Some additions have  been made to the Notary Public Law No. 1512 (“Law”) with the articles 12, 13 and 14 of the Amendments to the Law on Judges and Prosecutors and to Certain Laws, which was published in the Official Gazette dated 28.06.2022 and which will enter into force 01.01.2023.

With the article 61/A to be added to the Law, it has been stated that the immovable sales contracts can also be made by the Notaries, and it has been stated that the Notaries can personally perform the transactions related to the immovable sales contracts through the land registry information system. At the same time, it is said that immovable sales contracts are exempt from stamp tax and papers issued regarding these transactions are exempt from valuable paper costs.

The full text of the relevant article is as follows:

Immovable sales contract

ARTICLE 61/A- Immovable sales contracts can also be made by notaries.

Notaries shall issue an application document upon the application for the sale of immovable, take into account all kinds of restrictions on the immovable, and observe the limitations, procedures and principles in other laws regarding the sale of immovable.

The title deed registration sample and other documents shall be shared with the 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 immovable 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 determines the right owner and resolves that there is no legal situation preventing the sale of the immovable, immovable sales contract shall be executed.

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

Notaries shall carry out the transactions related to the immovable sales contract personally.

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 shalll not perform the sale.

Only the title deed fee shall be 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 no.492. For these transactions, the provisions of the Law No. 492 on title deed fees and the provisions of Article 128 of the same Law shall be applied for the notaries who perform the transactions without receiving the required fee in full.

Immovable 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 shall be charged for the transactions performed 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 immovable and is shown in the fee schedule. These amounts shall be increased each year by the re-evaluation rate determined and announced in accordance with the provisions of the repetitive article 298 of the Tax Procedure Law No. 213 dated 4/1/1961 with regards to the previous year, effective from the beginning of the calendar year.

For immovable sales transactions, a service fee shall be collected to be recorded as income to the General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre revolving fund, and no share or contribution shall be paid to the notaries due to these transactions.

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.

In addition, it is stated that notaries shall also be responsible for the damages arising from execution of the arrangement of the immovable sales contracts.

The land registry information system stipulated in the article given above will be established until 01.01.2023 (it is also stated that this period can be extended up to 6 months by the President), and it is stated that Article 61/A added to the Law will start to be implemented from the date the establishment of this information system is announced on the official website of the Ministry of Justice.

Pelin Tırtıl Esin
Partner | [email protected]
Naz Ergörün
Associate | [email protected]
Behiç Ateş Gülenç
Associate | [email protected]