No, I am abso-certain-lutely not enjoying this summer. It seems my projects will go on throughout the entire summer, which makes me feel as if I am in prison and counting the days to my release. As soon as I am done with all this stuff, I'll turn my phone off, leave the city and go to an unknown destination and only come back when I am ready to. Wow, even just writing this is good enough.
I sometimes receive the same basic -- but important –- question, and I have yet to fully answer it. Today I am planning to write down all I know about living in Turkey without any legal problems. My notes will be from the perspective of a friend, a lawyer friend, anyways.
Please don't think of this as discrimination. It is a universal rule applied in Turkey. Having said that, there are instances when foreigners are exposed to both positive and negative discrimination. For positive discrimination, go stand in front of a nice club and see how the locals are turned away by bodyguards while foreigners are let in without any hesitation.
It is another fact that some customs, rules and sanctions may not be applied to you as they are to the locals.
Do not take things as locals do; you should be more careful when entering into legal contracts. This means you may be shortchanged in a legal relationship just because you are a foreigner. For instance, if you are about to rent a house and are asked to pay a deposit, make sure you get your deposit back when you leave the house. Make sure you have the receipt for your deposit.
In most cases a rental agreement includes a clause addressing the deposit payment. The wording in general is as follows: “On the signing date of this agreement, the tenant shall make a payment to the owner as a deposit which will be returned to the tenant if leaving the property in good condition.” If you read this sentence carefully, you will see that the payment “is to be made in the future.” However, in 99 percent of rental agreements, the tenant pays the deposit on the same day; otherwise, he will not be given the keys to the property. I have witnessed a court case in which the foreign tenant had paid the deposit some time after signing the agreement and when leaving the premises asked for the return of the deposit. The landlord insisted that no payment had been made and that no money would be returned.
As you can imagine, this would possibly not happen if the tenant was not a foreigner. The landlord would not dare go against a Turkish tenant renting out such an expensive place. This is sad but true; crooks, unaware that the world is no longer very big, think it is much easier to cheat a foreigner. I will keep writing about this topic in the coming days.
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 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.
