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Building Vacation Memorandum, Objection and Cancellation Case Process within the Scope of Zoning Law No. 3194 Art.32 and Art.42
This guide has been prepared based on the current provisions of the Zoning Law No. 3194 and relevant regulations and the established case law of the Council of State.
Summary: When a building is detected that is built without a license or in violation of the license and its annexes, the administration first seals the building and issues a building permit; Hanging this report on the building constitutes legal notification to the building owner. If the violation is not remedied within one month, a demolition decision is taken and an administrative fine is imposed. Both processes produce independent results; Payment of the fine does not eliminate the demolition decision, and the realization of the demolition does not eliminate the fine debt. Since a deficiency in the notification procedure of the building vacation memorandum may cripple all subsequent transactions, it is of great importance to check whether the memorandum has been prepared duly at the beginning of the process.
1. What is Building Vacation Memorandum? In accordance with Article 32 of the Zoning Law No. 3194, when a building is detected that is being built without a license or in violation of the license and its annexes, the current construction status is recorded in a report by the relevant municipality or governorship. This document is called "construction holiday memorandum" (construction holiday report). With the report, the building is sealed and construction is stopped immediately. Building vacation notice does not yet constitute a punishment; It is a determination process that determines the actual status of the building at that date. However, since it is a definitive and mandatory administrative action, it can also be the subject of a lawsuit on its own.
1.1. Procedure and Importance of Notification Notification of the building vacation memorandum is not made according to the general procedures in the Notification Law, but in accordance with the special provision in Article 32/III of the Zoning Law: the owner of the building is deemed to have been notified when the minutes are hung at the building site. A copy of the report is also left to the headman, and a copy is sent to the Provincial Directorate of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change; The building's non-compliance with the license is also reported to the land registry office to be recorded in the declarations section of the land registry. It is not mandatory to obtain the signature of the building owner for the notification to be considered valid; For this reason, the owner should take into consideration that the sixty-day period for filing a lawsuit may have started to run without even being aware of the report. In practice, checking whether the report is actually hung on the structure and whether this transaction is documented with a separate report is a critical stage in terms of litigation strategy.
2. One Month Correction Period and Demolition Decision As a rule, the owner of the building is given a maximum of one month to correct the irregularity after the building vacation notice is posted. During this period, the building owner may request that the seal be removed by bringing the part that is against the license into compliance with the license or by obtaining the necessary license. If the violation is not resolved at the end of the period, the municipal council or the provincial administrative board decides to demolish the building. In order for the demolition decision to be considered lawful, certain formal conditions must be complied with: the decision must be taken by the authorized board in a proper meeting; The violations of the license on which the decision is based should be stated concretely; Information such as the nature of the building, its sketch and surface area should be clearly included in the report. If the demolition decision is taken by a single authority, such as the mayor or the zoning director, without a council decision, this creates a deficiency in terms of authority. In addition, taking a demolition decision before the one-month correction period expires is considered unlawful as it eliminates the right to defense and correction.
3. Construction Fine (Art.42) Küheylan Law Firm — © 2026 All Rights Reserved. 1 / 4 Article 42 of the Zoning Law also stipulates administrative fines for structures that violate the zoning legislation. This penalty is a sanction independent of the demolition decision and is decided by the relevant administrative committee within ten business days from the detection of the violation. The amount of the penalty; It is calculated by multiplying the unit square meter penalty amount determined according to the class and group of the building by the illegal construction area and adding an additional amount calculated based on the real estate tax basis unit value of the land where the real estate is located. Each of these calculation elements (area, building class and group, precedent value, degree of danger) must be shown separately in the decision; Fines imposed without justification or without specifying the calculation elements may be canceled due to this deficiency. As a rule, the penalty is imposed on the person who actually built the building or had it built; In accordance with the principle of individuality of penalties, in licensed buildings the license holder is addressed, and in unlicensed buildings the real estate owner is generally addressed. In the concrete case, if it is another person (for example, a tenant) who personally commissioned the illegal building, this issue should also be evaluated separately in terms of whether the addressee of the penalty is correctly determined.
4. The Relationship Between the Demolition Decision and the Fine. An issue that is frequently confused in practice is whether the payment of the construction fine will annul the demolition decision. These two sanctions are independent of each other: while the fine is a sanction (punishment), the demolition decision is a tool to ensure zoning order. Payment of the fine does not by itself invalidate the demolition decision; Similarly, the demolition of the structure does not end the accrued fine debt. Separate legal action must be taken against both transactions.
5. Legal Remedies Against Building Vacation Memorandum and Demolition Decision. An objection can be made to the administration against the building vacation memorandum, zoning fine and demolition decision, and an annulment case can be filed directly in the administrative court; Administrative appeal is not a mandatory prerequisite. The period for filing a lawsuit is sixty days from the notification of the action (hanging the minutes on the building in case of building vacation report). The competent court is the administrative court where the building is located. If the building vacation memorandum is cancelled, the demolition decision and the zoning fine given based on this memorandum will also be unfounded and subject to cancellation together. For this reason, at the beginning of the process, checking the memorandum in terms of procedure (whether the notification was made correctly, whether the period was given or not) is decisive for the course of the case. Since the implementation of the demolition decision has irreversible consequences, it is of great importance to request a stay of execution along with the petition; Otherwise, the building may actually be demolished while the lawsuit is ongoing and the lawsuit may remain irrelevant.
6. Consequences of Collecting and Non-Paying the Zoning Fine If the zoning fine is not paid within the given period (usually thirty days in practice) following its notification, it becomes final and becomes a public receivable; After this stage, the collection process is carried out in accordance with the provisions of Law No. 6183 on the Collection Procedure of Public Receivables. First, a payment order is issued for the unpaid penalty; A separate lawsuit may be filed against this payment order in the administrative court within fifteen days from its notification. If the payment order is not paid, the late payment penalty will start to accrue and the administration may resort to compulsory collection methods such as blocking bank accounts and sequestration. In case the building is demolished ex officio by the administration, demolition costs are collected from the building owner in the same way.
