Can You Recover Property in Turkey Sold with a Forged Power of Attorney?

The dispute: a forged document followed by further transfers

The case concerned a power of attorney purportedly issued by a notary in Dresden, Germany. The document was forged. It was used for an initial transfer, after which the property passed through two further transfers. Proceedings were brought to cancel the registration, and the lower court ordered cancellation.

These facts do not establish that the property owner or the later buyers were foreign nationals. The relevance to an overseas owner is the use of an apparent foreign notarial document in a chain of Turkish property transactions.

What the Court of Cassation decided

In its decision of 12 February 2018, the First Civil Chamber treated the first transfer based on the forged authority as invalid. It nevertheless found the examination of later owners’ positions insufficient.

Unofficial English translation:

Articles 1023 and 1024 distinguish a third party who acquires a registered right in good faith from someone who knew, or should have known, that the registration was defective. The court required that distinction to be examined in the circumstances of the later acquisitions.

The outcome was a reversal for incomplete examination. This decision did not finally establish that the last owner was protected. Equally, it did not finally resolve the dispute by confirming cancellation against that owner.

Where the decision applies—and its limits

The decision is relevant when an allegedly unauthorised transfer is followed by further sales. It shows why a claim cannot be assessed solely from the document used at the beginning of the chain. The later acquisitions also matter.

It does not mean that an entry in the land register guarantees every buyer’s protection, or that forgery automatically defeats all later rights. Nor does the decision concern a genuine power of attorney merely used contrary to the owner’s instructions; that is a different factual starting point.

Practical analysis

The following is an application of the decision, separate from the court’s own findings. A useful review reconstructs the transaction chronologically: the alleged authority, the first registration, each subsequent acquisition, and the evidence bearing on what each purchaser knew.

For someone managing property from another country, investigating only the apparent signature may leave an important evidential gap. Communications, payment records and the relationships surrounding later transactions may also need examination. A purchaser facing a cancellation claim should likewise preserve the material showing how the property was investigated and acquired. No single document should be treated as conclusive before the wider record has been assessed.

Documents to assemble

• The current land-register record and the complete transfer history.
• The disputed power of attorney, its notarial references and available verification correspondence.
• Official transaction documents and records identifying the successive purchasers.
• Payment records and communications relating to the transfers.
• Any existing civil or criminal case documents concerning the alleged forgery.