Power of Attorney for Turkey from Abroad

A mandate (vekâlet) is the contract by which the agent undertakes to carry out a piece of business or a transaction for the principal. Where an authorised representative acts in another person's name and on their account, the legal consequences of the transaction bind the person represented directly.

The content and extent of the authority are determined by the transaction that grants it, in practice the wording of the power. If the scope is not stated expressly, it follows from the nature of the business and includes the legal transactions needed to carry it out.

The rule that matters most to anyone abroad is the list of acts that need special authority (özel yetki). Unless specially authorised, an agent may not bring an action, settle, refer a dispute to arbitration, apply for bankruptcy or concordat, enter into obligations on bills of exchange, make a gift, stand as guarantor, transfer immovable property or encumber it with a right. A power drafted in general terms, to manage all your affairs in Turkey, does not allow your agent to sell your flat.

Court proceedings have their own list. Without express authority a representative in litigation may not, among other things, settle, appoint a substitute, use alternative dispute resolution, waive the action or an appeal, or accept the other side's claim.

In foreign countries, notarial functions are carried out by Turkish consuls. They are performed inside the consulate building, under the provisions of the Notaries Law (Noterlik Kanunu) that govern notarial acts. A power of attorney executed at a consulate is therefore a Turkish notarial act from the start.

The Law lists the provisions that apply to consuls; they include the rules on the form of notarial acts, on interpreters and on photographs. If you do not know Turkish, a sworn interpreter must also be present.

For property the form is stricter. Powers of attorney that by their nature require a transaction at the land registry must be drawn up (düzenleme şeklinde) by the notary; a signature certification (onaylama), which only records that the signature is yours, is a lighter act. The Notaries Law leaves to regulation the list of acts that must carry the photograph of the person concerned, and the Notaries Law Regulation includes powers of attorney that require a land registry transaction.

Yes, but the document then has to be made usable in Turkey. Under the Notaries Law, the signature and seal of the competent foreign authority on a notarial act made abroad under local procedure are certified by the Turkish consul. The same article reserves the provisions of special laws.

Documents issued by the authorities of states party to the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents follow the apostille route. On this page that route is evidenced only by the Civil Registry Services Regulation, which governs civil registry procedures: there, such documents are processed with an apostille (tasdik şerhi) attached to the original and a Turkish translation certified by a notary. The Convention's own text is not reproduced here, and how the land registry treats an apostilled power is covered below.

For the land registry the question is narrower. The Land Registry Regulation (Tapu Sicili Tüzüğü) authorises the Directorate General of Land Registry and Cadastre to determine the documents to be used by foreign nationals in land registry and cadastre transactions. Whether a foreign-notarised, apostilled power is accepted for a particular transaction, and in what wording, should be confirmed before you sign it abroad, not after it arrives.

Translation is itself a notarial function in Turkey. Notaries translate documents from one language into another; the translation carries a note beneath the text which, where a sworn translator was used, states the translator's identity and address and is dated, signed and sealed by the notary.

There are two routes. The first is an agent. Where an application is made through an agent, the land registry asks for a power of attorney drawn up under the Notaries Law that shows the agent is authorised for the transaction applied for, and the principal's signature on that power is mandatory. Once the agent's identity is established, the owner shown in the register is compared with the principal named in the power.

If the agent has appointed someone else under a power of substitution (tevkil), the power on which the substitution rests is also required. Under the Code of Obligations an agent must perform the mandate personally and may have the work done by someone else only where authorised to do so, where circumstances make it necessary, or where custom allows it.

The second route avoids a power altogether. The Land Registry Law allows a contract intended to transfer ownership of immovable property to be completed where the parties are at different land registry offices or at the registry's organisation abroad, with officials taking each party's declaration separately. The detailed procedure is set by regulation.

Anyone with capacity to sue may bring and pursue an action personally or through a representative they appoint. A power for litigation covers, until the judgment becomes final, every step needed to pursue the case, the enforcement of the judgment and the collection of costs, subject to the matters that need special authority.

