Several articles of the Notary Public Law No. 1512 amended with the “LAW ON AMENDMENT ON THE LAW ON JUDGES AND PROSECUTORS NO. 7413 AND SOME LAWS” published in the Official Gazette dated 28 June 2022. Thus, real estate purchase and sale transactions can be carried out in notary public offices as well as land registry offices. The relevant parts of the Official Gazette announcement, together with the explanations of the provisions, are as follows:

CONTEXT

ARTICLE 11- Subparagraph (3) of the first paragraph of Article 60 of Law No. 1512 has been amended as follows.

“3. Making a preliminary contract for real estate sale and, if one of the parties demands this contract and pays the fees and expenses, annotating it to the land registry through the land registry information system, making a contract of sale of the real estate.”

With the addition of this provision to the article of Law No. 1512, which regulates the “Duties of Notary Publics”, notaries are also given the authority to make real estate sales contract.

ARTICLE 12- The following article has been added to the Law No. 1512, to come after article 61.

“Real estate sales contract:

ARTICLE 61/A- Real estate sales contract can also be made by notaries.

Notary publics issue an application document upon the application for the sale of real estate, take into account all kinds of restrictions on the real estate, and observe the limitations, procedures and principles in other laws regarding the sale of real estate.

Land registry sample and other documents are shared with notaries through the land registry information system by the General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre. In case the records and documents related to the real estate are missing, the missing issues are requested from the relevant land registry directorate, and the deficiencies are corrected by the land registry directorate and transferred to the system. After the notary public determines the right owner and it is determined that there is no legal situation preventing the sale of the real estate, a real estate sales contract is made.

As soon as the sales contract is signed by the parties, by obtaining the journal number from the land registry information system, the notary public records the contract in this system. After the contract is registered in the system, the real estate is registered in the land registry by the land registry directorate. The sales contract and other documents are transferred to the system by the notary public and are physically archived.

With this article, the process of the real estate sales contract to be made by the notaries is explained.

According to this regulation, notary publics will be able to examine the records and documents related to the real estate by the General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre sharing the title deed registration sample and other documents with them via the land registry information system, and thus, they will be able to make the necessary examinations such as whether there is a legal obstacle to the sale of the real estate and the determination of the right holder. If there is no legal obstacle to the sale of the real estate as a result of the examination, the notary publics will be able to draw up the real estate sales contract and record it in the land registry information system by obtaining a document number from this system.

Following the registration of the contract in the system, the land registry office will ensure that the real estate is registered in the land registry.

Notaries carry out the transactions related to the real estate sales contract by hand.

If the right holder cannot be determined from the land registry copy and other documents, or if there is a legal situation preventing the sale, the notary public will not perform the sale.

Only the title deed fee is charged in accordance with subparagraph (a) of paragraph (20) of the section titled “I-Deed transactions” of the tariff numbered (4) attached to the Fees Law dated 2/7/1964 and numbered 492 from real estate sales contracts to be made by notaries. For these transactions, the provisions of the Law No. 492 on title deed fees and the provisions of Article 128 of the same Law are applied to the notaries who make transactions without fully receiving the required fee.

Real estate sales contracts are exempt from stamp tax and papers issued regarding these transactions are exempt from valuable paper costs.

No fee other than the notary public’s fee is charged for the transactions made within the scope of this article. The notary fee cannot be less than five hundred Turkish liras and more than four thousand Turkish liras according to the value of the real estate and is shown in the fee schedule. These amounts are applied by increasing each year at the revaluation rate determined and announced in accordance with the provisions of the repetitive article 298 of the Tax Procedure Law dated 4/1/1961 and numbered 213 with respect to the previous year, effective from the beginning of the calendar year.

For real estate sales transactions, a service fee is collected to be recorded as income to the General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre revolving fund, and no share or contribution is paid to the notary publics due to these transactions.

According to the Law, in real estate sales transactions to be made by notaries,

• the title deed fee in accordance with subparagraph a of paragraph 20 of the section titled “Deed transactions” of the tariff numbered 4 attached to the Fees Law numbered 492,
• notary fee (cannot be less than five hundred Turkish liras and more than four thousand Turkish liras according to the value of the real estate and is shown in the fee schedule) and,
• service fee to be recorded as income to the General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre revolving fund, are taken.

The procedures and principles regarding the implementation of this article shall be regulated by a regulation to be issued by the Ministry of Justice, taking the opinion of the Ministry of Treasury and Finance and the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change.”

ARTICLE 13- The following paragraph has been added to the article 162 of the Law No. 1512, following the first paragraph, and the phrase “first paragraph” in the current second paragraph of the article has been changed to “first and second paragraphs”.

“Notary publics are also responsible for the damage caused by the arrangement of the real estate sales contract. In case this damage is paid by the State, the State recourse to the notary who issued the contract. Lawsuits to be filed against the notary public shall be heard in the court of the place where the land registry is located.”

This new regulation, which will enable the real estate sales contract to be made at a notary public, to make these transactions faster and easier, will enter into force on 1 January 2023.