I believe that a mock case study will be a good simulation to show you the consequences of a contract made by a careless land owner. I have to note that the facts of this fictional case are based on a real one. Yesterday I also mentioned that the hospitality gestures performed by Mr. False Contractor are, unfortunately, not sincere Turkish hospitality, but just a part of the game in which the main target is to stop Mr. Investor seeing other opportunities or communicating with other contractors. By performing these fake hospitality gestures, Mr. False Contractor abused both the sincere Turkish people and Mr. Investor.
Taking into consideration that the first step made by Mr. False Contractor is to isolate Mr. Investor, I would like to repeat that meeting different contractors is a must. It is not wise to meet different contractors introduced by same person. The contractors should be introduced to the investor by different sources.
Let’s continue with our story: Mr. Investor happily goes back to his home country after a “fruitful” week spent with a “good” contractor. Now Turkey seems to be far away and Mr. Contractor is thinking about carrying on his investment to the next step: construction.
It is hard to carry out construction on remote control basis but Mr. Investor feels himself lucky that he met this nice person, Mr. False Contractor.
Mr. Investor is now trying to justify the credibility of Mr. False Contractor and Mr. Investor is right to do so. Mr. False Contractor took Mr. Investor to several nice-looking construction sites, in the view of Mr. Investor apparently, owned and run by Mr. False Contractor and/or his partners.
He also went to his office, where he was shown a lot of drawings, pictures of completed projects and maps. Mr. False Contractor gave the impression that he is a well-known and respected businessman.
Yes, Mr. Investor is aware that Mr. False Contractor did not show any papers, company papers, documentation or any such thing but isn’t this the way everything is done in Turkey? Not a lot of things are planned and shown on paper. Most of the transactions are made verbally.
I have to interrupt here again: Your lawyer notes that nowadays things are not done this way. You have to ask for the documentation and official papers for your transactions in Turkey.
Next morning Mr. Investor contacts Mr. False Contractor and gets the details for his prospective project. He gets very nice verbal feedback. The prices given by Mr. False Contractor are listed in detail and now everything is written on the headed paper of a company. Mr. Investor will check the prices more or less through his sources in Turkey. The prices given by Mr. False Contractor are almost 10 percent less than the market prices. Mr. False Contractor gave a good deal then, didn’t he?
More tricks tomorrow, please keep reading.
NOTE: Attorney at law Berk Çektir is 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.
