Reading a Turkish Title Deed's Encumbrance Record (Takyidat): Şerh, Beyan, İpotek and Haciz Before You Pay

Almost every bad property purchase in Türkiye is visible, in writing, on a single page of the land registry before any money moves. That page is the encumbrance record — the takyidat — and it lists every annotation, declaration, mortgage and attachment burdening the parcel you are about to buy. This guide is not about how to buy; it is about how to read that page line by line: what each entry costs you, which entries stop a transfer outright, which ones simply follow the property into your hands, and how the payment has to be sequenced against their removal.

What the takyidat record is, and how to see it before you pay

The takyidat is the encumbrance column of the land registry record for one specific parcel or independent unit, listing every annotation (şerhŞerhAnnotation on the title deedA note entered on the land-registry record that warns third parties of a right or restriction affecting the property.Glossary →), declaration (beyan), mortgage (ipotekİpotekMortgage over real estateA security right registered on a property so that a debt can be recovered from it if it is not paid.Glossary →) and attachment (hacizHacizAttachment / seizure of assetsThe step in an enforcement proceeding where the debtor's assets are legally attached so they can be sold to pay the debt.Glossary →) attached to it. It is not the small title certificate (tapuTapuTitle deed / land registry recordThe official title deed and the state land-registry record behind it — the only thing that proves who owns real estate in Türkiye.Glossary → senedi) the seller shows you on their phone — that document proves ownership and says almost nothing about burdens. What you need is the encumbrance printout (takyidat belgesi) issued by the land registry directorate (tapu müdürlüğü), or the equivalent view in the registry's online system, Web-Tapu.

Under the Turkish Civil Code (Türk Medeni Kanunu, Law No. 4721), the registry is public: Art. 1020 lets anyone who makes their interest credible inspect the relevant page and take a copy, and — the sentence that matters most to a buyer — no one may claim not to have known an entry in the land registry. The protection of good-faith acquirers in Art. 1023 therefore does not rescue you from a burden that was sitting on the record all along. In practice, the cleanest route is to have the seller share the record with you through Web-Tapu, or to instruct Turkish counsel to obtain and read it; both are standard steps in independent property due diligence.

Read the record for the independent unit you are buying, not just the parent parcel. In a building under floor-easement (kat irtifakıKat irtifakıConstruction servitude (pre-completion title)The form of title used for a unit in a building that is not finished yet — a right to a flat that does not legally exist in final form.Glossary →) or condominium ownership (kat mülkiyeti) governed by the Condominium Law (Kat Mülkiyeti Kanunu, Law No. 634), a mortgage or attachment can sit on the developer's remaining shares, on the whole parcel, or on your specific flat — three very different problems.

Şerh: someone else's personal right, made enforceable against you

A şerh is an annotation that takes a merely personal right and makes it effective against every later owner, including you. Article 1009 of Law No. 4721 lists the classic ones: rights arising from a land-share-for-construction contract, a promise to sell (satış vaadi), a lease, a purchase option (alım), a pre-emption right (önalım) and a repurchase right (gerialım), plus any other right a statute allows to be annotated. Without the annotation, the seller's promise to a third party is that third party's private problem. With it, you inherit the problem the moment you register.

The entries that most often derail a foreign buyer are:

• Satış vaadi şerhi — the seller has already notarially promised the property to someone else, who can sue to compel transfer to themselves. Under Art. 26 of the Land Registry Law (Tapu Kanunu, Law No. 2644), this annotation is struck off by the registrar automatically if the sale or right is not completed within 5 years of the annotation date, so check the date, not just the existence of the entry.
• Aile konutu şerhi — the family-residence annotation under Art. 194 of Law No. 4721. The owner spouse cannot transfer the property without the other spouse's express consent. This is the single most common reason a transfer appointment collapses at the counter.
• İhtiyati tedbir şerhi — an interim injunction ordered by a court, typically in a dispute over the property itself. Where the order prohibits disposal, the registry will not register a transfer at all.
• Kira şerhi — an annotated lease. Note that under Art. 310 of the Turkish Code of Obligations (Türk Borçlar Kanunu, Law No. 6098), a new owner steps into the lease automatically even without an annotation. If you have a genuine need to use the property yourself — or for your spouse, descendants, ascendants or dependants; Art. 351 requires an actual necessity, not a preference — Art. 351 requires written notice to the tenant within 1 month of acquisition, with the eviction action available only six months after acquisition.
• Intifa hakkı (usufruct) — a real right under Art. 794 of Law No. 4721, not a şerh in the strict sense, but it appears in the same column and is worse: the holder keeps use and income of the property for their lifetime, and you buy a bare legal shell.

