The second part of his letter demonstrates another important matter concerning not only foreigners but also locals. Richard's letter says: “Notary staff will not accept a notarized passport but always insist on preparing another notarized passport from the original, thus charging foreigners another unnecessary fee. Notary staff should accept notarized passports. After all, if they do not trust a notarized passport then who does?What hope can there be for Turkey obtaining full membership in the European Union, which may help notaries be better regulated. The foreigners say that three things are inevitable in life: 1. You will pay taxes 2. You will die 3. You will be swindled in Turkey. I am hoping for a better future. Richard
Dear Richard, thank you for this nice e-mail, touching on an important point. Before I start I need to share my personal opinion concerning the “swindle” issue, which you have raised in quite a humorous way. I personally do not agree that being swindled is reserved only to Turkey. As a person dealing in international business, I believe that swindling occurs everywhere, but the approach is different in Turkey.
As previously mentioned in the first part of this article, there seems to be no legitimate reason why the notary should not be required to accept another passport translation approved by another notary.
Imagine that you are in Turkey to buy property and made the decision to buy after much research and a long hunt for the perfect parcel. The seller is pushing you to make a down payment to reserve the property and threatening to sell to another buyer if you do not complete the paperwork and get back to him immediately. Inevitably it is very difficult to resist the notary's statement that the document needs to be notarized a second time when you are in the middle of a real estate transaction. At this point, somebody takes advantage of this stressful position and urges you to say “yes” to everything. Therefore, you allow the notary to charge you a second time for the same translation/transaction. At the end, you have two documents that are exactly the same but stamped by different notaries. This is not only a waste of time and resources but also a ridiculous ceremony which destroys trust and instead seems deceptive.
What can you do against such unavoidable requests?
It is certainly possible not to accept the notary's request. If you do this, your papers will not be ready on time, and you will spend more money and time looking for another notary with the possibility of experiencing the same thing.
To be frank, there is no efficient way to skip this hassle. What I would do is: I would take two copies of the same "document" and submit it to the federation of notaries and to other judicial authorities and make a claim against the notary. This will most probably give you nothing more than the satisfaction of doing the right thing. The notary can just claim that he was never given the first copy; otherwise, there would be no reason for him not to accept it (other than greed).
Your application will stop this notary from doing the same thing again because the repercussions will be more serious if he is caught doing the same thing again.
Finally, the problem is attributable not only to the notary but also has something to do with the lack of translation services.
I have realized that there is no translation company that has branches all over the country. The reason I am suggesting a chain is at least you are not in the hands of a single person and you will have somebody whose door you can knock on at least in case of a problem with the translation.
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.
