Checking Tapu and İskân

Two documents decide in Türkiye whether a property can be sold cleanly: the tapu, the land register extract, and the iskân, the occupancy permit for the building. Both can be checked before the first payment. All checkpoints at a glance are in the chapter Legal Checks.

What the Tapu Shows

• Owners and shares: the seller must be registered as owner or present a notarised power of attorney (vekaletname). If there are several owners, all must take part.
• Location: province, district, neighbourhood, block and plot (ada and parsel).
• Type of title: kat mülkiyeti is full ownership of a unit in a completed building. kat irtifakı is the construction servitude before completion or as long as there is no iskân. A hisseli tapu is a co-ownership share in the land without an assigned unit.
• Type of use (nitelik): for example apartment, building plot (arsa) or field (tarla). A house on a plot registered as a field is a warning sign.
• Encumbrances and notes: mortgage (ipotek), attachment (haciz), annotations (şerh), for example from pre-emption rights or leases, and usufruct (intifa hakkı).

How to Check the Tapu

1. Ask the seller for a current extract. Owners can retrieve it via e-Devlet or Web Tapu. Check the date: an old printout says nothing about today’s encumbrances.
2. Compare the seller’s name and ID with the extract; if there is a power of attorney, check the document itself (notary, date, scope).
3. Enter ada and parsel in the TKGM cadastre parcel search: is the plot where the house stands, and does the area match?
4. Clear encumbrances: a mortgage is usually paid off from the purchase price at the tapu appointment and deleted; put this in writing in the preliminary contract. If there is an attachment, pay nothing until it has been removed.
5. For foreign buyers the land registry also checks military and security zones; see the chapter Legal Checks.

What the İskân Means

The municipality issues the iskân (yapı kullanma izin belgesi) once the building has been completed in line with the building permit (yapı ruhsatı). Only then does the construction servitude (kat irtifakı) become full unit ownership (kat mülkiyeti). Without an occupancy permit, electricity, water and sewage connections may not be granted permanently under the Zoning Law (İmar Kanunu No. 3194, Art. 31). For financing and resale, a missing iskân is usually an obstacle.

If something was added without a permit, such as an extra floor or an enclosed balcony, the municipality can impose fines or order removal. Compare the building with the approved plan (onaylı proje).

A Yapı Kayıt Belgesi Is Not an İskân

Many buildings were registered under the 2018 zoning amnesty (imar barışı, provisional Art. 16 of Law 3194) with a yapı kayıt belgesi. It allows continued use, but according to the Ministry of Environment it replaces neither the building permit nor the iskân (Ministry of Environment, amnesty FAQ). It is valid only until demolition or reconstruction, for example in urban renewal (kentsel dönüşüm). For buyers this means: the house can be used, but it has not been officially approved as compliant.

How to Check the İskân

1. Ask the seller or developer for copies of the iskân and the building permit.
2. Look at the tapu: if it says kat mülkiyeti, an iskân is usually in place. If it says kat irtifakı, ask.
3. Have the municipal building department (belediye, imar müdürlüğü) confirm that the iskân covers exactly this building and unit. The developer applies for the iskân via e-Devlet.
4. For new builds: make the final payment only once the iskân has been issued, or hold back part of the price until then; put this in the contract. When buying with advance payments, the developer must also provide security (Ministry of Trade).

I compile the documents together with my locally based partner. The legal review should be carried out by an independent Turkish lawyer (avukat) before the first payment.