Most foreign buyers and sellers of Turkish property never stand in a land registry office. They sign a power of attorney at home or at a Turkish consulate, and someone else signs the deed. The document that makes that possible is treated by Turkish law as something closer to a deed than to a letter: it must be drawn up by a public officer who records the principal's will, not merely witnesses a signature; it must carry the principal's photograph; it must name the powers it grants in terms, because the general law denies an attorney the power to dispose of land unless it is expressly given; and it ends, by operation of law, on the day the principal dies. Every year I see purchases delayed because a power drawn up abroad was in the wrong form, and every few years a sale carried out under a power that should have been revoked. This page sets out the rules as the Code of Obligations, private international law and the land registry's own circular apply them in September 2026.
Sources, checked 9 September 2026. Turkish Code of Obligations No. 6098, Articles 40, 41, 42, 46, 47, 504, 512 and 513; Private International and Procedural Law No. 5718, Article 7; Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents; General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre, Circular 2015/5 (1767) on powers of attorney drawn up abroad, and the guide issued under it, as applied by the registry.
What a power of attorney is in Turkish law, and the one thing it does not include
Under Article 40 of the Code of Obligations, a legal act performed by an authorised representative in the name and on behalf of another binds the principal directly. Article 41 says that where the authority arises from a legal act, its content and extent are determined by that act, and where the authority has been notified to third parties, by the notification. The registry is the third party that matters, and it reads the power literally.
Article 504 is the provision that decides whether a power drawn up abroad will work at the registry. The scope of a mandate is determined, if not expressly stated, by the nature of the business, and the mandate covers the legal acts needed to carry it out; but unless specially authorised, an attorney may not bring proceedings, settle, arbitrate, make a bill of exchange, make a gift, stand surety, or transfer immovable property or encumber it with a right. A power "to manage my affairs in Turkey", or even "to deal with my property in Istanbul", does not authorise a sale or a mortgage. The registry will require words that grant the specific power: to sell, to buy, to mortgage, to accept a mortgage, to collect the price, to apply for registration, and, for a foreign buyer, to make the declarations the registry requires of foreigners. The land registry circular adds that a power for a specific transaction should identify the property by its registry designation, and in practice a power that names the district, block and parcel, or states that it covers all the principal's immovable property in Turkey, is accepted where a vaguer description is not.
The form: drawn up by the officer, not merely signed before them
Turkish law distinguishes between a document a notary draws up, recording the party's declaration of will in the officer's own instrument, and a document a party signs and the notary merely certifies. For transactions at the land registry the first form is required, and the registry's circular on foreign powers applies the same requirement to documents made abroad: a power drawn up by a foreign notary must be the notary's own instrument recording the principal's will, not a private document with a certified signature. The distinction matters because in many common-law countries a notary's ordinary function is to witness signatures; a power drawn up in that form, however solemn, is refused in Turkey.
The form of the document is governed by Article 7 of Law 5718, under which a legal act is formally valid if it complies with the law of the place where it is made or with the law governing its substance. The registry therefore accepts a foreign notary's instrument in the form that country's law prescribes, provided it is the notary's instrument and not a certification, and provided it carries what the circular requires next.
The photograph and the seal
The circular requires the principal's photograph on a power of attorney for land registry transactions, affixed to the document and sealed or stamped by the issuing officer so that it cannot be substituted. Powers drawn up before Turkish notaries carry the photograph as a matter of course; powers drawn up abroad often do not, because the foreign notary has never been asked for one, and the omission is the single most common reason a foreign power is refused at the registry. The photograph must be recent and the face clearly visible, and the officer's seal must overlap it. A power that arrives without a photograph is not curable in Turkey; it is drawn up again.
Apostille, legalisation, or a Turkish consulate
A foreign public document is accepted in Turkey only if its authenticity is certified. For countries party to the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961, which include the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Israel, Australia, the Nordic and Baltic states and most of Europe, the certification is the apostille, issued by the authority the country has designated and attached to the notary's instrument. The apostille certifies the officer's signature and capacity, not the content, and the registry checks that it bears the Convention's French title. For countries outside the Convention, the notary's signature is legalised by that country's foreign ministry and then by the Turkish consulate. Bilateral treaties dispense with the apostille for the documents of a handful of states, and the registry's guide lists them; the safe assumption for a Western principal is that an apostille is required.
The alternative that avoids all of this is the Turkish consulate. Turkish consuls exercise notarial functions under Turkish law, and a power of attorney drawn up at a Turkish consulate is a Turkish notarial instrument: no apostille, no legalisation and no translation. For a principal within reach of a consulate it is the cleaner route, and for a power that must grant several specific powers it is the one least likely to be drafted wrongly, because the consular officer works from the Turkish template.
Translation
A power drawn up in a foreign language is used in Turkey through a sworn translation into Turkish certified by a Turkish notary. The translation is made in Turkey, by a translator registered with a Turkish notary, and the notary certifies the translator's signature; the registry files the original with its apostille and the certified translation together. A translation made abroad is not accepted in place of this step. The translation is also where the specific powers are read, so a translator who renders "to mortgage" loosely has cost the principal the transaction.
