In this information note, we examined the details of "evacuation due to the written evacuation commitment given by the tenant", which is one of the reasons for the tenants may be asked to be evicted in the Turkish Code of Obligations No. 6098.
What is an “Evacuation Commitment”?
The Turkish Code of Obligations Article 352/1 is as follows: "If the lessee undertakes to vacate the leased property on a certain date in writing, after the delivery of the leased property, the lessor may terminate the lease agreement by applying for enforcement or filing a lawsuit within one month starting from this date." It is a type of commitment that has emerged in practice in accordance with it. It allows the lessor to evacuate the lessee on the specified date without having to fulfill any other conditions or fulfill any other obligation.
What are the requirements for a valid release commitment?
In order to be able to say that there is a valid release commitment, the relevant commitment must meet some conditions. These can be listed as follows:
Commitment to evacuation must be made in writing. The condition of being in writing required for the commitment to evacuate is the ordinary written form, and the commitment does not have to be made in an official form.
The commitment to evacuate must be made through the tenant or his authorized representative. If there is more than one tenant, all tenants must have committed for the eviction commitment to be valid.
The evacuation commitment must contain the evacuation date. It is also possible to specify the release commitment as a strictly determinable date. However, specifying only as a month will result in the invalidation of the release commitment.
The commitment to evacuate must have been given after the rental agreement was concluded and the property subject to the agreement was handed over to the lessee. One of the biggest mistakes made in practice which results as the invalidity of this commitment is signing lease agreement and the eviction commitment on the same day. The eviction commitment must be signed after the house is handed over to the tenant.
How is the evacuation commitment put into practice, what are the processes that can be applied against the tenant who refuses to evacuate?
If the immovable is not vacated on the committed date despite the existence of an eviction commitment meeting these conditions, the lessor may terminate the lease agreement within 1 month starting from this date by applying for enforcement or filing a lawsuit.
If the lessor chooses to initiate enforcement proceedings, the lessor must initiate enforcement proceedings against the tenant within 1 month from the promised date. If enforcement proceedings are initiated, the enforcement office will send a payment order to the tenant regarding the eviction and delivery of the immovable within 15 days. The tenant has the right to object to the payment order sent within 7 days. In case of objection, the lessor will request the removal of the objection in the enforcement court or an eviction lawsuit will be filed in the general courts. If no objection is made or the objection is lifted, the immovable will be forcibly evicted by the enforcement office and handed over to the lessor. If enforcement proceedings are not carried out or an eviction lawsuit is not filed within 1 month, the commitment to evict will be deemed invalid and the lessor will not have the right to evict.
If the lessor chooses to file a lawsuit, he/she will have to file an eviction lawsuit in the magistrate's court within 1 month from the committed date.
Can 3rd parties who are not included in the rental agreement request an eviction on the basis of the evacuation undertaking?
The right to demand the evacuation of the lessor belongs to the lessor, and the evacuation of the lessor cannot be requested by the owner who is not the lessor(3rd party).
Unal&Partners Legal Team
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