similarly, a lessee may not demand compensa - tion for any increase in the value of the property that may be caused by the lessee’s alterations. Both of these default positions may be changed by agreement. 6.14 Specific Regulations There are very few regulations that govern the lease of property by type of use. One such spe - cific set of rules, the Regulation on Shopping Centres, has had little restrictive impact in prac - tice. 6.15 Effect of the Tenant’s Insolvency A lessee’s bankruptcy during the term of a lease gives the landlord the right to demand assur - ances for the payment of future rental amounts. If the lessee or the bankruptcy administrator is
not able to provide such assurances, the land - lord is then entitled to terminate the lease. 6.16 Forms of Security to Protect Against a Failure of the Tenant to Meet Its Obligations Landlords typically demand that tenants guaran - tee their obligations by posting a cash deposit or a bank letter of guarantee. The Turkish Code of Obligations has introduced a quantitative limita - tion in this respect, limiting the amount of such guarantees to be posted to a maximum of three months’ rent – this entered into force as of 1 July 2020. In any event, landlords tend to demand an annual or quarterly payment of rent to obtain further security. 6.17 Right to Occupy After Termination or Expiry of a Lease A tenant has the right to occupy a leased prem - ises for another 11 years once the leased period has ended. The landlord may terminate the lease by giving notice no less than three months before the end of the eleventh year after the expiration of the lease or each year thereafter. This is a mandatory provision of the law; therefore, land - lords do not have a free hand in circumventing this entitlement given to lessees. 6.18 Right to Assign a Leasehold Interest Assignment is subject to the lessor’s prior writ - ten consent, which cannot be withheld unrea - sonably in respect of workplace leases. Sub - leases are also subject to the original lessor’s prior written consent. 6.19 Right to Terminate a Lease Landlord’s Right to Terminate The landlord may terminate a lease if the lessor has served written notice on the lessee twice in one lease term for failure to pay rent. The
1006 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook