Tahliye Taahhütnamesi: Turkey’s Vacate Undertaking Explained
A Turkish residential tenancy is hard to end. One document is the exception — a written promise by the tenant to leave on a stated date. It is also the document most often signed at the wrong moment, which is precisely when it stops working.
The one document that outranks a tenant’s security of tenure
Foreign owners who let a Turkish property are usually surprised by the same thing: the lease they signed does not really end when it says it ends. Under Article 347 of the Turkish Code of Obligations, a fixed-term residential tenancy is extended by a further year on the same terms unless the tenant gives notice at least fifteen days before the term expires. The landlord is told plainly that they may not end the agreement by relying on the expiry of its term. A landlord who simply wants the flat back has no ground at all until the ten-year extension period has run, after which they may terminate without giving any reason, on at least three months’ notice before the end of each following extension year.
That is the backdrop against which the tahliye taahhütnamesi — the written undertaking to vacate — has to be understood. It is the one route that lets a landlord fix a date in advance and hold the tenant to it. It is also, for exactly that reason, the document that generates the most argument, the most bad practice, and the most litigation.
The rule itself is short. Article 352, first paragraph, provides that where the tenant has undertaken in writing, after the leased property has been handed over, to vacate it on a specific date, and then does not vacate, the landlord may bring the tenancy to an end by applying to the enforcement office or by filing suit within one month starting from that date.
Four conditions are doing all the work in that sentence, and every one of them is a condition precedent rather than a formality: the undertaking must be written, it must be given after handover, it must name a specific date, and the landlord must act within one month of that date. Miss any of them and the document does not deliver the remedy it appears to promise.
This guide sets out what the statute actually requires, how a landlord enforces an undertaking in practice, what a tenant should understand before signing one, and where the protections sit that cannot be contracted away. It sits alongside our wider guide to Turkish rental law and, from the other side of the table, our guide for foreign tenants renting in Istanbul.
The Vacate Undertaking — At A Glance
What Article 352 requires before the remedy is available
How an undertaking is actually enforced
The undertaking is not self-executing. It does not entitle anyone to change the locks. It gives the landlord a ground, and a short window in which to use it.
Confirm the undertaking satisfies Article 352
Before anything else, check the four conditions against the document in front of you: is it in writing, was it given after the property was handed over, does it state a specific vacate date, and has that date passed? If the answer to any of these is no, the Article 352 route is not open and a different ground has to be found.
Diarise the one-month deadline from the vacate date
The month runs from the date written in the undertaking, not from the day the landlord decides to act, and not from the end of the lease year. This is the deadline that catches landlords out most often, usually because they spent the first few weeks negotiating with a tenant who had already indicated they would leave.
Choose the route: enforcement office or court
Article 352 gives the landlord two routes and the choice between them is the landlord’s: applying to the enforcement office (icra) or filing suit. They are different procedures with different documents and different points at which a tenant can raise an objection. This is the decision on which Turkish legal advice is genuinely worth paying for.
Use the Article 353 extension only if you need it, and in writing
Article 353 provides that where the landlord has notified the tenant in writing, at the latest within the period prescribed for bringing the claim, that they intend to bring it, the time for doing so is treated as extended by one lease year. It is a safety valve, not a substitute for acting on time, and it has to be in writing.
Expect the signature and the handover date to be the battleground
Where an undertaking is disputed, the argument is rarely about what Article 352 says. It is about whether that signature is the tenant’s, whether the date on the document is the date it was actually signed, and whether the property had been handed over by then. Keep the handover record, the lease, and any correspondence that fixes when the tenant took possession.
Do not try to improve on the statute in the lease
Article 354 provides that the provisions governing the ending of a lease by action may not be varied to the tenant’s detriment. A clause in the tenancy agreement that shortens the tenant’s protections, or that purports to make an undertaking effective without a court or enforcement step, is working against a rule the parties cannot contract around.