Our plain-language definition of the term sits in the glossary entry for şerh.

Beyan: declarations that describe the property rather than claim it

A beyan is a declaration entered to inform third parties of a legal or factual situation affecting the property, not a claim by a creditor against the owner. Because nobody is chasing money, buyers tend to skim this column — which is exactly why it produces the most expensive surprises after completion, when the burden turns out to be structural rather than financial.

Watch for these in particular:

• Yönetim planı — the building's management plan, binding on every unit owner and successor under Law No. 634. It can restrict short-term letting, commercial use or even pet ownership, which matters if your purchase model is rental yield.
• Riskli yapı beyanı — a risky-building declaration under Law No. 6306 on the regeneration of areas at disaster risk. The building is legally destined for demolition; owners are given a period set by the administration which, by law, cannot exceed 90 days (Law No. 6306, Art. 5(3), as amended by Law No. 7471 of 7 November 2023) — there is no statutory minimum, so a shorter period is lawful to demolish before the administration acts. Buying into an urban-transformation process is a legitimate strategy, but it is a different transaction from buying a flat to live in.
• Kamulaştırma şerhi — an expropriation entry, which Art. 7 itself calls an administrative annotation (idari şerh) rather than a declaration under Art. 7 of the Expropriation Law (Kamulaştırma Kanunu, Law No. 2942). It is deleted by the registry of its own motion if the administration does not apply to the court for determination of compensation and registration within 6 months, so a stale annotation is not the same as a live threat.
• Muhdesat beyanı — a declaration that the building, trees or facilities on the land belong to someone other than the landowner. You can end up owning the plot while a third party owns the structure standing on it.
• Cultural-asset and zoning declarations — protected-monument status, conservation-area restrictions, or a construction registration certificate issued under a zoning amnesty. Each caps what you may lawfully build, alter or demolish.

İpotek: how a mortgage on the record actually behaves in a sale

A mortgage does not prevent a sale in Türkiye; it travels with the property, so if it is not discharged at completion, you own the debt security even though the debt belongs to the seller. Immovable pledge is regulated from Art. 850 of Law No. 4721 onwards, and the mortgage (ipotek) in particular from Art. 881, and it secures a claim that may already exist or may merely be capable of arising in the future.

Three features of the entry decide how dangerous it is:

• Type. A principal-sum mortgage (anapara ipoteği) secures a defined amount. A maximum-amount or ceiling mortgage (üst sınır / azami meblağ ipoteği, Art. 851) secures a revolving relationship up to a ceiling — commonly a company's bank facility. The registered figure is a ceiling, not a balance, and the real exposure can only be established from the bank's own statement.
• Rank. Turkish mortgages are created in degrees (derece, Art. 870). A second-degree mortgage is only worth what is left after the first-degree holder is satisfied, and a vacated degree does not automatically improve the ranks below it unless a right to advance was agreed.
• Currency and amount. The registered amount is frequently far above the outstanding loan, because banks register with a margin. Never treat the registered figure as the discharge price.

The discharge (fek / terkin) is done at the registry against the creditor's release letter. In a normal financed resale, the bank issues a payoff figure valid to a stated date, the buyer pays that amount directly to the bank — commonly by blocked cheque or same-day transfer — and the discharge and the transfer are processed in the same session. The mechanics of the instrument itself are set out in the glossary entry for ipotek.

Haciz: the entry that makes a clean-looking purchase worthless

A haciz is an enforcement attachment recorded against the property by an enforcement office (icra dairesi) under the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law (İcra ve İflas Kanunu, Law No. 2004), and it is the entry most likely to cost a buyer the entire purchase price. Attachment of immovable property is registered on the land registry under Art. 91, which also restricts the owner’s power of disposal; where an attached immovable changes hands, Art. 91 refers the matter to Art. 148/a.

