Closing-Day Recheck — Reservation Deposit
A closing-day recheck of a reservation deposit is not a ceremonial review of an old receipt. It is the final reconciliation of an earlier payment with the property, the parties, the operative agreement and the amount that remains payable at completion. In Türkiye, the everyday term “kapora” is often used broadly for payments that may have different contractual effects. The legal treatment therefore should not be inferred from the label alone. Turkish Code of Obligations No. 6098 distinguishes binding money from withdrawal money, so the signed terms governing the actual payment are more important than the informal name used for it.
Start with the original payment document
Begin with the reservation agreement, receipt, bank transfer, preliminary sale document or amendment that explains why the money was paid. The file should connect the amount to a specific property, specific parties and a specific transaction. If one person paid for the buyer, or a broker received the money, that relationship should be documented. A bank transfer proves that funds moved, but by itself it does not establish the contractual character of the payment or prove that it must automatically reduce the sale price.
Match the property, the parties and the operative version
Closing day is the last practical point to discover that an earlier payment relates to another unit or an obsolete version of the deal. Compare the property identifiers in the deposit document with the final contract and transfer file. Recheck the buyer, seller, payer, recipient and any representative acting under a power of attorney. If the unit, price or a party changed after reservation, there should be a written bridge connecting the earlier payment to the transaction that is actually closing. A partial name match is not enough when more precise unit or property identifiers are available.
Show exactly how the deposit affects the closing price
Read the latest operative agreement to determine whether the deposit is credited toward the sale price, the amount recognized and whether that treatment changed after reservation. Prepare a short settlement showing the final price, verified prior payments, the recognized deposit, any agreed adjustments and the exact balance still due. Those figures should reconcile with the contract and payment evidence. This prevents the same payment from being counted twice, credited for the wrong amount or left as an unexplained difference between the buyer’s calculation and the seller’s demand.
Do not decide refund or retention from the word “deposit” alone
Broad statements such as “the deposit is always non-refundable” or “a deposit is always returned” are unsafe. The outcome depends on the operative wording, the legal character of the payment and the event said to trigger refund or retention. If the parties disagree about whether a condition occurred or how the payment should be characterized, that legal effect should be resolved before the remaining purchase price is released. A real contractual dispute calls for transaction-specific legal review rather than a marketing description or an informal message.
When the recipient is a broker or marketing company
If the recipient is not the seller, the transaction file should explain why the third party received the money and how it will be settled with the seller. Look for the authorization or agreement connecting that receipt to the sale, and match the bank beneficiary with the named recipient in the document. The closing balance should not be reduced merely because a transfer to an intermediary exists unless the operative documents confirm that the payment is accepted as part of the purchase price.
Decision standard before funds are released
The recheck is complete only when the file can answer five questions with documents: who paid, who received the money, which property and transaction it belongs to, what contractual character the payment has, and exactly how it appears in the final balance. If a material mismatch remains in any of these elements, the disciplined control is to stop release of the remaining funds until the discrepancy is resolved in writing. The objective is not to accumulate paperwork, but to leave a traceable transaction record that another reviewer can reconstruct without assumptions.