Power of Attorney in Turkey: A Guide for Foreign Nationals

Buying property, registering a company, or managing a court case in Turkey while living abroad creates an immediate practical problem: you cannot always be there in person. A power of attorney — vekâletname in Turkish — is the legal instrument that lets a trusted person handle those transactions on your behalf. It sounds straightforward, but a poorly drafted or improperly authenticated power of attorney will be rejected at the land registry, tax office, or notary before any work can begin.

What a Power of Attorney Actually Does

Under Turkish law, a power of attorney is a notarised document through which the grantor (müvekkil) authorises a named person (vekil) to carry out specific legal acts on their behalf. The key word is specific: Turkish institutions tend to require that the authority granted match the transaction being performed.

Two broad types exist in practice:

• General power of attorney (genel vekâletname): covers a wide range of acts — banking, administrative filings, general contract signing.
• Special or limited power of attorney (özel/hususi vekâletname): authorises one defined action or a narrow set of actions, such as selling a specific property, representing the grantor in one case, or signing one contract.

The land registry (tapu müdürlüğü) and most notaries dealing with real estate transactions will want to see a special power of attorney that names the property and spells out exactly what the authorised person can do. A vague general authority rarely passes.

Getting a Power of Attorney While You Are in Turkey

If you are in Turkey at the time, the process is simple: visit any Turkish notary (noter) with your passport. If you do not speak Turkish, the notary must use a sworn interpreter (yeminli tercüman) — you cannot sign a notarial document without confirming that you understood its contents.

The notary will draft the document in Turkish, read it to you through the interpreter, and have you sign and seal it on the spot. Once issued, the original goes to your authorised person; notarially certified copies suffice for many transactions, though the land registry and some courts will insist on the original.

Getting a Power of Attorney from Outside Turkey

For those who cannot travel to Turkey, there are two recognised routes.

Route 1: Turkish Consulate

Any Turkish embassy or consulate can issue a power of attorney that is valid in Turkey without further authentication. The document is prepared to Turkish standards from the outset, so it can be handed directly to the authorised person in Turkey and used at any registry or institution.

Route 2: Local Notary Plus Apostille

Have the document drawn up by a notary in your home country, then obtain an apostille from the competent authority in that country. Turkey has been a party to the Hague Apostille Convention since 1984, which means that apostilled documents issued in any other member state are automatically recognised as authentic.

Once the apostilled document arrives in Turkey, a sworn translator must produce a Turkish translation, and that translation must itself be notarially certified. The complete package — apostilled foreign power of attorney plus notarially certified Turkish translation — is accepted by Turkish land registries, courts, and tax offices.

If your country is not a member of the Hague Convention, the document must pass through a longer chain of authentication involving the Turkish consulate. Confirm the correct procedure with the consulate before you start.

Common Uses and What to Include

Real Estate Purchase or Sale

At the land registry, a power of attorney for property transactions must identify the specific property (by parcel number or full address), state explicitly whether the authorised person can buy, sell, or both, and grant authority to sign the transfer deed, collect or pay the purchase price, and file for title registration. Missing any of these elements will cause the registry to turn the document away.

Company Operations

Incorporating a company, transferring shares, filing with the trade registry, or dealing with tax authorities all require company-specific authority. An authorisation that refers only to real estate will not cover these acts, even if the same person is acting as your representative.

Court Representation

A notarised power of attorney is mandatory before a lawyer can represent you in Turkish courts. The scope of litigation authority may need to include specific acts — pursuing appeals, agreeing to settlement, accepting service of documents — depending on the stage of proceedings. Your lawyer will advise on exactly which powers to include.

Banking and Routine Administration

Turkish banks, utility companies, and government offices sometimes require a power of attorney before allowing a third party to act on a customer's account or application. The scope required for banking is usually narrower than for real estate, and some banks accept a general financial authority.

Choosing the Right Person

The person you authorise can do everything the document permits, with no further reference to you. A few practical points:

• Limit the authority to what is genuinely needed for the transaction at hand.
• Consider including an expiry date, particularly for long-running matters where circumstances can change.
• Use a lawyer, a family member, or someone whose judgment you know from direct experience — not an introduction from a property developer or estate agent who has an interest in the outcome.

Revoking a Power of Attorney

You can revoke (azil) a power of attorney at any time by executing a revocation notice through a Turkish notary. Revocation takes effect when it is communicated to the authorised person. For real estate matters, it is wise to also notify the land registry directly — if an authorised person transacts with an innocent third party before learning of the revocation, that third party's position may be protected under Turkish law, leaving you without a remedy against them.

The power of attorney also terminates automatically on the death of either party.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: My home country notary does not speak Turkish. Does the document still work?

Yes. The notary in your home country issues the document in their own language, you obtain the apostille, and a sworn translator in Turkey handles the Turkish version. The notary does not need to speak Turkish.

Q: How recent does a power of attorney need to be for a land registry transaction?

There is no statutory expiry period for apostilled powers of attorney, but Turkish land registries sometimes query very old documents, particularly if there is any reason to suspect the grantor may have died. A document issued within the past six months causes fewer practical complications.

Q: What happens if the authorised person acts outside their authority?

Any act that exceeds the granted authority is either void or attributable to the authorised person personally, depending on the circumstances. You may claim damages from that person through civil proceedings. This is why narrow, transaction-specific authority drafting protects the grantor more than a broadly worded general power.

How Mona Hukuk Can Help

Our office in Antalya regularly advises foreign nationals on preparing powers of attorney for Turkish transactions. We can draft the authority correctly for the specific transaction, advise on the apostille process in your country, monitor the authorised person's actions on your behalf, and step in if problems arise. We also review existing powers of attorney that other advisers have prepared, to confirm they will work before you rely on them.

Contact us at contact@monahukuk.com or call +90 (242) 606 14 32 to discuss your situation.