*Deniz Mete Özcan

In connection with the latest developments in the world, Turkey has become a trade center for many companies. One of the situations that we, as international lawyers encounter in practice is that the debtor in Turkey does not pay enough attention to the creditor abroad and resists paying his debt.

First of all, what we want to mention about this issue is that different burdens such as the obligation to warn or notify in different cases may be imposed on the creditors by law. In such cases, if the creditor does not fulfill these obligations on time, he/she may lose his/her right to claim his/her receivable by legal means. That is why, in case of a dispute with the person with whom you do business in Turkey, we recommend that you consult a lawyer who is an expert in these matters without delay. Now that we have conveyed one of the situations we frequently encounter to you and made our necessary warnings, we will answer the question of how to receive your receivables through compulsory execution in Turkey, which is the subject of the article, at this point.

First of all, it should be noted that there are more than one forced execution methods in Turkey, these are divided into three as a proceeding without judgement, proceeding with judgement and pawn foreclosure. In our article, we will exclude the pursuit through the foreclosure and explain to you briefly the proceeding with and without judgement.

In the case of proceeding with the judgement, the subject of the enforcement is performance of the court decision. Therefore, in order to apply this way, first of all, a lawsuit should be filed in the competent court and the court should decide in your favor. In order for the receivables that are not subject to money to be followed up, a judgment must first be obtained from the court on this issue. For example, suppose you buy a ton of fabric from a Turkish manufacturer. Even though you have made the payment in the past, you could not get the product from the manufacturer. However, considering the recently rising fabric prices, it will be a more reasonable option for you to seize the goods in kind rather than paying in cash, and if the debtor has the opportunity to perform in kind, then you can file a lawsuit and seize the said receivable in kind after receiving the decision.

Another enforcement method that we will talk about in this article is proceeding without judgement. The Enforcement Bankruptcy Law of Turkiye Republic has regulated the execution without judgment only for money and collateral receivables. You can directly apply for enforcement proceedings without applying to the court in this enforcement process. It is not necessary for this receivable to be subject to a decree or even a document in order to follow up your receivable through proceedıng wıthout judgement. It should not be forgotten that the legislator has given the debtor the right to object since he did not request any document from the creditor in the proceeding without judgement.

We can say from our experience that many merchants are hesitant to pay their debts due to the lack of communication and the fact that they think that the incident will not go to court. As Seyhan Law Office, we can help you get your receivables as soon as possible and in line with your interests with our Russian, Turkish and English speaking professional lawyers and financial experts. If you have a problem with such a matter, you can contact us via WhattsApp or Telgram.