Remember what the undertaking does not reach
An undertaking ends the tenancy. It does not resolve unpaid rent, unpaid service charges (aidat), damage, or an unreturned deposit. Those are separate claims on separate timetables, and an owner managing the property from abroad should expect to need someone in Turkey to deal with them.
Six things the statute attaches to a vacate undertaking
None of these are drafting preferences. Each is a condition the Code of Obligations places on the remedy, and a document that misses one simply does not reach it.
It has to be in writing
Article 352 requires the tenant to have undertaken the vacating in writing. An oral assurance, a message agreeing to move out, or a landlord’s note of a conversation is not the instrument the Article is describing.
After handover, not before
The Article conditions the undertaking on its being given after the leased property has been handed over to the tenant. This is the condition most often missed, and it is the one that most often defeats the document later.
A specific date
The undertaking is to vacate on a specific date. A promise to leave when the landlord needs the property, or when circumstances allow, does not give the fixed point from which the Article 352 clock runs.
One month to act
The landlord may end the tenancy by applying to the enforcement office or filing suit within one month, starting from the date stated in the undertaking. Allow the month to pass without acting and the ground is spent.
A process, not a self-help right
Even a flawless undertaking does not permit a landlord to take back possession unilaterally. The Article works by giving a route to the enforcement office or the court; it does not dispense with one.
It cannot be made worse for the tenant
Under Article 354, the rules on ending a tenancy by action may not be modified to the tenant’s detriment. Whatever the lease says, the statutory floor stays where the Code puts it.
Where vacate undertakings come apart
Almost every serious dispute about a tahliye taahhütnamesi reduces to one of three questions, and none of them is a question about the wording of Article 352.
Was the property handed over when the undertaking was signed?
The statute is explicit that the undertaking must be given after the leased property has been handed over. A landlord who presents the undertaking as part of the signing bundle — lease, undertaking, deposit receipt, all together, before the tenant has taken possession — is creating a document whose compliance with that condition is, at best, arguable. Where the undertaking carries the same date as the lease, the question of whether handover had already taken place is exactly the point on which the matter will turn, and it is a question of evidence rather than of drafting. Both sides should expect to have to prove when possession actually passed.
Is the date on the document the date it was signed?
The practice of taking an undertaking with the date left blank, to be completed later, is widespread and is the source of a great deal of litigation. We are not going to tell you how a Turkish court will treat a particular blank-dated document, because that depends on the evidence in the individual case and on case law that should be checked with a Turkish lawyer at the time, not quoted from a blog post. What can be said plainly is this: for a tenant, signing an undated undertaking hands the other party control of the date from which their own security of tenure disappears. There is no version of that which is in the tenant’s interest.
Did the landlord act in time?
The one-month window is short and it runs from the date in the undertaking. Landlords lose the ground by waiting, usually in good faith — the tenant said they were packing, a removal date was being arranged, a part payment was being discussed. Article 353 offers a route out of this, but only for a landlord who, within the period for bringing the claim, has notified the tenant in writing that they will bring it. A phone call does not do it.
What the undertaking has nothing to do with
It is worth being clear about the boundaries. The vacate undertaking is one of several grounds in the Code, and it does not displace the others. Non-payment of rent has its own machinery in Article 315, which requires the landlord to give the tenant written notice of a period in which to pay and to state that the contract will otherwise be terminated — a period of at least ten days generally, and at least thirty days for residential and roofed workplace leases, running from the day after the written notice is served. Article 352 then provides separately that a tenant who has caused two justified written warnings to be given for non-payment within the relevant lease year can be removed by action within one month of the end of that year.
Equally, rent is a separate subject from possession. Under Article 344, an agreement on the rent for a renewed term is valid only insofar as it does not exceed the rate of change in the twelve-month averages of the consumer price index for the preceding lease year, and the same rule applies to leases of more than one year. Where there is no agreement, the court sets the figure on the same ceiling, having regard to the condition of the property. A landlord cannot use a vacate undertaking as leverage in a rent argument and should not try: those are different provisions with different procedures. For how the increase mechanism works in detail, see our guide to rent increases and ending a tenancy.
