Real Estate Fraud: Transfer of Property Ownership

First, what is the title deed of the property or what is known as the tapu?
It is the official document that proves the person’s ownership of the property in which it is registered, and it is a document issued by the Real Estate Registry Department of the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Cities Organization. The title deed contains basic information about the property and its location, according to the official real estate survey.
What are the components of a title deed?
All official tapu documents consist of the same fields that show basic information about the registered property, the most important of which are:
- The name of the province, the name of the region, the name of the neighborhood, and the name of the street in which the property is located, for example: the province of Istanbul, the region: Beylikduzu, the neighborhood: the Republic district, and so on.
- The number of the real estate piece, the total area number of the property, the housing unit number, the building number, and the floor number. This information is considered important information, so any change in it changes the property completely.
How to avoid real estate fraud when transferring ownership?
What may be most important to the investor at this stage is to ensure that the contract that he will sign is the contract for the sale of the required apartment or property in order to avoid falling victim to real estate fraud during the transfer of ownership of the property, and he can verify this through the following steps:
It is important when you start buying an apartment to ask the seller, whether it is an individual or a construction company, to give you the title deed for the apartment. He urges that the title deed sheet shows the information that we mentioned about the location and specifications of the property, in addition to the name of the owner of the property and his share in the event that there are partners.
- After determining the basic information of the property, you can use the "Turkiye imar" application, which is an application affiliated with the municipality and is considered a reliable source to ensure that all information about the property is official and guaranteed.
- This application is downloaded to Android devices, and when the application is opened, the "parsel sorgula" option appears, which means to inquire about the property.
- When entering this option, a condition of the options appears at the bottom of the page containing a set of icons, including the information icon.
-When you click on this icon, the color of the required property changes and its basic data appears, which is supposed to be identical to the data on the title deed.
After confirming the property information, land number, and plot through the application, the buyer will have completed the first step of the process of verifying the reliability of the purchase.
The second step is the one that takes place when signing the contract and transferring the ownership of the property, where it is required that the seller and buyer, the real estate registration entity, and a sworn translator be present. The task of this translator is to check all the data in the contract and mention it in the language of the buyer so that he can make sure that the numbers and data match and that the contract he will sign is the contract for the required apartment.

Cases of real estate fraud when transferring ownership are widespread, especially with foreigners who do not master the Turkish language and do not have a background in the tools and mechanisms set by the Turkish government to verify information, maintain the reputation of the Turkish real estate market, and ensure safe and correct investment operations. So Kamiran has taken it upon itself to demonstrate these tools to investors to help them confront real estate fraud attempts.