September is when Turkish leases are renewed, and this year the renewal table hides a trap most landlords have not heard of: if you hold a valid vacate undertaking (tahliye taahhütnamesi) and then sign a new lease with the same tenant, that undertaking is very probably gone.

That is not our opinion. A ruling of the Supreme Court's Third Civil Chamber dated 5 May 2026 was published in the Official Gazette on 18 July; three more lease rulings from the same chamber followed on 1 September; and on 7 September the Justice Minister said the bill meant to shorten rent cases would reach Parliament in October. Four official sources in three weeks. This article turns them into what a landlord needs at the renewal table, particularly a landlord who is not in the country to watch the paperwork.

One caveat first. These rulings were given on "appeal in the interest of the law", which means they do not change the outcome for the original parties, but they guide the lower courts and will appear in your lawyer's submissions. The general map of eviction routes is in evicting a tenant in Turkey; this page is only about what changed this summer.

Ruling 1: a new lease wipes out the old undertaking

The facts. A commercial unit in Manavgat. The lease is signed on 28 September 2022; on 23 November 2022 the tenant signs a vacate undertaking promising to leave on 28 September 2023. The tenant stays, the landlord starts enforcement. The tenant claims the signature is forged; the forensic institute confirms it is genuine. The landlord appears to have won.

The turn. On 11 September 2024 the parties signed a new lease at a notary. The Supreme Court held that the new lease renewed the tenancy and rendered the earlier undertaking void; the lower court's eviction order was reversed unanimously.

What it means. An undertaking is tied to a specific lease. Sign a new lease with the same tenant and the old lease, with its undertaking, is left behind; an undertaking signed the same day as the new lease is treated as given under pressure and is void anyway. At renewal you are left between two bad options: losing the old undertaking or collecting an invalid new one.

The way out is simple and costs nothing: do not renew the lease, extend it. By law a residential lease that reaches its end continues on the same terms for a further year; document the rent increase with a rent-increase addendum attached to the existing lease, or with the "update" function of an e-Devlet contract. No new date, no new signatures, no new heading. This year's ceiling is explained in the legal rent-increase cap.

If you have no undertaking and want one, the rule is unchanged: dated after the lease, on a separate sheet, with the date and signature in the tenant's own hand. If the tenant does not leave on the promised date, enforcement or a claim must be filed within one month, or the undertaking loses its force.

Ruling 2: with an oral lease, the burden of proof is on the landlord

The second ruling published on 1 September 2026 concerns a landlord with no written lease who sued for eviction on the grounds of unpaid rent and misuse. The Court's rule is plain: the landlord bears the burden of proving the existence, start date, term and rent of the tenancy, and the court must remind the landlord of the right to tender an oath before dismissing the case.

An oral lease, in other words, opens the dispute with the question "was there a tenancy at all", and you are the one who has to answer it. Rent paid through a bank helps, but it is not a lease. The practical output of this ruling is one sentence: no tenant without a written lease. Making the lease on e-Devlet also removes any argument over the signature; the steps are in Turkey's e-Devlet rental contract.

Ruling 3: when a tenanted flat is sold, the deposit stays with the seller

The third ruling comes from Gaziantep. The tenant had paid a deposit of 300 US dollars; the flat was sold while the lease was running. By law the new owner steps into the lease; but the deposit? The Court held that the former owner who received the deposit remains liable to the tenant unless he proves he transferred it to the buyer.

The rule for anyone selling a tenanted flat: record the transfer of the deposit to the buyer in writing in the sale documents and notify the tenant. Otherwise you can be the defendant in a deposit claim years after you sold. The full process is in selling your Istanbul property from abroad.

Ruling 4: in an owner's-need eviction, the property's character comes first

The fourth ruling, published the same day, concerns a parcel registered as farmland but let as a depot and car park. The heirs sought eviction on grounds of need; the Court said the trial court must first hold a site inspection to establish the property's "dominant character": if covered and built on, the rules for dwellings and roofed workplaces apply, if bare land, the general provisions. It does not touch apartment owners directly, but owners of mixed-use property should know that an owner's-need case now has one more step in front of it.

The reform bill: 9 months for rent cases, 18 months for evictions

The first part of the twelfth judicial reform package, Law 7589, was published on 31 July 2026. It contains nothing specific to leases, but two provisions reach landlords indirectly: the gap between hearings is capped at three months (in force three months after publication, so from late October), and the statutory interest applied where a contract is silent is now tied to 80% of the Central Bank's rediscount rate. Writing a late-payment interest rate into the lease matters more as a result; it is on the list in what a Turkish rental agreement must include.

For the second part, the Justice Minister set the target on 7 September: a bill of 24 to 25 articles was expected to reach Parliament in October, aiming for rent-determination cases to finish in nine months and eviction cases in eighteen. When this article was published there was no text and no published mechanism. Today a rent-determination case takes six to eighteen months in practice and an eviction case longer; since 2023, pre-trial mediation has been compulsory for lease disputes and must conclude within four weeks. If the targets hold, the rent-determination lawsuit becomes, for the first time, a route with a reasonable calendar for owners whose rent has fallen far below the market. Do not plan around it until the text is published; we will update this page when it is.

The checklist for the September renewal table

  • If I hold a valid undertaking: no new lease, only an increase addendum or an e-Devlet update.
  • If I have no undertaking: separate sheet, later date, written in the tenant's hand.
  • If my tenant has no written lease: I move to a written one this month, preferably on e-Devlet.
  • If I am selling a tenanted flat: the deposit transfer is in the sale documents and the tenant has been told.
  • The lease states a late-payment interest rate.
  • If the tenant missed the undertaking date: enforcement within one month.

If you want to know which of these rulings touches your own lease, we will go through the file with you; for owners whose tenancies we run, this check happens at every renewal by itself. Property management sets out what that covers, and the first step is a free valuation.