Freezing rent-payment evidence before a purchase commitment
When a property is sold with a tenant, the buyer often relies on the seller’s statements about monthly rent, payment regularity and arrears. Those statements should be converted into a dated evidence package before the buyer signs a binding commitment. The package is not a forecast of future rent; it is a frozen record of what has actually been paid, by whom, to whom and for which period.
Use payment records that satisfy the current documentation rules
The Revenue Administration’s current guidance states that rent collections and payments for residences and workplaces must be evidenced by documents issued by banks or PTT, regardless of the rent amount. Bank transfers, EFT, cheques, bank or credit-card transactions and internet-banking payments can generate accepted evidence. A person paying at a bank branch can also satisfy the requirement by providing the appropriate identity or tax information and identifying the payment as rent. This official rule makes the bank/PTT trail an important part of transaction due diligence, not merely a convenience.
Freeze a month-by-month ledger rather than a screenshot
For each rental period record the contractual amount, payment date, amount received, payer, receiving account and transfer description. Attach the underlying bank or PTT document. A cropped mobile screenshot showing only an amount is weaker than a statement that identifies the account, date and transaction. If one transfer covers several months, allocate it explicitly. If a payment contains rent plus another item, separate the components instead of treating the whole transfer as rent income.
Record the exceptions without turning them into loopholes
GİB guidance explains that rent collected or paid through court or enforcement channels, and payment made in kind, are outside the specific bank/PTT documentation obligation described in the rental-payment guidance. That does not mean those amounts should be left undocumented in a purchase file. Keep the court, enforcement or valuation evidence that explains the payment. The objective is to preserve the strongest evidence for the method actually used.
Compare the payment ledger with the lease
Article 314 of the Turkish Code of Obligations sets the general rule for payment of rent and applicable ancillary expenses, subject to the agreement and local custom. Compare the frozen ledger with the signed lease and amendments: monthly amount, due date, landlord, tenant and payment account. A bank transfer can prove money moved, but it does not by itself prove why a different rent amount became contractually due. If the amount changed, identify the contractual or legal basis separately.
Identify arrears and advance payments as of the freeze date
Do not use a simple “paid/unpaid” label. Show rent that has been received, rent that is due but outstanding, rent disputed by the tenant, and any amount already subject to enforcement or settlement. Also identify payments made in advance for future periods. The buyer’s financial model should not count an unpaid claim as cash income or treat a future-period prepayment as if it belonged entirely to the seller.
Protect the frozen set from later editing
Save the ledger, supporting bank/PTT evidence and the review date as a fixed package. Any later payment or correction should be added as a new event, not used to overwrite the pre-commitment record. The purpose is simple: if the buyer later discovers a different payment history, the file can show exactly what evidence was available when the purchase commitment was made and what changed afterward.