Service Charges and Apartment Maintenance Fee in Turkey

After purchasing an apartment in Turkey, you need to consider the service charges for the upkeep of communal areas and shared services. The maintenance fee is called AİDAT in Turkish. Usually, costs are calculated in equal shares between the apartments. But sometimes a proportion of the joint elements is assigned to each apartment owner depending on the size of the apartment in the development. So owners of one-bedroom flats might pay less than owners of 2- and 3-bedroom apartments.

Owner's Association Meetings & Maintenance Fees

Site Management or Owners Association means "Site Yönetimi" in Turkish. Every decision of a housing complex is taken at the annual meetings of the Owner's Association. Annual meetings are generally held in January of each year. Each apartment or villa owner of that complex is a natural member of the Owners Association. At these meetings; previous payments are controlled, the yearly budget is prepared, new board members are selected, aidat (maintenance fee) of upcoming year decisions are taken. Every decision is written in the decisions book which are the rules that every property owner must obey.

The main service charges including the number of dues collected by Site Yönetimi are as follows;

• Cleaning of common areas,
• Technical maintenance and repair operations,
• Distribution of air conditioning costs to independent units,
• Garden maintenance and landscaping
• Making announcements on important issues,
• Management of legal and administrative affairs,
• Security and reception services
• Management of social facilities such as fitness center, Turkish bath, sauna, and swimming pool,
• Regularly writing the necessary information in the management decision book,
• Caretaker services

You need always check the cost of the service charges before buying a property. Fees are usually billed monthly or yearly. For luxury developments with a high level of amenities such as a spa center and indoor swimming pool, annual service charges are higher.

Fees vary considerably and can run from 20 Euros for a single block to 300 Euros monthly for luxury apartments in Turkey. But if you have a 2 bedroom apartment in a two-block development with a swimming pool, small health club, and caretaker your maintenance fees will be approximately 30 - 50 Euros per month. From time to time when the whole building needs to be painted or there are some main problems that need to be fixed there can be an additional payment. The amount will be decided and approve at the yearly meeting of the owners with a managing company with more than 50% of the votes. In this case, there will be one additional payment from all the owners or an increase of the service charges for one year for example to collect the extra amount of money needed for the repairments.

An apartment block with a resident caretaker will have higher community fees than one without, although it’s preferable to buy a block with a caretaker. If a management company is employed to manage and maintain an apartment block, the service fees are usually higher, but the building is also likely to be kept better.

Announcements and debt notifications may be made on the website and e-mail in the huge residential projects. People usually pay dues by hand in return for a receipt. You may paysite dues with the automatic payment instruction through the contracted banks even if the amount is variable. However, dues may also be deposited to the bank account of the residential complex or building management. But you mustn't forget that this system can be implemented differently in each site or building.

Things to Consider about Aidat and Site Yönetimi

Antalya Homes advice to foreign property buyers;

• If someone is asking you to pay aidat, ask for the receipt in return for that payment. Remember that manager will change next year and if he forgets the bookkeeping, you must have payment evidence in your hand.

• Pay aidat directly to the manager or if authorized to the caretaker. Ask them to write the exact amount and exact names of the months that you are paying on the payment proof (makbuz).

• To be sure about the fees, you may ask for "the decisions book." Aidat and if there is an extra fee collected for the repairment, there is the exact amount is written.

• Because foreign property buyers do not exist all year round, pay in one time for all year in advance. Remember that if you do not pay on time, management will fail to pay the salary of the caretaker, bills, cleaning, pool upkeep on time.

• If aidat is written on decisions book and you do not pay on time, the manager has right to follow your debt fastly by enforcement office. Keep good relations with the manager and let them know when you can pay. Mostly they will wait until you come to Turkey. If they feel that you don't have goodwill, you might face with enforcement office at your door.

• If site management doesn't solve your problems, or if you can't make full use of the facilities within the complex, look for solutions to these problems at annual meetings. The fee is independent of them. Please pay your fees on time.

Enjoy your living in your own property in Turkey.

Leyla Zengin

AUTHORLeyla ZenginMarketing Services Manager

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