Check Your Tapu. Very Important Options

[sunny]

A lot of Tapus ( deed for your house) only have the square metres of the land and no mention of a building. The government is now insisting that all tapus have the house/building mentioned. This must be done by the end of 2009 after which fines will be issued.
A neighbour of ours had his updated this week and it cost him in the region of 700 ytl.

[Meral]

Do you mean, if tapu doesn't show buildings, it's the owner's responsibility to have it done -- for 700 lira ? If this is the case, it looks like the new law is designed to generate income for government employees.

What happens when an existing building is torn down ? Another tapu update ? And then a new building is put up ... and so on.

[sunny]

Yes, of course, you are right, it's a way of generating income for the government!
It's the home owners responsiblity to make sure that your Tapu shows not only the square metres of land you own but also the building.
You have to take your Tapu, permission to live in it paper and if you still have it, the makbuz (receipt you had from the tax office for the tax you paid when you bought the house)to the Tapu burosu. If you can produce your makbuz then it should cost you about 600ytl rather than 700ytl if you don't have it.
This has to be done before the end of 2009. After that time you will have to pay a fine on top of the expenses.

[lozengelegend]

well while it can only be a good thing for buyers if their tapus show they own a building, not just some land. But as a homeowner I don't think I'm that happy to have to pay lots of money (or ANY money) for that update! I wonder when they are thinking of telling people about this - I've never heard of this law-change before!

Sunny, how did you get to hear about this?

[sunny]

Apparently it has been on Turkish TV - don't ask me which channel, and a neighbour of ours was the one who alerted us to it and told us what it cost him.
There are now a group of neighbours who are all going to do it together soon, rather than wait till next year.
The idea of shelling out 700ytl for something that should have been done when you bought the house doesn't make me very happy, to say the least.

[sunny]

Are you all checking your Tapus?

[lozengelegend]

I've been doing some investigation work and I think the issue is this:

WHAT IT MEANS
A lot of people who own properties only have title deeds for the land or an "under construction" building, not a fully certified and approved residential building on the land. The procedure being outlined by Sunny is for having this status changed on the title deeds.

WHY IT HAPPENS
It's something that occurs when, for example, a builder builds a residential building but doesn't follow the correct administrative procedure so the building doesn't get registered at the land registry.

HOW TO TELL IF IT APPLIES TO YOU
Owners of these properties will have title deeds with either the "devre mulk" or "kat irtifaki" box ticked - that shows that while there may be a building on the site, it's not on the Land Registry records yet.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT
There are many reasons why this is important, including: residential buildings registered at the Land Registry need to have been certified as liveable - an unregistered building might be substandard and might not be safe. It is illegal to connect residential utilities to an unregistered building so you might be stuck with paying commercial (builders) rates or having no utilities at all! If there is no building registered on the title deeds, your earthquake insurance won't cover you if it gets knocked down (though private insurers seem willing to cover buildings without title deeds). The absence of a residential building record on the title deeds will affect the resale price of the property - it's legally incomplete and any buyer will take on increased inconvenience, risk and costs, so if they want to buy it at all, they will expect an appropriate discount!

WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT
As Sunny says, you will need your tapu (title deeds), permission to live in it paper (iskan / habitation certificate) and ideally (but not necessarily) your makbuz (receipt) to the title deeds office. If you don't have your habitation certificate but there IS one, your local council should issue you with a copy at no charge. If there is no habitation certificate, you need to speak to the builder of your property.

[sunny]

Thanks LL for that information. I was told today that after, I think it is October, 2009 if your Tapu hasn't got the building listed on it you could well get a 1000ytl fine.

[Meral]

Checked our Tapu, and indeed it says only "arsa",and the sale price is actually on it ! It's a "bogus" sale price (only 55 billion old TL), as was the practice the to avoid tax (5 years ago). Does this mean we won't need the receipt ? Or, if the receipt shows the real sale price, is there going to be a problem ? The estate agent who handled the deal was the son of the people we bought it from, and as we were complete novices then, we just left it all to them.

Seems strange that the council has been issuing habitation certificates and allowing services to be connected for living on bare land ! We'll be paying for 2 departments to merge their data, so to speak !

[Meral]

I've been doing some digging, and think I've found a reason behind this business! Turkey has borrowed lots of money from the World Bank to upgrade the whole Tapu system !



Turkey Partners with World Bank for Modernization of Land Management Systems


WASHINGTON, May 1, 2008 – The World Bank today approved a loan equivalent to US$203 million to the Government of Turkey for the Land Registry and Cadastre Modernization Project. The Project will improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the land registry and cadastre services.

"The Project constitutes a next generation of Bank operations in the area of land management and cadastre, where the country already has a well functioning property rights regime, but is striving to take the land registry and cadastre data use to the next level by spreading its benefits to people, businesses and multiple sectors, and facilitating better access to real estate information through the e-government platform," said Wael Zakout, Sector Manager and Task Team Leader for the Project. "This project will also help improve customer service by reducing the time taken to register a property transaction to a few hours, and develop property appraisal function in line with international standards."

The project will (i) renovate and update cadastre maps to support digital cadastre and land registry information; (ii) make the digital land registry and cadastre information available to public and private entities (iii) improve customer services in land registry and cadastre offices; (iv) improve human resources in the Turkish Land Registry and Cadastre Agency (TKGM); and (v) develop policies and capacity to introduce best international practices in property valuation in Turkey.

While the Turkish Cadastre and Registration system is considered one of the most effective in the region and registration of property transactions is done within one day in many offices, there are still many shortcomings to be addressed to ensure that the system modernizes to reach the same service level as in the European countries. Many of the Cadastre and Land Registry offices rely on manual systems, with old documents, some of them dating back to the Ottoman times. In addition, the TAKBIS system (Turkey's computerized Cadastre and Land Registry Software) runs in only 140 out of the 1000 offices.

The most challenging aspect is that cadastral maps continue to be in a paper format, vary in accuracy and consistency, and are not linked to the national network. This makes it difficult to support E-government applications as cadastre maps serve as a base mapping for many government applications. Furthermore, in many localities maps are out of date and do not correspond with the ground locations and areas, differing sometimes by up to 10 meters.

The project will be funded by an IBRD flexible variable spread loan. It will have a maturity of 23.5 years including a 5 year grace period.


Source : http://web.worldbank.org/

So, it looks like all records are to be brought to order in readiness for loading onto the new data base !

[lozengelegend]

Good research, Meral!

... though I'll believe it when I see it here in Didim. Maybe in 23.5 year's time!

[lolly]

Hi,
I have also read about this on another forum.
Does anybody know if this still can be done if our site is waiting to be 'signed' off at the Belediye?
My house is freehold and i have kat irtifaki Tapu along with Habitation papers.
Other houses on our site are in the Co-Op. AFAIK there are around 60 Co-op houses and 30 freehold properties.
Everytime i have asked about this subject i am just told 'This all hapens later', which is not very helpful.
Which office would i go to in Kusadasi to change my Tapu to Kat Mulkiyeti, does anybody know please?

Many Thanks
Lorraine.