The trap is that a haciz does not automatically block registration of a sale. The transfer can go through, you become the registered owner, and the attachment stays exactly where it was — meaning the property can still be sold at enforcement auction for a debt that was never yours. You would then be left chasing the seller personally for restitution, typically after they have moved your money out of reach. A precautionary attachment (ihtiyati hacizİhtiyati hacizPrecautionary attachment (asset freeze)A court-ordered freeze on a debtor's assets granted early — before the case ends — to stop them being moved out of reach.Glossary →) obtained before judgment behaves the same way on the record.

Two further points routinely missed on Turkish records. First, an attachment can be registered against an undivided share in jointly owned property (hisseli tapu); if you are buying one co-owner's share, read the record for the debts of that co-owner, not the others. Second, an action for dissolution of joint ownership (ortaklığın giderilmesi) may be annotated — the endpoint of that case is a court-ordered public sale of the whole property, whether or not you want to sell.

The only safe treatment of a haciz is removal before completion: the debt is settled, the enforcement office issues the release, and the entry is deleted. A promise to clear it "next week" is not a plan; it is an unsecured loan from you to a debtor whose creditors are already at the door.

Which entries block the transfer, and which simply follow the property

Only a minority of encumbrances physically stop the registrar from processing a transfer; the majority let the sale complete and then attach themselves to you, which is why "the tapu went through" proves nothing about the quality of what you bought. Sorting the record into these two columns is the core analytical step.

Settled Turkish case law treats the registry as the decisive record of these burdens, and Art. 1020 of Law No. 4721 removes the argument that you did not know. A buyer who registers over a visible haciz is not an innocent victim in the eyes of the law; they are someone who read nothing.

Extra lines foreigners find on Turkish records

Foreign buyers face a second layer of entries that a Turkish buyer would never encounter, and each one can either restrict your purchase or reveal a restriction on your seller. Art. 35 of Law No. 2644 governs acquisition by foreign nationals: total acquisitions by a foreign individual are capped at 30 hectares nationwide, and holdings may not exceed 10% of the privately owned land area of the district concerned. Military and security zone clearance is a separate administrative check run through the registry, not something you can negotiate with the seller.

Two entries deserve specific attention. First, property acquired under the citizenship-by-investment route — currently tied to a USD 400,000 threshold — carries an annotation that it will not be sold for 3 years. If your seller acquired that way and the annotation is live, the sale to you simply cannot be registered until the period expires, no matter what has been agreed or paid. Second, since the relevant land registry regulation was amended, a sale to a foreign buyer requires a valuation report (taşınmaz değerleme raporu) from a licensed appraiser; the report is not an encumbrance, but a valuation far below the agreed price is a strong signal to re-read the encumbrance record before completing.

Compulsory earthquake insurance (DASK) must also be in place for the unit before the registry will process the transfer, and the transfer itself triggers the state land registry duty (tapu harcı), currently 4% of the declared value, shared between the parties by law but negotiated in practice.

Sequencing the money against the discharge

The correct rule is that the encumbrance record must be re-checked on the morning of the transfer and the balance of the price must move only inside the transfer session, never before it. An encumbrance record obtained two weeks earlier tells you nothing: a creditor can register an attachment on any day, including the day before your appointment, and it will bind you.

A workable sequence for a resale with a mortgage on the record looks like this. A modest deposit is placed under a written agreement that identifies the parcel and states that it is refundable if any encumbrance is not cleared. Counsel then pulls a fresh encumbrance printout on the day of transfer. At the registry, the buyer's funds are split: the payoff amount goes directly to the mortgage creditor against its release letter, and the balance goes to the seller only once the registrar confirms that the discharge and the transfer will be entered in the same session. The seller never receives money that is supposed to reach a creditor. If you want a structured way to test your own arrangement against these failure points, work through the property purchase payment risk check before you sign anything.

Three sequencing errors recur. Paying the full price at signature of a private sale agreement, which in Türkiye transfers nothing — ownership passes only on registration at the land registry. Paying an agent or developer's representative rather than the registered owner or the creditor named in the release. And accepting a written undertaking to discharge a mortgage or attachment after completion, which converts a secured transaction into an unsecured claim against a seller you may never find again. Where the record is complex — shared ownership, an unfinished building, a corporate seller, or several entries at once — the reading and the sequencing should be done together as part of independent property due diligence, not improvised at the counter.

Frequently asked questions