Apartment-to-apartment water leaks in Turkey

Primary-law guide checked 25 October 2026. General legal information, not a lawyer's advice or a finding of fault. No individual case details are included.

Bottom line

A continuing leak can lead to an enforceable repair/access order and compensation, but neither the upstairs location nor a building manager's opinion alone proves legal responsibility. First establish whether the defect belongs to one unit, a common pipe/roof or the public network. For tenants, the clearest contractual route is against their own landlord; the landlord can pursue the responsible owner or building management. A municipality is a useful safety/administrative escalation channel, not a substitute for a civil court ordering a private neighbour to repair or pay.

Who owes what?

• KMK 634 art 18: owners must respect neighbours' rights; the statutory duties also apply to tenants and other continuing users, who can be jointly liable with the owner for breaches. This does not make every upstairs occupant automatically liable for every damp patch.
• Art 19: owners must preserve the building; an owner is liable to other owners for damage caused through fault. Urgent common-part repair can bypass the usual four-fifths written-consent rule where the statutory court-finding conditions are met. This is not permission for unilateral destructive work.
• Art 23: owners/occupiers must allow necessary access through their unit for the specified repairs and building-safety technical examinations. Access-related damage must be compensated by the benefiting unit owner. The duty is not authority for a neighbour to break in.
• Art 33: a harmed owner may seek the judge's intervention at the Sulh Hukuk court where the property is located; the judge can specify a short compliance period, with court-imposed sanctions for disobedience. The article expressly identifies owners as applicants. A tenant should not assume art 18 grants every owner-only procedural right: involve the landlord and have counsel assess any direct tenant claim.
• Art 35: subject to the management plan, the manager takes preservation, maintenance and repair measures and specified enforcement steps on behalf of the owners. The manager is not automatically personally liable for a private-unit defect. The current consolidated text includes the May 2026 change to art 35(d); the core preservation duties remain in (b), (g) and (h).

Source: Kat Mülkiyeti Kanunu 634, arts 18–19, 23, 33, 35.

Tenant's separate rights against the landlord

TBK 6098 art 301 requires the landlord to maintain the rented property fit for its agreed use; residential leases cannot derogate from this against the tenant. Art 305 provides repair, proportionate rent reduction and damages remedies, with termination reserved for a serious defect. Art 306 permits a reasonable repair deadline and, if it expires without repair, qualifying repair at the landlord's expense with deduction of that resulting claim; serious loss of usability can support termination. It is not a blanket right to enter or alter someone else's unit. Art 307 concerns proportionate rent reduction from the landlord's knowledge until cure. Art 308 makes damages payable unless the landlord proves absence of fault.

Keep provable written notice to the landlord, photographs and a dated condition log. Do not simply stop paying rent or choose an unsupported deduction: eligibility, amount, notice, access and proof can be disputed. Agree the mechanism in writing or obtain Turkish legal advice first. Distinguish the tenant's damaged possessions/losses from the owner's building damage; avoid double recovery.

Source: Türk Borçlar Kanunu 6098, arts 301, 305–308.

Escalation and urgent protection

1. Document and diagnose: preserve dated photos/video, recurrence and use patterns, notices, access refusals, invoices and a competent written leak-source report. Ask for the faulty component, private/common ownership, required access, repair scope and confirmation testing. A moisture reading alone need not establish the source; painting is not proof of cure.
2. Provable notice and coordination: request source repair and access from the appropriate parties through the landlord/management; set a reasonable, hazard-sensitive period. A formal notarial notice can strengthen proof but is not stated here as mandatory in every leak case.
3. Compulsory mediation before the merits lawsuit: Law 6325 art 18/B(1)(a), (c), (ç) covers rental, condominium and neighbour-right disputes (with the specified enforcement-eviction exception). Since 1 September 2023 this is generally a prerequisite, not an obligation to settle. Art 18/A(9) gives three weeks from mediator appointment, extendable by at most one week. This is not a guaranteed repair deadline. A failed-mediation final record enables the court route. Art 18/B(3) requires the enforceability annotation for agreements within its scope.
4. Evidence can be preserved urgently: HMK 6100 arts 400–403 allow judicial inspection/expert evidence where there is legal interest, including risk that evidence disappears or becomes difficult to present. Before suit, art 401 allows the merits court or the local Sulh court where the object is located; after suit use the court hearing it. Art 403 permits evidence-taking without prior notice when protection requires it. Evidence preservation establishes facts; it does not itself order repair or award damages. Art 402(2) requires an expense advance.
5. Interim protection is distinct: HMK arts 389–391 allow a suitably justified interim injunction where delay threatens serious harm; urgent cases may be heard without the opponent first. Grant and scope are discretionary and require approximate proof. Security is ordinarily required, with exceptions (art 392). The mediation prerequisite for a merits suit is not a reason to wait for worsening damage before asking counsel about these provisional routes. Law 6325 art 18/A(16) expressly addresses a pre-suit injunction alongside mediation: the art 397 filing clock does not run between mediation application and the final record. Other deadlines still matter, notably the art 393 one-week application-for-enforcement period and the art 397 two-week merits-filing period from requesting implementation, subject to that suspension.
6. Merits and enforcement: KMK judicial intervention and rental disputes ordinarily go to Sulh Hukuk (KMK art 33; HMK art 4). A separate tort/damages claim may require different jurisdiction or parties; do not assume every leak-related claim belongs in the same court. Seek technically precise repair/access relief and evidenced losses. Costs and actual private lawyer fees are not guaranteed to be reimbursed in full.

Sources: Mediation Law 6325, arts 18/A–18/B; Civil Procedure Code 6100, arts 4, 389–403.

What municipal and utility channels can—and cannot—do

• District municipality / Zabıta: Beylikdüzü's official description covers public wellbeing, health, order and complaint handling. The municipal contact is 444 09 39. A request for inspection/routing can be appropriate where there is a concrete sanitation, unsafe-building or unlawful-work concern. Its published remit does not establish an automatic power to resolve private fault, award damages or force entry for an ordinary internal plumbing dispute. Ask the authority to identify its applicable remit; do not promise an inspection or sanction.
• İBB Alo 153: an official request/support routing channel, available through Çözüm Merkezi/İstanbul Senin; İSKİ confirms 153 can also route to its 185 service. Registration is not a binding civil repair judgment.
• İSKİ Alo 185: the official 24/7 water/sewer fault and complaint line. Appropriate for suspected public-network/service faults or clarification of the responsibility boundary, not a guaranteed free private bathroom repair. İSKİ's published plumbing rules art 12(1) say internal wastewater problems must be remedied by building residents; that same text mentions notifications/sanctions for complaints between neighbouring buildings. Do not generalize that different-building rule into a promise of enforcement between units. Its arts 10 and 13 contain configuration-specific supply/sewer boundaries: do not reduce every building to a universal 'after the meter' rule. The retrieved plumbing PDF reflects older amendments; exact current operational coverage must be confirmed with İSKİ.

Sources: Beylikdüzü Zabıta remit, municipal contact, İBB Çözüm Merkezi, İSKİ Alo 185, İSKİ plumbing rules, arts 10, 12, 13.

Practical limits

A lawyer should confirm standing, defendants, court, urgency, notice, costs and any deduction/termination before action. Active water near electricity or falling ceiling material needs immediate safety attention rather than waiting for a civil timetable. Do not force access, retaliate by cutting another unit's water, or publish accusations. This guide makes no finding about any particular building or person.