Construction and Zoning Law

In construction disputes, rights are most often lost not in the lawsuit itself but before it: the right to the contractual penalty is lost because the flat was accepted without objection; the work is deemed accepted because a defect was not notified in time; the 15-day objection period against a risky building decision, or the time limit for suing against a demolition order, is missed. In urban regeneration, since 2023 a simple majority calculated by shares has been sufficient, so the share of an owner who does not join the decision may be put up for sale.

On this page you will find the rights of the landowner under a construction contract in exchange for flats, the steps to take when the contractor delivers late or the home is defective, the stages of urban regeneration, the time limits for suing against demolition orders and zoning fines, the costs for 2026, and answers to the most frequently asked questions.

Time limits and competent courts in construction and zoning disputes

In construction files the same event touches more than one area of law: the relationship with the contractor is governed by the law of obligations, the position of a home buyer by consumer law, and permit and demolition decisions by administrative law. Which route and which time limit apply must be determined at the first review.

In calculating time limits, the starting date (delivery, notification, last day of publication) is decisive. For a preliminary assessment you can use the time limit and limitation period checker; an exact calculation requires review of the documents.

Construction contract in exchange for flats: form, land registry annotation and the landowner’s safeguards

A construction contract in exchange for flats (kat karşılığı or arsa payı karşılığı inşaat sözleşmesi) is a mixed contract: as regards the contractor’s duty to build, it is a contract for work (TBK art. 470 ff.), and as regards the transfer of land shares, it is a promise to sell immovable property. Because it includes an obligation to transfer immovable property, it must be drawn up in official form before a notary (TBK art. 237, Turkish Civil Code, TMK art. 706); an ordinary written contract is, as a rule, invalid. However, where most of the obligations have been performed, relying on the defect of form may be considered contrary to the rule of good faith.

The strongest protection for the landowner is to have the contract annotated in the land registry and to transfer land shares to the contractor in stages according to the progress of construction. Otherwise the contractor may sell the shares received to third parties before finishing the building, and the landowner is forced to file an action for cancellation of title and registration. The following points must be clearly set out in the contract:

• A firm delivery date, a definition of force majeure and the contractual penalty applicable to delay
• The allocation table of independent units (floor, frontage, square metres)
• The specification schedule (mahal listesi) showing the quality of materials and workmanship, and the technical specifications
• The share transfer schedule, security and the obligation to pay rent assistance
• Who bears the costs of the building permit, occupancy permit and building inspection

We discuss the formation of the contract, the calculation of delay compensation and withdrawal from the contract in detail in our article construction contracts in exchange for flats and delay compensation.

The contractor has not delivered: default, delay compensation and withdrawal

If the contractor does not deliver on the agreed date, it falls into default. After granting a reasonable additional period (TBK art. 123), the landowner may exercise one of the following optional rights (TBK art. 125):

1. Performance and delay compensation: demanding completion of the construction while claiming, for the period of delay, damages equal to the market rental value of the independent units that should have been delivered.
2. Compensation instead of performance: immediately declaring that performance is waived and claiming the loss arising from non-performance of the contract.
3. Withdrawal from the contract: terminating the contract and claiming the return of the transferred shares and the loss suffered. Where construction is at an advanced stage, termination with effect for the future comes into play instead of withdrawal.

If it is clearly foreseeable that the work will by all estimates not be completed on time, the landowner may withdraw from the contract without waiting for the delivery date (TBK art. 473).

Watch out with the contractual penalty: the penalty agreed for delay can be claimed together with the principal obligation; however, if the landowner accepts the flats without reservation, this right may be lost (TBK art. 179). The note “I reserve my rights to the delay penalty and compensation” should be added to the delivery report or made in a separate notarial formal notice. The judge may reduce a penalty considered excessive (TBK art. 182); a contractor who is a merchant cannot request a reduction on the ground that it is excessive (Turkish Commercial Code, TTK art. 22).

If the contractor does not start work in urban regeneration: for plots within the scope of Law No. 6306, if for reasons attributable to the contractor work has not started within one year, or has not been carried out with sufficient crew and equipment for at least six months, the owners may adopt a termination decision by a simple majority calculated by shares and apply to the Urban Regeneration Directorate (Kentsel Dönüşüm Başkanlığı). The Directorate gives the contractor 30 days; if work does not start by the end of that period, the contract is deemed terminated automatically (Law No. 6306, art. 6/14).

