How Can a Tenant Get the Deposit Back in Turkey? Permitted Deductions and Remedies in a Dispute

1. What is a deposit and how large can it be?

For residential and covered commercial premises, a security required by the lease may not exceed three months' rent (Code of Obligations art. 342 [1]).

If the security is money or securities, the statutory method is that the tenant pays the money into a time savings account that cannot be drawn on without the landlord's consent, or deposits the securities with a bank (art. 342(2)). In practice, deposits are often paid directly to the landlord in cash or by transfer. That does not change the fact that the deposit must be returned when the lease ends, but the bank-specific route described below is then not available.

2. When can the deposit be claimed?

The Code sets no general deadline for returning a cash deposit paid to the landlord. The Court of Cassation has held that the lease must have ended for the deposit to be returnable, and that the landlord's duty to return it does not arise until the property has been vacated and handed back (Court of Cassation 3rd Civil Chamber, 24.03.2026, 2025/3426 E., 2026/1556 K. [2]).

If the lease fixes a specific day for repayment, the landlord is in default once that day passes; otherwise, a written demand from the tenant puts the landlord in default (art. 117 [1]), and default interest can then be claimed (art. 120).

3. What may the landlord deduct?

The tenant must return the property in the condition in which it was received, but is not liable for wear and deterioration resulting from use in accordance with the lease (art. 334(1)). The Court of Cassation has confirmed that the tenant is liable only for damage caused by misuse, not for ordinary wear, and that for items found to be damaged by misuse a depreciation allowance proportionate to the period of use must be deducted (Court of Cassation 3rd Civil Chamber, 03.06.2026, 2025/6214 E., 2026/3472 K. [3]).

Painting and floors

The most common disputes concern repainting and floors. What matters is whether the wear results from ordinary use or misuse. In the decision cited above, the lease stated that the tenant would hand the flat back freshly painted; the Court of Cassation nevertheless required an expert assessment of each item, taking the lease into account, to separate ordinary wear from misuse, and allowed only misuse items, after depreciation. The effect of such a clause therefore depends on the facts.

4. The landlord's duty to inspect at handover

When the property is returned, the landlord must inspect it and immediately notify the tenant in writing of any defects the tenant is responsible for. If the landlord fails to do so, the tenant is released from all liability, except for defects that could not be found by an ordinary inspection; those must also be notified in writing as soon as they are discovered (art. 335 [1]). A joint inspection recorded in a signed handover report is important evidence against later damage claims.

5. Practical roadmap

Moving in and moving out

• Moving in: Prepare a report on the condition of the property signed by both parties, with dated photos or video. Make sure the lease states the deposit amount and how it was paid; if possible, pay by bank transfer with "deposit" (depozito) in the description.
• Moving out: Inspect the property together with the landlord and sign a handover report recording the key handover date, meter readings and any defects found. Keep dated photos or video and proof that final bills were paid.
• If the landlord will not take the keys back: In practice keys are lodged with a notary. The condition of the property can be recorded through an evidence determination (delil tespiti) by the civil court of peace, and notaries may also record facts (Code of Civil Procedure arts. 400, 401 [4]).

Written demand

After handover, demand repayment in writing in a way you can prove (for example, a notarised warning letter), giving your bank details and a reasonable deadline. This also matters for putting the landlord in default (art. 117).

If the deposit is held by a bank

A bank may release the deposit only with both parties' consent, on the basis of finalised enforcement proceedings or a final court judgment. If, within three months after the lease ends, the landlord has not notified the bank in writing that it has sued the tenant or started enforcement or bankruptcy proceedings in connection with the lease, the bank must return the deposit at the tenant's request (art. 342(3)).

6. Remedies if there is no agreement

Mediation: mandatory before filing suit

For disputes arising from a tenancy, applying to a mediator before filing suit is a precondition of the lawsuit, except for eviction through enforcement without a judgment (Law No. 6325 art. 18/B [5]). This applies to cases filed from 1 September 2023. A case filed without mediation is dismissed on procedural grounds (art. 18/A(2)). A deposit claim is a dispute arising from the tenancy.

• Where: the mediation office at the courthouse where the competent court is located; if there is none, the designated civil court of peace registry (art. 18/A(4)).
• Duration: the mediator concludes within three weeks of appointment, extendable by up to one week where necessary (art. 18/A(9)).
• Cost: applying is free of charge (Ministry of Justice Mediation Department [6]). If the parties do not agree, a two-hour fee is paid from the Ministry's budget; if the meetings lasted longer than two hours, the excess is shared equally unless otherwise agreed. Fees paid by the Ministry or by the parties count as litigation costs. If the parties agree, the fee is shared equally unless otherwise agreed (art. 18/A(12)-(13)).
• Not attending: a party who misses the first meeting without a valid excuse bears half of the other side's litigation costs even if it later wins, and only half of the attorney fee is awarded in its favour (art. 18/A(11)).
• Limitation: limitation periods are suspended from the application until the final report (art. 18/A(15)).

Lawsuit in the civil court of peace

If mediation fails, the case is filed with the final report attached to the petition (art. 18/A(2)).

