Independently verifying the lease records before relying on them
A lease file can look complete while still leaving the buyer uncertain about the current legal relationship. A signed contract may be old, a later addendum may have changed the rent, the tenant may have changed, or the property description may not match the independent unit shown in the title deed. For that reason, an independent evidence review should not ask only whether a lease document exists. It should test whether the contract, the parties, the occupied property and the actual payment history all describe the same continuing tenancy.
Start with the legal identity of the lease
Under the Turkish Code of Obligations, a lease is the agreement under which the lessor leaves the use or enjoyment of an asset to the tenant in return for rent. For a due-diligence file, the practical starting point is the signed contract: identify the lessor and tenant, the exact address and independent unit, the commencement date, term, rent, payment method and any special provisions. If the seller provides only a scan, compare it with the tenant’s copy or another independently retained copy. Differences in pages, signatures, dates or annexes must be resolved before the document is treated as the current agreement.
Test the contract against the way the tenancy actually operates
The strongest check comes from evidence created during performance of the lease rather than for the sale. Compare recent bank transfers with the contractual rent, payer, payee and period. Check whether increases were documented and whether the amount currently paid can be reconciled with the agreement and later communications. If a deposit exists, record the amount and the evidence of where it is held. For residential and roofed workplace leases, Article 342 limits a contractual security to three months’ rent and regulates the treatment of money or negotiable instruments given as security. The review should therefore distinguish a genuine lease deposit from an unrelated payment described loosely as a deposit.
Confirm who is in possession and whether ownership has changed
A buyer should establish whether the named tenant is still the person occupying the property, whether anyone else is using it with permission, and whether there are sublease or assignment issues that require examination. Ownership history also matters. Article 310 provides that when ownership of the leased asset changes after the lease is formed, the new owner becomes a party to the lease. A sale therefore does not by itself cancel an existing tenancy. This is why the independent review must connect the lease file to the current title-deed record and to the planned transfer date.
Separate ordinary lease records from termination or eviction records
Notices, settlement minutes, mediation documents, court or enforcement files and any written eviction undertaking should be kept as a separate chronology. They may affect the expected possession date, but they do not automatically prove that the tenancy has ended. Article 352 regulates written eviction undertakings given after delivery, while other termination routes have their own statutory conditions. The buyer should read the actual document and its dates rather than rely on a seller’s label such as “tenant will leave.”
Build an evidence set that a second reviewer can check without the seller
A defensible lease record normally includes the current signed agreement and amendments, a title-deed/property match, recent rent-payment evidence, deposit evidence, tenant identity and contact confirmation where lawful, relevant notices and dispute records, and a dated note of any unresolved inconsistency. The goal is not to create extra paperwork. It is to make sure that the economic and possession assumptions used in the purchase decision are supported by records produced by more than one party and by conduct that is consistent with the contract.
Before relying on the file for pricing, handover or financing, repeat the check close to closing. A lease that was accurate during initial negotiations can change through a new addendum, payment adjustment, settlement or move-out. Independent verification is therefore a current-state exercise, not a one-time collection of documents.