Expert: Victoria Williams - 8/17/2009

Question
Last year I bought a house in Turkey through the intermediary of a friend (who as you will have guessed was not one in fact). The house was in a village which had not yet had the Kadastro come and so the house had no Tapu. The "friend" took the house in his name and told me that when the Tapu came he would transfer it to my name - in fact into the name of the Turkish limited company I had set up to buy in this rural area. Of course (and please don't tell me I was foolish because I know) when the Tapu arrived he refused to do anything of the sort - he just asked for more money. Now I just want my money back since I don't want to continue living next door to a man who swindled me out of extortionate amounts of money. What type of pressure can I put on him to try and get at least part of my money back ? Kaymakam? Vali ? Since he took the money in exchange for nothing I presume he should have declared this as income. I have the proof of the international bank transfers - how can I report this to the relevant tax office ? Any suggestions for leverage points would be welcome. Thank you in advance.

Answer
Do you have any kind of signed, written agreement with this person? If not, the bank transfer documents may be enough to take criminal action against him for fraud and certainly for unjust enrichment.

Neither the Major, Kaymakam or Vali have the legal power to put any pressure onto him on your behalf though, depending on the actual location, they might be persuaded to fight your case as a matter of principle.

The correct thing to do is file an official complaint to the district prosecutor (Savci). If you DO have some kind of contract or agreement, you should find an English speaking, experienced real estate lawyer who is also familiar with working with foreign purchasers. If you would like a recommendation, send me further details and I'll check around for you.