A lawyer must file, for the court or enforcement file, the original of a power of attorney certified or drawn up by a notary, or a copy certified by the lawyer as true to the original. A lawyer who does not file it cannot bring an action or take any step in the proceedings. Where delay could cause harm, the court may allow the action to be brought on condition that the power is produced within a final time limit.

Under the Attorneyship Law, powers of attorney are of a single type for the whole of Turkey, and their format and content are prepared by the Union of Turkish Bar Associations and the Union of Turkish Notaries. A lawyer may make copies of the power and certify them; those copies have the status of official copies before all courts, public offices and private persons.

You may restrict or withdraw an authority granted by a legal transaction at any time, and you cannot waive that right in advance. The mandate contract itself may likewise be ended unilaterally by either side at any time; a party who ends it at an inopportune moment must compensate the other's resulting loss. Rights arising from the underlying relationship, such as a service, mandate or partnership contract, are preserved.

Revocation is not complete until the right people know. If you told third parties about the authority, expressly or by implication, you cannot rely on its withdrawal against third parties acting in good faith unless you have told them of the withdrawal too. If the agent holds a power of attorney document, the agent must return it when the authority ends; if you do not do what is needed to get it back, you are liable to good-faith third parties for their loss.

Until the agent knows the authority has ended, you remain bound by the transactions the agent makes, unless the third party knew of the termination; for acts done before the agent learned that the contract had ended, you or your heirs are liable as if it were still in force.

Notaries are empowered to send notices and warnings (ihtarname), so a revocation can be sent to the agent through a notary rather than by private letter. Court proceedings need a separate step: the dismissal of a representative takes effect towards the court and the other side only once it is notified by petition or recorded in the minutes, and the cost of serving notice is paid in advance where needed.

A power that grants every special authority, to anyone and at any price, is valid, and the risk lies in that validity. The agent must follow your express instructions and act loyally and with care, having regard to your legitimate interests; but as against a buyer in good faith, a breach of those duties is a matter between you and the agent.

The Court of Cassation (Yargıtay) has dealt with this in a property case. In its first reversal in that case (25 June 2018, E. 2015/13900, K. 2018/11481), the 1st Civil Chamber said that, besides a valid power, the norm is a transfer at the real or a near-real price without harm to the principal, and that where the price is very low or symbolic the owner must be taken to have been harmed; on the facts, it found that the buyer could not be regarded as in good faith and that the defendants had acted in concert. In its 2022 decision the Chamber added that even authority to sell to anyone at any price does not entitle the agent to sell outside reasonable bounds in disregard of good faith and the duties of loyalty and care (1st Civil Chamber, E. 2022/2189, K. 2022/5265, 29 June 2022). Whether a particular sale binds you, however, turns on the buyer.

Whether you can recover the property depends on the buyer. If the buyer was in good faith, meaning the buyer did not know of the misuse and could not have known despite due care, the contract is valid and binds you, and the misuse remains an internal matter between you and the agent. If the buyer acted in concert with the agent, or knew or should have known of the misuse, you are not bound. In that case the agent had sold the owner's shares far below their real value to his own son, and the Chamber found no error in the judgment allowing the claim against both.

A further transfer adds another layer. A third party who acquires ownership relying in good faith on the entry in the land register is protected. In the same case a share in one of the plots had been sold on during the proceedings, and the Chamber sent that part back for the trial court to decide whether the later buyer could rely on that protection.

Give a power for the transaction in hand rather than a general one, and withhold the authority to appoint substitutes unless it is needed. On request, an agent must account for the business and hand over what was received under the mandate, with interest on money handed over late.

I advise owners and heirs who live abroad on powers of attorney for Turkey, and I do so in English. This page is general information and does not replace advice on your own situation; the documents the land registry and consulates accept from foreign nationals are set by the administration and change, so the current position should be confirmed before you sign.