Interesting news for tenants: Decision regarding landlords who increase rents above  legal limit

While the regulation limiting rent increases to 25 percent continues, a decision has been made for the landlord who raised the rent by 55 percent and demanded eviction, to pay “bad faith compensation” to the tenant.

It was decided by the court in a case opened by a landlord in Izmir to evict the tenant. The landlord, K.K, who rented his house in Karabağlar district to İ.Ç two years ago, increased the rent, which was 900 Turkish Lira the previous year, by approximately 55.5 percent, citing the Consumer Price Index (TÜFE), and informed the tenant that the new rent would be 1,400 Turkish Lira.

The tenant who is a construction worker, paid the increased rent of 1,400 Turkish Lira for three months as he couldn’t find another place to live. After facing difficulties in making the payment, he continued to pay the rent at 1,250 Turkish Lira, which was above the legally determined upper limit of 25 percent.

APPLICATION TO THE 4TH EXECUTION LAW COURT

Landlord K.K filed an application to the 4th Execution Law Court to demand the payment of the rent differences and eviction.

Following an expert examination, the court determined that the tenant had no outstanding debt and that payments had been made in excess of the legal limit. Consequently, the court rejected the landlord’s request for eviction and ordered him to pay “bad faith compensation” for the excess rent paid for three months.

In the court decision, it was stated, “Since the principal debt for the months subject to the enforcement was paid to the creditor’s account within the legal time frame, the request for eviction is rejected. As the necessary conditions are met, a bad faith compensation in the amount of 20 percent of the principal debt subject to the enforcement shall be collected from the plaintiff and awarded to the defendant.”

“THE PROPERTY OWNER INITIATED THE ENFORCEMENT PROCEEDINGS IN BAD FAITH”

Tenant’s lawyer stated that according to the law, rent could only be increased by a maximum of 25 percent, which is why they objected to the enforcement proceedings initiated by the landlord.

The lawyer explained that the landlord had filed a lawsuit seeking the annulment of their objection to the enforcement and the eviction of the tenant, saying, “In the continuation of the lawsuit, an expert report was obtained. As a result of the report, it was found that a 25 percent increase was appropriate and that the mandatory provision of the law could not be violated. Therefore, they both rejected the annulment lawsuit against the enforcement proceedings and ruled for ‘bad faith compensation’ against the other party.

Bad faith compensation is a form of compensation awarded when creditors initiate enforcement proceedings in bad faith. In this case, the property owner was ordered to pay a bad faith compensation equal to 20 percent of the amount subject to the enforcement because they initiated the enforcement proceedings in bad faith.”