A criminal complaint punishes the person who defrauded you. It does not return the property, and it does not return the money. Recovery runs through a separate civil case, and the part of it that is genuinely time critical is not the case itself but the injunction that stops the property being sold on to someone else while you litigate.
If the property is still registered in the name of the person who defrauded you, act now. Once it passes to a buyer who is treated as acting in good faith, the property is gone and you are left with a money claim against someone who has already shown they will not pay.
Quick Answer: Ownership of immovable property in Türkiye passes on registration at the Land Registry, not on signature or payment, which is why speed matters more than almost anything else in a property fraud case. Under Article 1023 of the Turkish Civil Code, a third party who acquires a right relying in good faith on the land register is protected, even if the underlying registration was defective; under Article 1024, that protection disappears where the registration was improper, yolsuz, and the acquirer knew or should have known of the defect. The civil recovery action, tapu iptali ve tescil, cancellation of the registration and registration in your name, must be brought before the Civil Court of First Instance at the location of the property, and an interim injunction annotated on the title deed is the single most urgent step, since it is what stops a later buyer from claiming good faith protection while your case is pending. A parallel criminal complaint punishes the offender and provides investigative leverage, but only the civil case can actually return the property or the money.
Ownership of immovable property in Türkiye passes on registration at the Land Registry, not on signature, not on payment. Two provisions of the Turkish Civil Code then decide who keeps the property when the registration was obtained improperly.
Article 1023 protects a third party who acquires a right relying in good faith on the register. This is what makes speed decisive: an onward buyer who genuinely did not know is protected against you.
Article 1024 removes that protection where the acquisition rests on a legal cause that is void, and where the acquirer knew or should have known of the defect. Establishing what the buyer knew, or was in a position to know, is the substance of most of these cases.
The action is tapu iptali ve tescil, cancellation of the existing registration and registration in your name. It is brought before the Civil Court of First Instance at the location of the property; jurisdiction over immovables in Türkiye is exclusive, so this cannot be litigated abroad, and a foreign judgment about the property will not be registered here.
The usual fact patterns are as follows.
The seller took the money on a private contract and never attended the Land Registry. A private sale contract does not transfer ownership, but a promise to sell executed before a notary does support a claim for registration, and if it was annotated on the title deed, it binds later acquirers too.
The property was transferred by an attorney acting outside their authority, or under a power of attorney that had been revoked or forged. Where the transferee colluded, the registration is attacked directly.
Attacked as a void cause of acquisition.
The same unit sold to more than one buyer, with only one registration completed.
The property carried a mortgage, lien, annotation, or occupancy problem that was concealed, usually giving rise to a damages and price reduction claim rather than a cancellation claim.
Together with, or immediately before, the main case, an interim injunction, ihtiyati tedbir, is requested and annotated on the title deed. Its effect is that anyone who acquires the property afterwards cannot claim to have been unaware of your claim. It converts an onward buyer from a protected good faith acquirer into someone who took the property subject to your case.
Courts normally require security for an injunction, commonly a percentage of the value in dispute, in cash or as a bank guarantee. Budgeting for this at the outset avoids losing days at exactly the point when days matter.
A complaint is filed with the public prosecutor. The usual charges are fraud under the Turkish Penal Code, with the qualified form carrying materially heavier sentences where it is committed through commercial activity or by exploiting trust, and forgery of official documents where deeds or powers of attorney were falsified.
The criminal file is worth pursuing for two practical reasons beyond punishment: prosecutors have investigative powers you do not, and the evidence gathered there is usable in the civil case. What it will not do is give you the property back, which is why the two files are opened in parallel rather than in sequence.
Where funds were moved out of Türkiye, recovery depends on tracing and on freezing assets quickly. Interim attachment, ihtiyati haciz, over the defendant's Turkish bank accounts and other assets is requested at the same time as the injunction over the property. A criminal file also opens routes to bank records that a civil claimant cannot reach alone.
Almost every case we take could have been stopped by three checks before payment: a current title deed and encumbrance search in the seller's name; confirmation that the person signing has the authority they claim; and payment released only against registration, rather than before it. Where a deposit must be paid ahead of completion, it belongs in a lawyer operated escrow arrangement with the release conditions written against these specific risks.
You bring a cancellation and registration case, tapu iptali ve tescil, before the court where the property is located, seeking registration in your name, and you request an interim injunction annotated on the deed so the property cannot be sold on while the case runs. A private sale contract alone does not transfer ownership, but a notarial promise to sell supports a claim for registration.
Not necessarily. Under Article 1023 of the Turkish Civil Code, a third party who relied on the register in good faith is protected, but Article 1024 removes that protection where the acquisition rests on a void cause and the acquirer knew or should have known. Whether the new owner was genuinely unaware is the central question in the case.
Both, in parallel. The criminal file punishes the offender and gives access to investigative powers and evidence; only the civil case can return the property or the money.
Yes. The case is conducted under a power of attorney and your attendance is not normally required. Turkish courts have exclusive jurisdiction over property located in Türkiye, so the case must be brought here rather than in your own country.
It is the most urgent step in the file. Until the injunction is annotated on the title deed, a buyer can acquire the property and claim good faith. After the annotation, they cannot.
Courts normally require security, commonly a percentage of the value in dispute, provided in cash or as a bank guarantee, and budgeting for this before filing avoids delay at the most time sensitive stage of the case.
A promise to sell executed before a notary supports a claim for registration even without a completed transfer, and if it was annotated on the title deed, it can bind later acquirers of the property as well.
The registration can be attacked directly as resting on a void cause of acquisition, particularly where the party who received the property knew, or should have known, that the power of attorney was invalid, revoked, or forged.
The dispute generally turns on which registration was actually completed and what each buyer knew at the time, applying the same good faith framework under Articles 1023 and 1024.
This typically gives rise to a damages and price reduction claim rather than a cancellation claim, since the underlying transfer itself may still be valid even though it was not fully disclosed.
Recovery depends on tracing the funds and freezing assets quickly, including through an interim attachment over any Turkish bank accounts and other assets, often supported by information obtained through the parallel criminal investigation.
A current title deed and encumbrance search in the seller's name, confirmation that the person signing genuinely has the authority claimed, and releasing payment only against actual registration, ideally through a lawyer operated escrow arrangement for any deposit paid ahead of completion.
Recovering property lost to fraud in Türkiye is a race against the good faith protection the law extends to later buyers, which is why the interim injunction, not the underlying case itself, is the step that determines whether recovery remains realistic. Acting immediately to annotate that injunction on the title deed, while pursuing the criminal complaint and any necessary asset tracing in parallel, gives a defrauded owner the best realistic chance of recovering the property itself rather than being left with a judgment against someone who has already shown they will not pay.
If you have lost property to fraud in Türkiye, or funds connected to a fraudulent property transaction have moved abroad, our team can act immediately to secure an injunction, pursue the cancellation and registration case, and coordinate the parallel criminal complaint.
