Lawyer in Turkey: August 2019

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

No need for a pass photo on a Tapu

No need for a pass photo on a Tapu (ownership title)

In the past 15 years, the Turkish government has worked hard to digitize civilian personal data in the country. Now it's time to reap the benefits. Simplifying the well-known Turkish bureaucracy has started. As of 10.07.2019 the legal obligation to place a certified passport photo on the official deed of ownership has been lifted.

Whatever action you took at the Tapu, it was previously required that you could identify yourself with a recently taken passport photo not older than 6 months in addition to your ID document. The passport photo was stuck in the official transaction books of the cadastral service and had to be signed by the parties with the deed of purchase and delivery.
The purpose of this was to prevent scams. The official on duty was to ensure as far as possible whether the identity of the applicant corresponds to the person who was registered in the deed.

With the digitization of Turkey, this is no longer necessary. Nowadays getting the very last personal data via the national digital system is a matter of a few minutes. This saves a lot of time and administration for both the civil servant and the citizen.

However, a passport photo is still placed on the Tapu (read: certified copy of proof of ownership) if one so wishes.

Finally, we would like to draw your attention to the fact that there is a so-called QR code on all new extracts (Tapu Senedi). By scanning this with your telephone, the location on which your property rests will be visible. This is a good tool so that you can object on the spot when another lot is shown.

If you have any questions regarding cadastral operations at the Tapu office, do not hesitate to contact us.