7. Crime of Causing Zoning Pollution (TCK Article 184) Constructing a structure contrary to the zoning legislation may, in addition to administrative sanctions, also constitute the crime of "causing zoning pollution" regulated in Article 184 of the Turkish Penal Code. The trial regarding this crime is carried out in the criminal court of first instance, independently of the annulment case in the administrative court. Since the administrative fine is administrative in nature, this penalty is not recorded in the criminal record; However, a conviction given as a result of a criminal trial within the scope of TCK Article 184 is recorded in the judicial record. For this reason, the administrative process and the criminal justice process should be followed independently of each other.
Küheylan Law Firm — © 2026 All Rights Reserved. 2 / 4 8. Effect of the Building Registration Certificate (Zoning Peace) For buildings that have a Building Registration Certificate that has been obtained within the scope of the temporary articles added to the Zoning Law and has not been cancelled, previously given demolition decisions and zoning fines that have not yet been collected regarding the violations within the scope of the document will not be applied. However, a new violation made after the Building Registration Certificate is obtained (for example, adding an additional floor that is not within the scope of the document) cannot benefit from this protection and will be subject to additional sanctions. If the Building Registration Certificate is subsequently canceled by the administration, the sanctions suspended by the document may come into force again.
Legal Nature of the Transaction Period for Filing a Lawsuit Building Vacation Memorandum Detection and suspension action (definitive and executable) 60 days from hanging Demolition Decision Administrative action to ensure zoning order 60 days from notification Zoning Fine Administrative sanction (committee decision) 60 days from notification Payment Order Transaction for compulsory collection of public receivables 15 days from notification Concrete Implementation Scenario Event Summary Form A real estate owner, the current An additional floor was added to the building without obtaining a permit; It was detected by the municipal teams, the building was sealed and a building vacation report was issued. Malik did not realize that the report was posted on the building, and two months later, he learned that he had been given both a demolition decision and a high construction fine.
Application and Legal Process When the applied Küheylan Law Firm examined the file, it found that a separate report was not prepared stating that the building holiday report was posted on the building and that there was no record that the record was left to the headman. Since this deficiency directly affects the proof of whether the notification was made duly or not, an annulment lawsuit was filed in the relevant administrative court within the period starting from the date of notification of the demolition decision and zoning fine; A stay of execution was requested, emphasizing that the destruction would have irreversible consequences.
Conclusion: The court determined that the administration could not prove that the building vacation notice was posted on the building, and therefore the notification was irregular, and firstly decided to suspend the execution; At the end of the trial, the memorandum, the demolition decision and the zoning fine based on it were annulled together.
9. Frequently Asked Questions I was not aware of the construction vacation report, am I considered to have missed the deadline? Since according to the law, hanging the minutes on the building constitutes notification, whether the owner is actually informed or not does not stop the period. However, whether the hanging was done properly and whether it was documented should be examined separately in each case; A deficiency in this regard may lead to the start of the period and therefore the entire process becoming controversial.
If I pay the zoning fine, will I be free from the demolition decision? No. Fines and demolition orders are independent sanctions. Payment of the fine does not annul a separate demolition decision; A separate legal remedy must be taken against the demolition decision. I am a tenant, and I was fined for a change I made without my landlord's permission. To whom is the punishment addressed? In accordance with the principle of individuality of penalties, the zoning fine should be imposed on the person who actually committed the violation. If the penalty was imposed directly on the owner of the real estate and the violation was committed by the tenant himself, this issue can also be claimed in the annulment case.
I have a Building Registration Certificate, but I still received a notification, what should I do?
Küheylan Law Firm — © 2026 All Rights Reserved. 3 / 4 First of all, it should be checked whether the scope of the document (which non-compliance it covers) coincides with the notified transaction. If there is a new violation outside the scope of the document or if the document has been canceled by the administration, the action can still be applied; In this case, the validity and scope of the document should be evaluated separately in the petition.
Attention: Frequently Made Mistakes in the Process Not questioning the notification procedure: Before filing a lawsuit, it must be investigated whether the building vacation notice is actually posted and whether this transaction is documented in the minutes. Objecting only to the fine and overlooking the demolition decision: Since the two transactions produce different results, separate legal action must be taken against both of them within the time limit. Skipping the request for stay of execution: Forgetting this request in demolition decisions may lead to the actual demolition of the building while the case is ongoing and the case to remain irrelevant. Missing the deadline to file a lawsuit against the payment order: The objection period to the payment order is fifteen days, and this period is different from the sixty-day period in other stages of the transaction. Not questioning the actions taken without the decision of the council: The fact that the demolition decision is taken by an authority other than the competent board is, in itself, a strong reason for cancellation.
Conclusion: The illegal building process is a multi-stage administrative process that follows each other, from the building permit record to the demolition decision and the compulsory collection of the zoning fine, with its own procedural and time rules at each stage. Since a procedural error at any stage of this process can cripple all subsequent transactions, correct determination of notification, deadlines and competent authority is of decisive importance. Küheylan Law Firm, with its knowledge of the current legislation in the field of zoning law and the jurisprudence of the Council of State, offers comprehensive legal support to its clients from the building permit memorandum to the end of the annulment case with a request for stay of execution.
Hunting. Mert Deniz Küheylan Important Legal Notice: The legal explanations in this guide have been prepared by Küheylan Law Firm for general information purposes and do not constitute legal advice. Since the unique circumstances of each file may change the outcome, it is recommended to seek support from a zoning law attorney from the beginning of the process.
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