Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law

Choosing the enforcement route

The route for collecting a claim depends on the document in hand, and this choice is not easily changed afterwards:

Enforcement without judgment. Started where there is no court judgment. A payment order is served on the debtor; if the debtor objects within seven days, the proceedings stop. The creditor then has two routes: if the creditor holds a document of the kind required by the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Code (İİK), an application for the lifting of the objection before the enforcement court; if not, an action for annulment of the objection before the general court. The action for annulment of the objection must be brought within one year of service of the objection on the creditor.

Enforcement of a judgment. Based on a court judgment. The debtor's objection does not stop the proceedings; however, a stay of enforcement may be requested.

Proceedings specific to negotiable instruments. Based on cheques, promissory notes and bills of exchange. The objection period is five days and, as a rule, the objection does not of itself stop the proceedings; a decision of the enforcement court is needed to stop them. In practice this short period is the one most often missed.

Attachment and sale

Once the proceedings become final, the attachment stage begins. Some assets cannot be attached by law (items meeting basic living needs, a certain portion of salary, and the like). In a salary attachment the deduction rate is limited, and multiple salary attachments are queued under the applicable priority rules; this is distinct from the formal distribution ranking of sale proceeds.

In sales of immovable property, annulment of the auction sale (ihalenin feshi) is the remedy against irregularities in the sale process and is subject to a short forfeiture period. An objection to the valuation must be made before the sale, within the period running from service of the valuation report; when this stage is missed, the property may end up being sold at a low price.

Third-party ownership claims

The claim that an attached asset belongs not to the debtor but to a third party is the subject of a third-party ownership action (istihkak). It is particularly common in shared homes and family companies. Whether the claim is supported by documents (invoices, title deeds, registration certificates) determines the course of the action.

On the debtor's side

For a debtor faced with enforcement proceedings, the first issue is time: the date of service of the payment order and the type of proceedings determine what must be done within how many days. The second issue is whether the debt actually exists: time-barred claims, debts that have been paid but not removed from the proceedings, and proceedings started at an enforcement office lacking jurisdiction are situations frequently encountered in practice.

For a debtor in payment difficulty, restructuring of the debt and instalment options are also considered.

For general information only; periods are calculated from the date of service.