According to publicly available resources there have been over 125,000 lawsuits in Türkiye filed in 2025 for eviction of tenants from residential and commercial properties. These lawsuits approximately take 2-3 years including the appeal process, and the lessees remain within the premises until the end of the judgement procedure (subject to certain exceptions). In this regard, while leasing a property, lessors wish to avoid lengthy litigation process and ensure that the lessees evict the premises on the agreed date. Therefore, it has become much more common lately that lessors request "eviction undertakings" from the lessees.
The eviction undertaking is a binding commitment of the lessee that terminates the lease agreement and obligates the lessee to vacate the premises on a specific date. As the Turkish Code of Obligation favors the lessees as the "weaker" side of the contract, the validity of the eviction undertaking is subject to certain conditions.
The eviction undertaking must be in writing and signed by the lessee or the lessee's authorized representative. The undertaking can be signed in simple written form (i.e., the undertaking is signed by the lessee in the presence of the lessor) or in official form before a notary public. If the lessee issues the eviction undertaking before a notary public (after the execution date of the agreement as explained below), they will not be able to object to their signature in a possible litigation which may expedite the eviction process for the lessor.
The eviction date should be clearly indicated in the eviction undertaking for the document to be valid. In addition, eviction undertakings granted by mistake, fraud or threat are invalid. With that approach, the established court decisions indicate that eviction undertakings given by lessees on the date of the lease agreement are deemed invalid because the lessee was "compelled" by the lessor to sign the undertaking as a condition to lease the premises. In this regard, issuing eviction undertakings after a reasonable time following the execution date of the agreement will mitigate invalidity claims.
In practice, the lessors request that the lessees sign an eviction undertaking on the lease agreement execution date where the (i) eviction date and (ii) undertaking letter issuance date are left blank, which will be later filled in by the lessor to abide by the validity conditions mentioned above. The established court decisions indicate that eviction undertakings signed by lessees with blank issuance and eviction dates are valid as this is a "blank signature" and the lessee must accept the consequences of signing a document missing key information. However, the lessee can always claim that the dates inserted by the lessor are not in line with their agreement but must prove this before the court with written evidence.
If there is a valid eviction undertaking, the lessee must vacate the premises on the agreed date, failing which the lessor can either initiate an execution proceeding within one month from the agreed eviction date or file an eviction lawsuit before the courts. As mediation became a prerequisite for filing an eviction lawsuit arising from a lease agreement, the lessors must first initiate a mediation process before filing a lawsuit. If the parties cannot reach an agreement on eviction, the lessors must file a lawsuit before the competent civil court of peace (sulh hukuk mahkemesi). Considering the mandatory mediation process, most lessors prefer to proceed with an execution proceeding if the lessee does not evict the premises on time.
All in all, the eviction undertaking is a document that can have serious legal consequences for both the lessor and the lessee if it lacks validity conditions. The document must be prepared with utmost care, not only in terms of its content but also in terms of the signing date, form, and signature conditions.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