A person who bought a home from the contractor, on the other hand, is not a landowner but a consumer: in pre-paid housing sales, the delivery period may in no case exceed 48 months from the contract date (TKHK art. 44); in case of delay, the buyer may withdraw from the contract and claim a refund of the price paid and compensation for the loss.

Incomplete and defective workmanship: notification, optional rights and limitation

After the building is delivered, the work should be inspected as soon as possible in the ordinary course of business, and defects should be notified to the contractor within a reasonable time (TBK art. 474). If no notification is made, the work is deemed accepted. A hidden defect that emerges later (such as cracks in walls, roof leaks, plumbing leaks or missing insulation) must be notified without delay once discovered (TBK art. 477). Making the notification by notarial formal notice is important for proof.

Where the defect is established, the employer may, for a serious defect, withdraw from the contract, request a price reduction, or, if it does not involve excessive cost, request free repair; the right to compensation is also reserved (TBK art. 475). If the building stands on the landowner’s property and its removal would cause excessive harm, the right of withdrawal cannot be exercised; for this reason, in files concerning contracts in exchange for flats the claim is usually framed as the cost of incomplete and defective work.

The limitation period runs from delivery: actions arising from defects in immovable structures become time-barred 5 years after the delivery date, or 20 years if the contractor is grossly at fault, regardless of the nature of the defect (TBK art. 478). Discovering the defect late does not restart the period; it only determines when the notification must be made.

The consumer distinction: a person who buys a home from a contractor or a selling company falls under the Consumer Protection Law. The seller’s liability for defects in a home lasts 5 years from delivery; if the defect was concealed through gross fault or fraud, the limitation provisions do not apply (TKHK art. 12). Defects that appear within the first 6 months after delivery are presumed to have existed at delivery (TKHK art. 10). The consumer may withdraw from the contract, request a price reduction, free repair or, where possible, replacement with a defect-free equivalent. If the amount is below the arbitration committee threshold, the application goes to the consumer arbitration committee; if above, mediation must be attempted first. For details see our article on defective goods and the consumer arbitration committee.

The building inspection firm is liable, together with the contractor and the project designers and in proportion to its fault, for damage arising from construction that is contrary to the permit and project, incomplete or faulty. This liability lasts 15 years for the load-bearing system and 2 years for non-load-bearing parts from the occupancy permit (Law No. 4708, art. 3). This route becomes important in files where the contractor has gone bankrupt or disappeared.

In both cases, the first step is to request preservation of evidence (delil tespiti) from the court so that evidence is not lost: a court expert compares the delivered work with the contract, the project and the specification schedule and reports the cost of the incomplete work and defects. Having the evidence preserved before any repair is carried out prevents later difficulties of proof.

Urban regeneration (Law No. 6306): risky buildings and the simple majority decision

By the amendment made to Law No. 6306 through Law No. 7471, which entered into force on 9 November 2023, the two-thirds majority previously required for decisions on risky buildings such as reconstruction, a contract in exchange for flats and the sale of shares was abolished, and a simple majority of the co-owners calculated by their shares became sufficient. For example, in a 10-flat building with equal shares, the decision of 6 owners is now enough. The Implementing Regulation was also amended on 4 February 2026; before starting the process, the current version of the regulation should be checked.

Once the building has been demolished and the property has become a plot, an action for dissolution of co-ownership (ortaklığın giderilmesi davası) may be filed; however, this action does not stop decision-making by simple majority or the implementation (Law No. 6306, art. 6/16). It should be borne in mind in particular that the time limit for suing against administrative acts under Law No. 6306 is 30 days, not the general 60-day administrative time limit. An undervalued market price or defective service of notification are the main points that can be challenged in court.

Challenging a demolition order and a zoning fine

When a building without a permit or contrary to its permit is detected, the municipality draws up a construction stop report (yapı tatil tutanağı), seals the building and halts construction. Posting the report on the building counts as notification, and the violation is entered in the declarations section of the title. The building owner is given at most one month to bring the building into conformity with the permit or to obtain a permit; otherwise the permit is cancelled, the municipal executive committee (belediye encümeni) issues a demolition order, and the demolition costs are recovered from the owner (Law No. 3194, art. 32).

