Hello Berk,British people have noticed two problems with notary offices in Turkey: The first one is that the notary staff insists that translators provide verbal translations to foreigners, thus resulting in false translations and foreigners being robbed of large sums of money. There seem to be no legitimate reasons why translators should not be required to provide written translations in the correct language thus preventing fraud…
Dear Richard, thank you for the questions posed. I don't know if it is good that you have noticed only two problems with notary offices in Turkey. It is a fact that the greatest problem in the Turkish notary system is that there is no unity or good standard of services for notaries. This creates difficulties even for the lawyers and other professionals dealing with notary services.
It is very difficult to explain why notary offices in city A charge more than notary offices in city B for the same work. It is also difficult to explain why some very important work can be carried out without any notary intervention or approval, which may cause large losses, whereas some silly bureaucratic work must be approved by a notary. The greatest difficulty is that it is not possible to know if the notary will provide a certain service or not. If I may simplify: You may not be able to get the approval of notary A for the same work notary B approved. I have even witnessed some transactions which have been approved by notary A again submitted to notary A's office for exactly the same kind of work and rejected without approval. When you show the previous approvals for the same work and ask why this new transaction is not approved, the notary simply says that apparently it was a mistake which they don't want to repeat. When you go back to your client and tell them about the rejection, it is a very unpleasant situation to see the face of your client so puzzled.
In respect to your question, the translators don't want to spend time translating a full document but rather prefer to do the bare minimum required by the notary to process the transaction at that time. In some small cities, for example Didim, there are only a few translators, who are always working with the same notaries, developers and lawyers. This also creates stress on the translators who are afraid to get no more referrals for translation.
To be frank, foreigners are complaining about the slowness of the transaction and the causing of translators to try to make things quick and skip most of the sentences actually uttered before the notary. The notary listens to the parties and only scripts what is said (not by the foreign person but by the sworn “translator”).
I will write more about this issue later this week.
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.