• Court: all claims arising from a tenancy, regardless of value, belong to the civil court of peace (Code of Civil Procedure art. 4(1)(a) [4]), under the simple procedure (art. 316(1)(a)).
• Venue: the general rule is the defendant's domicile (art. 6). Contract claims may also be filed where the contract is to be performed (art. 10); for money debts, the place of performance is the creditor's domicile unless agreed otherwise (Code of Obligations art. 89 [1]). Any jurisdiction clause in the lease should be checked.

Enforcement without a judgment

Because the mediation requirement applies to filing a lawsuit, the tenant may also start enforcement proceedings without a judgment (ilamsız icra takibi). A payment order is served on the landlord, who may object within seven days; a timely objection stops the proceedings (Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law arts. 62, 66 [7]). The tenant may then file an action to annul the objection within one year of being notified of it (art. 67). As this is also a lawsuit, care should be taken that the mediation requirement is met before filing. If the objection is found unjustified, the court may, on request, order the debtor to pay compensation of not less than 20% of the amount awarded; a creditor found to have pursued enforcement unjustly and in bad faith may also be ordered to pay compensation (art. 67(2)).

7. Burden of proof

As a rule, the party deriving a right from an alleged fact must prove it (Code of Civil Procedure art. 190 [4]).

• The tenant must prove that the deposit was paid: the deposit clause in the lease, a bank receipt or a signed receipt. Legal transactions above a statutory amount, revalued every year, must as a rule be proven in writing (arts. 200 and additional art. 1). The landlord's own written messages acknowledging the deposit may count as "initial written evidence", which allows witnesses to be heard (art. 202).
• The landlord must prove any claim it wants to deduct: the damage, that it results from misuse, and its amount, or the unpaid rent and costs. The duty to notify defects in writing at handover (Code of Obligations art. 335) is also relevant here.

8. Is the deposit updated for inflation, and in which currency is it returned?

The Code contains no express rule that a cash deposit paid to the landlord must be returned at an inflation-adjusted value. The Court of Cassation held that, where the lease expressly said no more than the deposit paid could be claimed, calculating an updated value was wrong (Court of Cassation 3rd Civil Chamber, 18.10.2021, 2021/5500 E., 2021/10204 K. [8]). Without such a clause, whether and how the deposit may be updated is disputed; the wording of the lease is decisive.

The currency also depends on how the lease is interpreted. Where, in a commercial lease, a deposit was paid in Turkish lira but the lease recorded its US dollar equivalent at the payment date, the Court of Cassation upheld a judgment ordering repayment in US dollars (Court of Cassation 3rd Civil Chamber, 29.04.2026, 2025/5661 E., 2026/2584 K. [9]).

9. Hypothetical example

This example is purely hypothetical. Tenant K rents a flat for TRY 20,000 a month and pays a TRY 40,000 deposit by bank transfer marked "deposit", photographing the flat on moving in. Three years later, a handover report signed with the landlord records only a broken kitchen cabinet door. The landlord then keeps TRY 30,000 for repainting the whole flat and the cabinet door, returning only TRY 10,000.

K demands the balance by notarised letter and, getting no answer, applies to the mediation office. At the meeting it is discussed that the cabinet door may fall under misuse, while paint wear from years of use may be ordinary wear. If no agreement is reached, K may sue in the civil court of peace with the final report; the court, with an expert if necessary, decides which items are ordinary wear and which are misuse.

10. FAQ

The flat I rent has been sold. Who do I ask for the deposit?

On a sale, the new owner automatically becomes a party to the lease (art. 310 [1]). In a decision given on an appeal in the interest of the law, the Court of Cassation held that the former owner who received the deposit must prove it was transferred to the new owner; otherwise the former owner remains liable to return it (Court of Cassation 3rd Civil Chamber, 12.05.2026, 2026/3664 E., 2026/2960 K.; Official Gazette 1.9.2026, No. 33357 [10]).

Can I skip the last month's rent and have it taken from the deposit?

Doing so unilaterally is risky. Set-off requires both debts to be due (art. 139 [1]), while the duty to return the deposit generally arises only after handover. Unpaid rent may allow the landlord to send a default notice with a termination warning (art. 315). If you want such a set-off, agree it with the landlord in writing.

What if the landlord will not come to take the property back?

Document your attempt to hand over and lodge the keys with a notary. In the case behind the 2026/3472 decision cited above, the tenant had lodged the keys with a notary because the landlord would not take them back; the Court of Cassation treated the property as vacated on the date the notary's deposit record was served (Court of Cassation 3rd Civil Chamber, 03.06.2026, 2025/6214 E., 2026/3472 K. [3]).

What happens if we reach agreement in mediation?

The agreement is put in writing. In tenancy disputes, an enforceability annotation from the civil court of peace is mandatory (Law No. 6325 art. 18/B(3)). With that annotation the agreement has the status of a court judgment and can be enforced if unpaid; no lawsuit can be filed on the matters agreed (arts. 18(2), 18(5)).

Do I need a lawyer?

No. You can apply to mediation and file suit yourself. Depending on the amount, however, separating ordinary wear from misuse, collecting evidence and meeting the deadlines after an objection may call for legal advice.