What the power should say, transaction by transaction
| Transaction | Powers the registry looks for | Why | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purchase | To buy the identified property or any immovable in Turkey, to pay the price, to make the foreigner's declarations, to apply for registration, to accept the deed | Acquisition by a foreigner triggers checks the attorney must answer | Code of Obligations Art. 504; Circular 2015/5 |
| Sale | To sell, to receive the price, to give discharge, to apply for registration in the buyer's name, to pay the fee | Transfer of immovable property requires express authority | Art. 504 |
| Mortgage | To mortgage the property, to sign the mortgage deed, to accept the loan terms | Encumbrance requires express authority | Art. 504 |
| Off-plan contract | To sign a notarised promise of sale, to receive registration of the construction servitude | A promise of sale is an official-form act | Art. 504; Law 6502 Art. 41 |
| Litigation or enforcement | To sue, to settle, to enforce | Excluded unless expressly granted | Art. 504 |
| Tax and permits | To obtain a tax number, file returns, apply for permits | Administrative acts, usually granted alongside | Art. 41 |
The buyer's side of these transactions, including the checks the registry makes on a foreign buyer's nationality and the property's location, is on the nationality and zones page; the off-plan contract that a power may have to sign is on the off-plan page; the mortgage deed on the mortgage page; and the seller's closing on the selling page.
Revocation, and the day the power dies
Article 42 of the Code of Obligations allows the principal to limit or revoke an authority arising from a legal act at any time, and forbids advance waiver of that right. Its third paragraph is the one that matters for a power that has been used at the registry: where the principal has notified the authority to third parties, expressly or by implication, a revocation not notified to them cannot be relied on against third parties acting in good faith. A power revoked at a notary in London and never notified to the Turkish land registry may still be honoured there. Revocation of a Turkish property power is therefore done twice: by a notarial act of revocation, drawn up at a Turkish notary or consulate or abroad with an apostille, and by written notice to the land registry office of the district where the property lies, so that the registry's records show the power withdrawn.
Article 513 ends the power without any act at all. Unless the contract or the nature of the business indicates otherwise, a mandate ends on the death, loss of capacity or bankruptcy of either party. A power of attorney given by a foreign owner does not survive the owner; the attorney who signs a deed after the principal's death signs without authority, and under Articles 46 and 47 the act binds the estate only if the heirs ratify it, failing which the attorney is liable to the other party. The heirs' own route to the property, through a certificate of heirship, is on the inheritance page. Article 512 adds that either party may end the mandate at any time, the party ending it at an inconvenient time being liable for the resulting loss; the attorney who resigns on the morning of the deed owes the principal the cost of the missed appointment.
Turkish law sets no fixed validity period for a power of attorney. A power drawn up years ago is valid until revoked or ended by death, which is convenient for the principal and dangerous for the counterparty; registries and notaries ask for recent powers in practice, and a buyer dealing with an attorney should ask when the power was given and whether the principal is alive.
The fraud patterns, and the clauses that defeat them
The power of attorney is the instrument in almost every Turkish property fraud I have seen involving foreigners, and the patterns repeat. A power granted to an agent "to handle everything" is used to sell to the agent's relative at a nominal price. A power granted for a purchase is later used to mortgage the property for the attorney's own debt. A power granted years ago and forgotten is used after the relationship has ended. A principal is told that the registry "requires" a general power, which it does not.
The defences are drafting. Name the transaction, the property and the counterparty where they are known. Set a minimum price for a sale and require the price to be paid into the principal's own named account, not the attorney's. Exclude the power to mortgage, to gift, to sell to the attorney or their relatives, and to substitute another attorney, unless each is wanted. Date-limit the power, or revoke it in writing the day the transaction closes, with notice to the registry. And where the attorney is the agent who found the property, or the developer's staff, do not sign at all; a power in favour of the counterparty's side is a power against yourself.
Whose side we are on, and how we are paid
The person who most often offers to "arrange the power of attorney" is the agent or the developer's office, and the power they arrange is drafted to make their transaction easy. That is not sinister; it is why the power says "all my property" and "any price" rather than the flat and the figure you agreed. The interest in a narrow, dated, price-limited power is yours alone.
We take no commission from agents, developers or intermediaries, in any form, on any file. The fee you pay us is our only income from your matter, and it does not depend on the transaction completing. Because our position does not move with the sale, telling you that the power you were sent is wider than the transaction needs, that it lacks the photograph the registry will ask for, or that it should have been revoked last year, costs us nothing to say.
One boundary, stated plainly. We are lawyers, not licensed investment advisers and not notaries. We do not draw up the instrument; the notary or the consul does. What we protect is the legal position: that the power says what the registry needs and no more, that it reaches Turkey in a form the registry accepts, and that it ends when it should.
Before you sign a power of attorney
Send us the transaction you intend, the property if known and the name of the person who will act. We will draft the powers in Turkish and English for the notary or consulate, tell you whether an apostille is needed from your country, arrange the sworn translation on arrival, and, when the transaction closes, revoke the power and notify the registry. If you have already signed a power you are unsure about, send it; the first question is what it allows, the second is who holds it. Our Turkish property work is described on the Turkey real estate page. Owners with property in Montenegro will find that country's different rules on the Montenegro power of attorney page.
What this page does not settle
Powers of attorney for company acts, for court proceedings and for tax representation follow their own rules and forms. The list of states whose documents the registry accepts without apostille under bilateral treaties is maintained by the registry and is not reproduced here. Criminal liability for misuse of a power is a separate subject.