Ending a Turkish residential tenancy: the routes side by side
The vacate undertaking is one ground among several. This is how it sits against the others the Code of Obligations provides, and what each one actually requires.
| Ground | Provision | What it requires | Court action needed? | Timing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Written vacate undertaking | Art. 352 ¶1 | A written undertaking, given after handover, to vacate on a specific date | Enforcement office or court | Within one month of the stated date |
| Two justified written warnings | Art. 352 ¶2 | Tenant caused two justified written warnings for unpaid rent in the relevant lease year | Court only | Within one month of the end of that lease year |
| Tenant already has a suitable home | Art. 352 ¶3 | Tenant or cohabiting spouse owns a habitable dwelling in the same district or municipality, unknown to the landlord at the outset | Court only | Within one month of the end of the contract |
| Landlord or family needs the property | Art. 350 ¶1 | Genuine need of the landlord, spouse, descendants, ascendants or legal dependants | Court only | Within one month of the term end or the notice date |
| Rebuilding or major works | Art. 350 ¶2 | Reconstruction, or substantial repair, enlargement or alteration that makes use impossible during the works | Court only | Within one month of the term end or the notice date |
| New owner needs the property | Art. 351 | Buyer needs it for themselves or family; must notify the tenant in writing within one month of acquiring | Court only | Action six months after that notice, or within one month of the term end |
| Ten-year extension period expired | Art. 347 ¶1 | No reason needed, once the ten-year extension period has run | Notice, then action if resisted | At least three months before the end of each following extension year |
| Default on rent or ancillary charges | Art. 315 | Written notice giving a period to pay, stating the contract will otherwise be terminated | Notice first | At least 30 days for residential leases |
Two further rules are worth knowing because they sit behind the whole table. First, under Article 348, a notice terminating a residential or roofed workplace tenancy is valid only if it is given in writing — there is no oral route. Second, Article 355 imposes a re-letting restriction: a landlord who recovers possession on the ground of need may not, without just cause, let the property to anyone other than the former tenant before three years have passed, and property recovered for rebuilding may not be let to someone else in its old condition within the same period. A landlord who breaches these is liable to compensate the former tenant in an amount not less than one year’s rent calculated on the last lease year.
Note where the vacate undertaking sits in that table: it is the only ground that gives the landlord the enforcement route as an alternative to suing, and the only one that depends on a date the parties themselves fixed rather than on a statutory event. That is the whole of its power, and the whole of the reason the conditions on it are read strictly.
If you are letting a Turkish property from abroad, the practical question is usually not which ground is theoretically available but who is going to serve the notice, attend the office and keep the file. That is covered in our guides to renting out property in Turkey and property management from abroad. If you are weighing up selling instead of re-letting, a sitting tenant changes the picture — see selling property in Turkey.
Letting a Turkish property and unsure where you stand?
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Tahliye taahhütnamesi — frequently asked questions
The questions landlords and tenants ask most often about the vacate undertaking and what it can and cannot do.
Where to go next
The rest of our Turkish rental and ownership library, from the tenancy rules to running a property from abroad.
- Turkish rental law — rent increases, the five-year reset and the lawful ways to end a tenancy.
- Renting in Istanbul — the same rules read from the tenant’s side of the table.
- Renting out property in Turkey — permits, platforms and the rules owners keep missing.
- Property management in Turkey — what owning and letting from abroad actually involves.
- Aidat and service charges — who owes the building charges, and what happens when they go unpaid.
- Address registration — numarataj, and why the address record matters for notices.
- Selling property in Turkey — the process for a foreign owner, tenant or no tenant.
- Do you need a Turkish lawyer? — where legal advice pays for itself and where it does not.
- All Turkey property guides — the full library for foreign owners, buyers and tenants.
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