The email is as follows: “Briefly, I purchased a villa from a real estate agency on May 5, 2004 and upon visiting the property in January 2005, water was cascading down most of the walls. Their attempts to correct the fault have failed; admittedly, the problem has improved, but we still have troubles. During the last 12 months, telephone calls, faxes and text messages have been completely ignored. During my latest visit, from March 31, 2008 to May 27, 2008, my wife and I visited the real estate agency’s office, we were advised that they would visit the villa within the next few days. But these days passed and no action was taken. Finally, they agreed about the problem and arranged for the roof section to be replaced or repaired, as well as the paintwork damaged as a result of the constant running water. Needless to say, nobody arrived, so we sought advice for what action we could take, but the process seemed to cover quite a long period. We have from the agency a five-year house builder’s guarantee, plus a pool and garden maintenance contract at a fixed price for five years. To date, the agency has broken all of their contractual rules and pledges. Telephone calls and text messages are completely ignored. It appears that there is no governing body to enforce a law on builders’ guarantees. Therefore, it is by word of mouth and quite useless. I look forward to your comments about whether or not we can hope for assistance and guidance under ‘Turkish consumer rights’.”Dear reader: I am sorry that you have been having problems with a developer in Turkey. I feel that these people should be more responsible and should respect their customers, the people through whom they have made millions.
What does the law say?
The law has a particular definition for “consumer.” In terms of this definition, a real person or legal entity must have no professional or commercial purposes to be treated as a consumer and to be protected by the Consumer Protection Law.
The Consumer Protection Law covers sales agreements between buyers and sellers and many other specific agreements, such as time-share vacations, packaged tours, campaign sales, door-to-door sales, distance contracts, consumer credit, credit cards, subscription contracts for periodicals, warranties, user manuals, post-sales services and commercials.
Reading your email, I understand that there are two different contracts; the first contract is between you and the agent; the second agreement is between you and the developer.
I don’t have access to the agreements and I don’t know their terms, so I will have to make assumptions about them. I presume that the first purchase agreement is between you and the seller (developer) and that the real estate agency is also a party to this agreement. The second agreement should have been made directly with the developer in regard to garden and pool maintenance as a post-sale service agreement. Both agreements might constitute one agreement, and both the developer and the real estate agent might be the same legal person.
Please keep reading, I will write the second part of this article on Wednesday.
NOTE: Berk Çektir is a licensed attorney at law and available to answer questions on the legal aspects of living in Turkey. Send enquiries to b.cektir@todayszaman.com. The names of the readers are disclosed only upon written approval of the sender.
DISCLAIMER: The information provided here is intended to give basic legal information. You should get legal assistance from a licensed attorney at law while conducting legal transactions and not just rely on the information in this corner.
