What is aidat in Turkey and how do you pay for it?
Today we will talk about Real Estate in Turkey and teach you about this monthly residential complex maintenance fee.
Aidat is a monthly complex maintenance fee, the amount of which is determined by the tenants of the building at one of their meetings. The higher the quality of the residential complex, the more services it requires and the higher the price of the aidat will be.
What expenses are usually covered by the aidat?
The electricity bill for the common areas, elevator(s) maintenance fee, swimming pool maintenance fee, cleaning of the common areas, gardening and other greenery expenses, covering staff costs which are salaries for gardeners, security, managing director, costs of small repairs in the complex, bills for the shared telecommunication services.
There are a couple of things tenants must do when they first move into a brand new residential complex. One of these is the tenants meeting, of which every resident must be informed of 2 weeks in advance. The first meeting is deemed legitimate if at least 50% of the property owners or their official representatives are present.
In case there are less than 50% of owners present, the meeting is postponed until 10 days later. This time, it does not matter how many of them show up, any decisions can be made during the second meeting regardless.
At this meeting, a managing person must be elected, and they will be responsible for maintaining the building complex. It can either be one of the property owners in that residential complex or sometimes a separate managing company is brought in to do it instead.
All of the important decisions regarding the building complex are made at these meetings.
How much the aidat should be, how many days a year the swimming pool will be open for use, will the building get central gas heating installed, deciding on whether or not tenants are allowed to glass their balconies and any other queries?
All of these absolutely must be written down in a special notebook that has been certified by the notary prior to this.
You can not use your absence at the meeting or your absence from Turkey as an excuse to avoid paying these – you, along with the other residents, must comply.
Many large residential complexes usually have a special worker in the building, called “Kapıcı” in Turkish, which translates to the doorman, but it is something closer to a caretaker in this case. They oversee the buildings’ cleaning, gardening, garbage disposal, etc.
If a residential complex has more than 40 apartments, one apartment is never sold and used for the needs of the complex. Usually, the concierge lives in such an apartment without paying for the rent, water, and electricity. In this case, the complex covers all the utility bills.
In some of the complexes, the concierge rents an apartment. The received income covers expenses on invited specialists who take care of the amenities.
Therefore, the aidat amount directly depends on the residents' requests, and the quality and volume of service they want to get in their complex.
Aidat in apartment complexes with hotel-like infrastructure is very high and amounts to hundreds of Turkish Lira. While in complexes with basic services, aidat is reasonable within the limits of 30 or 50 Turkish Lira.
Types of aidat in Turkey
- a monthly aidat;
- a special target fee or demirbas aidati in Turkish.
A monthly aidat is charged every month for all the current expenses for the apartment complex.
Demirbash aidati is raised if you need to do some significant repairs, to buy new equipment or make major improvements to the complex area or building. In this case, the owners' meeting or the management company will determine the amount of this targeted fee.
You should know that either the owner or the tenant has to pay the monthly aidat. While the target fees are paid by the owner only.
According to the law, there must be DIFFERENT bank accounts for the monthly and extra aidat.
Do you have to pay aidat if you own a stand-alone villa or a house?
NO, in this case, you do not have to pay aidat, but obviously, all the care of your property rests entirely on your shoulders.
When deciding on property purchase, always ask about the aidat amount: it will be your monthly expense regardless of whether you live permanently in your Turkish apartment or stay there on an occasional basis.
What if you do not pay aidat in time?
Under the Turkish Property Rights Act, if the payment is overdue, the management company is entitled to charge you extra fees and fines of 5% of the delayed amount.
The common practice in Turkey is that in case you do not pay aidat for three months, the management company or the manager has the right to take your case to court and start the legal process of debt recovery.
If you do not pay your debt by the judiciary decision, you may be obligated to sell your property by court order to cover your aidat debts.
You can pay aidat in two different ways.
The first option is that you can pay it in cash to the complex manager. Make sure the manager issues the receipt himself, and not the concierge or the gatekeeper. This will help you avoid unpleasant queries and situations in the future.
The second and most reliable option is to pay aidat by money transfer to the bank account of the managing company. You can perform the payment in Turkish Lira to the account in Turkey, and in foreign currency from abroad, if the managing company has such an account.
When making the payment, identify the purpose of the payment in Turkish or English, and do not forget to indicate the number of your apartment or villa, your name, and surname. This is of paramount importance if you delegate someone else to pay your aidat.
Please remember! Do not make payments to the personal account of the complex manager or his acquaintances. All payments must be made to the bank account of the officially invited managing company.
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