For the same violation, the committee also imposes an administrative fine on the building owner and the contractor (Law No. 3194, art. 42). The fine is calculated according to the building class and the square metres of the violation, with increases for absence of a permit and the character of the area where the building is located; unit amounts are updated every year by the revaluation rate. The portion added on the basis of the property tax value is not collected if the violation is remedied within one month of notification of the fine. Paying the fine does not prevent demolition; unlicensed construction may also be investigated as the offence of causing zoning pollution (Turkish Penal Code, TCK art. 184).

The construction stop report, the demolition order and the fine are separate administrative acts; an action for annulment against each may be filed in the administrative court where the property is located within 60 days of notification. In demolition cases, filing an action does not automatically stop the demolition; a stay of execution (yürütmenin durdurulması) must be requested with reasons in the first petition. For administrative court proceedings, see also our administrative and tax law page.

Zoning amnesty and the building registration certificate

The zoning amnesty (imar barışı, Law No. 3194, provisional art. 16) applied to buildings constructed without a permit or contrary to a permit before 31 December 2017; applications were accepted in 2018–2019 and that period has ended. Unless a new application period is opened by law, a building registration certificate (yapı kayıt belgesi) cannot be obtained; before taking any step, it should be checked whether any new regulation on zoning amnesty has been introduced. A building registration certificate obtained earlier removes demolition orders concerning the building and fines not yet collected, but it has limits:

• The certificate is valid until the building is rebuilt or an urban regeneration project is implemented; on renewal, the zoning legislation then in force applies.
• Buildings constructed on privately owned property belonging to third parties are excluded.
• A certificate obtained through a false declaration may be cancelled; in that case the demolition and fine procedures resume.
• The certificate does not mean that the building is earthquake-resistant; it does not prevent a risky building determination.

Mediation, costs and duration of proceedings (2026)

Since 1 September 2023, mediation has been a precondition for filing suit in disputes concerning condominium ownership and in actions for dissolution of co-ownership (Law No. 6325, art. 18/B). For defective home cases heard by the consumer court, mediation must also be attempted first. If the parties are merchants and the claim is for a sum of money, mediation may be required as for a commercial case; in classic disputes between the landowner and the contractor under a contract in exchange for flats, this requirement is assessed separately in each file.

The Minimum Attorney Fee Tariff was published in the Official Gazette of 4 November 2025; the fee is set in writing at the first meeting according to the scope of the file. For claims for incomplete work whose amount cannot be known exactly at the outset, since the action for an unquantified claim (belirsiz alacak davası) was abolished on 31 July 2026, a partial action (kısmi dava) may be filed and the claim increased once in the same action after the expert report (Code of Civil Procedure, HMK art. 109/4). In Istanbul, construction cases requiring a site inspection and a technical expert usually take 2–4 years; demolition and fine cases before the administrative court are examined on the file and so are often concluded in a shorter time. Cases are, as a rule, heard at the courthouse where the property is located.

Our work in construction and zoning law

• Drafting and negotiating contracts in exchange for flats and annotating them in the land registry
• Formal notices, contractual penalties, delay compensation and withdrawal actions where the contractor is late
• Preservation of evidence, cost and compensation actions for incomplete and defective work
• Consumer arbitration committee, mediation and consumer court proceedings for people who bought homes from contractors
• In urban regeneration, objections to risky building determinations, owners’ decisions, and actions against share sales and market value
• Actions for annulment against construction stop reports, demolition orders, permit cancellations and zoning fines
• Actions against zoning plan amendments and claims for cancellation of title and registration

Required documents

• The notarial contract, additional protocols and any land registry annotation
• The title record, construction servitude (kat irtifakı) or condominium ownership documents
• Building permit, approved architectural project, specification schedule and occupancy permit
• Delivery report, list of incomplete and faulty items, and formal notices sent
• For defect claims, dated photographs, technical reports and building management decisions
• In urban regeneration, the risky building determination report, notifications and minutes of owners’ meetings
• In administrative disputes, the construction stop report, the municipal executive committee decision and proof of notification

For other property disputes such as tenancy, pre-emption and dissolution of co-ownership, see our tenancy and real estate law page.

The information on this page is general in nature and has been prepared in accordance with the legislation in force in 2026. In construction and zoning files, time limits run differently depending on the dates of notification and delivery; you are advised to consult a lawyer about your specific situation.