Most owners abroad meet their building's management in one of two ways: a WhatsApp message announcing that the aidat has gone up, or a tenant forwarding a demand for a share of the roof repair. Both were decided at a meeting the owner did not know about, by owners who were there.
That meeting is the owners' meeting (kat malikleri kurulu). It approves the budget that sets every flat's aidat, appoints the manager, and votes on repairs, staff and security. Three facts matter most to an owner abroad. You can vote without coming to Turkey, through a proxy. Since 22 May 2026 the budget has to be approved at that meeting, and a manager's interim budget is capped. And a decision you disagree with has a one-month clock, which starts whether or not you are in the country.
Who decides: the owners' meeting and the manager
Under the Condominium Law (Law 634, article 27), a building held in condominium is run by its owners' meeting. The management plan (yönetim planı) is its rulebook. Article 28 says it binds every owner and every later buyer. It can only be changed by four fifths of all owners, or two thirds in a large complex since 2026 (article 70).
A building with eight or more units must have a manager (article 34). The manager may be an owner or an outside company and is re-appointed every year at the annual meeting, by a majority of owners both in number and in land share. The manager carries out the meeting's decisions, collects the advances, pays the bills, keeps the decision book and calls the meetings (article 35).
Most Istanbul complexes are a toplu yapı, a group of blocks under one management plan. There each block has its own meeting for its own common parts. The site as a whole is often run by a representatives' council of block managers, each voting for the number of units they represent (article 69). In practice your vote at the block meeting chooses the person who votes on the site budget.
When the meeting is held, and how you hear about it
- The annual meeting is held when the management plan says. If the plan is silent, a single building meets in January each year; a large complex at least once every two years, in January of the second year (article 29).
- Extraordinary meetings can be called at any time by the manager, the auditor or a third of the owners. Each owner must be notified at least 15 days in advance by signed notice or registered letter, with the reason for the meeting.
- The first notice also gives the date of the second meeting, at least seven days later, in case the first has no quorum.
The registered letter goes to the address the manager has for you, which for many owners abroad is the flat itself, where the tenant opens it. Give the manager an email address and a phone number in writing, and ask to be sent the notice and the draft budget directly. The law does not require this, but most managers will do it if you ask.
How the vote works
- One vote per unit, whatever its size or land share (article 31). An owner of several units has one vote for each, capped at a third of all votes.
- The quorum for the first meeting is more than half of the owners, both by number and by land share. Decisions pass by majority (article 30).
- If the first meeting fails, the second is held within 15 days and decides by a simple majority of those present. This is where most budgets pass, and where a handful of resident owners can decide for a building of absentees.
- Some decisions need more: a change to the management plan needs four fifths of all owners. Improvements to the common parts need a majority by number and land share (article 42).
- Every decision goes in a notarised decision book, signed by everyone present. An owner who votes against signs with their reasons (article 32), and this matters later if you want to go to court.
Voting from abroad: the proxy
Article 31 lets any owner vote through an authorised representative (yetkili vekil). That can be a neighbour, a relative, your property manager or a lawyer. Two limits apply:
- One person cannot be appointed to cast more than 5% of the votes.
- In a building of 40 units or fewer, one person can represent at most two owners.
So a single proxy holder cannot collect the absentees' votes and run the meeting. If your neighbour already holds two proxies, ask someone else.
The law does not say what form the proxy must take. In practice a signed letter naming the meeting, its date and the person is accepted in most buildings, while some management plans or managers ask for a notarised proxy. Read your plan and ask the manager a few weeks before the meeting. If you have already given a general power of attorney at a Turkish consulate or notary, as described in selling your Istanbul property from abroad, check whether it mentions owners' meetings (kat malikleri kurulu toplantılarına katılma ve oy kullanma). A well-drafted one does.
Give the proxy an instruction, not only a signature: how to vote on the budget, the manager and any large repair, and what to ask for in writing. A proxy who votes against on your behalf should sign the decision book with the reasons, or the one-month clock to go to court starts against a vote you cannot challenge easily.
The 2026 rules on the budget and aidat
Law 7579, published in the Official Gazette on 22 May 2026 and in force that day, rewrote article 37 of the Condominium Law. The budget is called the operating project (işletme projesi). It sets the year's expected income and costs, each flat's share and each flat's monthly advance, which is the aidat.
| Before 22 May 2026 | Since 22 May 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Who approves the budget | The manager drew it up and sent it to owners. It went to the meeting only if someone objected within seven days of being notified | The owners' meeting approves it |
| If there is no approved budget | The manager made one | The manager makes an interim budget, which must be put to the meeting within three months |
| How much an interim budget can rise | No limit in the law | No more than the previous year's revaluation rate over the budget in force, from the start of the calendar year |
| Seven-day objection rule | Yes | Removed |
The revaluation rate is the one the Ministry of Finance announces each November for tax purposes. The rate for 2025 is 25.49% (VUK General Communiqué No. 585, 27 November 2025). The rate for 2026, which will cap interim budgets for 2027, is due in late November and has not been announced as of 28 October 2026.
Two things to read carefully. The cap is written for the manager's interim budget. The text does not say it limits a budget the owners' meeting itself votes, so a meeting can still approve a larger increase by majority, which is another reason to be represented. And how courts will apply the new article has not yet been tested. Where an increase looks wrong, a lawyer should read your building's numbers.
An approved budget, or a meeting decision on running costs, counts as a document for enforcement under the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law (article 37, last-but-one paragraph). An owner who does not pay can face enforcement quickly.
For who pays which part of the aidat when the flat is let, see who pays aidat in Turkey, the tenant or the owner. Running costs are the tenant's; major works and improvements are the owner's.
Challenging a decision
Article 33 gives any owner the right to ask the civil court of peace where the building is to annul a decision of the owners' meeting:
- If you (or your proxy) attended and voted against: within one month of the decision, having signed the decision book with your reasons.
- If you did not attend: within one month of learning of the decision, and in any case within six months of the decision.
- A decision that is void from the start, for example one taken by people who are not owners, can be challenged at any time.
For an owner abroad the six-month outer limit is the one to watch. A decision you hear about in month seven is usually final. Ask the manager each year for the decision taken at the annual meeting and a copy of the approved budget. The letter to your site management tool drafts that request in Turkish.
If you do not pay while you are abroad
The cost of being out of touch is set by law. Unpaid aidat carries a late-payment charge of 5% a month (article 20). If enforcement or a case is brought against the same owner three times within two calendar years, the law treats the situation as intolerable. The other owners can then ask a court to transfer the flat to them against payment of its value (article 25). It is rare, but it starts with three missed letters that went to the flat.
A checklist for owners abroad
- Get a copy of the management plan and read what it says about the meeting date and proxies.
- Give the manager your email and phone in writing, and ask for the meeting notice and the draft budget to be sent to you.
- Appoint a proxy before January with written voting instructions, keeping to the 5% / two-owner limits.
- Ask for the decision and the approved budget within a month of the meeting, and diary the six-month limit.
- Pay the aidat by standing order or have your manager pay it from the rent, so a missed message never becomes enforcement.
We do not represent owners in court or draft legal challenges; a Turkish lawyer does. What we do for owners abroad is the part around it: we keep the flat let and looked after, tell you what it is worth, and sell it when you decide to. Every rule here is the one in force on 28 October 2026. The revaluation rate changes every November, so check the year before you rely on the figure.