2 April 2020
Due to COVID-19 pandemic, certain precautions are taken with the Law No. 7226 (the "Law"), which was published in the Official Gazette No. 31080 and dated 26 March 2020. One of these precautions is related to the workplace lease agreements.
Pursuant to Provisional Article 2 of the Law, "the inability to pay the lease amount for workplaces during 1 March 2020 and 30 June 2020 will not be considered as a reason for termination of lease agreement or requesting evacuation."
Under Turkish law, the lessor of a workplace has two options in case the lease amount is not paid:
Option 1:
According to Article 315 of Turkish Code of Obligations, the lessor may terminate the lease agreement and file an evacuation request with the court, if the lease amount is not paid by the lessee within the extra period given by the lessor.
Option 2:
According to Article 269 of Code of Enforcement and Bankruptcy, the lessor may initiate an enforcement proceeding against the lessee to request the payment of the lease amount. In case the lessee does not object to the enforcement proceeding and does not pay the lease amount within the granted period, the lessor shall be entitled to file an evacuation lawsuit before the enforcement court in order to terminate the lease agreement and to request evacuation.
Provisional Article 2 of the Law prevents the lessor from terminating the lease agreement and requesting the evacuation of the leased property by means of the abovementioned legal remedies for the period between 1 March 2020 and 30 June 2020.
It should be noted that the Law does not remove the parties' contractual obligations under the lease agreements. Accordingly, the results of the lessee's default, such as default interest will still be applicable.
If you have any questions regarding our note above, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Kind regards,
Güner Law Office