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Dissolution of the Inheritance Partnership (Liquidation of the Partnership) Process Guide for the termination and liquidation of the inheritance partnership within the framework of TCC art.640-642, art.644 and art.698-699. This guide has been prepared based on the provisions of the Turkish Civil Code and the Law on Mediation in Civil Disputes, which are in force as of 2026.
If there is more than one heir upon the death of the testator, a partnership situation arises on the estate, called joint ownership, which requires all of the heirs to act together. In this partnership, no heir can independently sell or dispose of his share; All heirs are jointly entitled to the estate. The heirs can share the inheritance by agreeing among themselves, or if they cannot agree, they can ask the court to share the inheritance. This process is known in practice as the "partnership dissolution case" or formerly "dissolution case", and since 2023, it must go through the mandatory mediation stage before filing a lawsuit. Proper execution of the process prevents both unnecessary waste of time and the rejection of the case due to lack of litigation conditions.
1. What is Inheritance Partnership (Joint Ownership)? In every inheritance where there is more than one heir, joint ownership is established on the estate upon the death of the testator in accordance with Article 640 of the Turkish Civil Code. In this type of ownership, the heirs do not have a specific, reserved share; All heirs have the right to the entire estate together and disposition transactions can only be made unanimously. Joint ownership, unlike shared ownership, does not allow one of the heirs to sell or transfer his/her own share independently; For this reason, inheritance partnership is a legal situation that frequently leads to disputes in practice in terms of the actual use and management of real estate.
2. Ways to Follow to Dissolve the Partnership There are two basic ways to end the inheritance partnership. The first way is for the heirs to agree among themselves and make an inheritance division agreement; In this case, title deed transfer and sharing transactions can be carried out without the need to file a lawsuit. If an agreement cannot be reached, each of the heirs may request the civil court of peace to distribute the goods in the estate in kind or, if not possible, by sale, in accordance with Article 642 of the Turkish Civil Code; In practice, this case is also called an inheritance division case. In addition, Article 644 of the TMK also gives the heirs the right to request the conversion of joint ownership into joint ownership; In this case, the immovable property is first transferred to shared ownership, and then it may be subject to a lawsuit for the elimination of the classical partnership (dissolution of partnership) in accordance with TMK Article 698-699. It is of no practical importance under which name the lawsuit is filed; Legal qualification is the duty of the court and the court examines the request by placing it on the correct legal basis.
3. Mandatory Mediation as a Condition for Litigation With the regulation of Law No. 7445, which came into force on September 1, 2023, it has become a mandatory condition for a mediator to be consulted before filing a lawsuit in disputes regarding the distribution of movable and immovable properties and the dissolution of partnership. If an application is made directly to the court after this date, the court will reject the case without any review due to lack of a lawsuit requirement. The mediation process is completed within three weeks from the application, and in cases of necessity, it can be extended by one more week at the discretion of the mediator, and within a total of four weeks. Parties are obliged to participate in mediation meetings, but cannot be forced to agree; The process ends with agreement or disagreement, and in both cases a final report is prepared. If no agreement can be reached, the original or certified copy of this final report must be attached to the petition; If it is not added, the court gives a definite period of one week, and if it is not completed within this period, the case is rejected due to procedural reasons.
4. Competent and Competent Court The competent court in the case of dissolution of partnership is the civil court of peace. In terms of jurisdiction, the court where the real estate is located has absolute authority; The parties cannot file a lawsuit elsewhere by agreement. If the estate consists of immovable properties located in more than one province, a lawsuit must be filed separately for each immovable property in the civil court of peace where that immovable property is located. The case is subject to the simple trial procedure of the Code of Civil Procedure; In this procedure, the petitions phase consists only of the lawsuit and the response petition. Since there is no second petitions phase, the process progresses relatively faster.
5. Forms of Dissolution of Partnership: By Dividend and Sale. When deciding on the dissolution of the partnership, the Court gives priority to division as is. Likewise, in partition, the immovable properties in the estate are physically divided so that, if possible, each of them is allocated to an heir; If there is a difference between the values of the shares given to the heirs, this difference is offset by the payment of money (addition of consideration). Likewise, division only comes to the agenda if one of the parties requests it, and the real estate must be physically suitable for division in terms of issues such as surface area, quality and zoning status; For example, dividing agricultural lands into pieces smaller than five acres is not allowed. In accordance with Article 7 of the Condominium Law, it is not possible to eliminate the partnership through sale in real estate where condominium ownership or floor easement has been established. In cases where exact division is not possible or the real estate will suffer a significant loss in value, the court decides on division by sale; In this case, the real estate is sold at auction in accordance with the provisions of the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law and the resulting price is shared among the stakeholders in proportion to their inheritance shares.
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6. Litigation Process and Parties In the case of dissolving the partnership, all heirs (stakeholders) must take part in the case; If there is a missing party, the court gives time to correct the deficiency, if it is not corrected, the case cannot be concluded procedurally. If one of the stakeholders dies during the trial, his heirs must be included in the case by issuing a writ of inheritance. This case is described as a "double case" in civil procedure law; There is no classical winner-loser relationship between the plaintiff and the defendant; even if one of the parties waives the case, one of the other stakeholders may request the continuation of the case. For this reason, litigation expenses are borne by all parties in proportion to their ownership shares at the end of the case.
CASE SUMMARY FORM The three children of Nazım Bey, who passed away leaving an apartment and a summer house with a garden in Antalya, could not agree on whether the apartment should be given to them and the summer house to the youngest sibling. The eldest brother, Mr. Selim, filed a lawsuit directly with the Civil Court of Peace to dissolve the partnership in order to speed up the process, but did not add the final mediation report to the petition.
APPLICATION AND LEGAL PROCESS The court stated that mediation is a compulsory case requirement in cases filed after 2023 and gave Mr. Selim a strict deadline to submit the final report within one week. Thereupon, Selim Bey's lawyer applied to the mediation office, and the brothers came together for a three-week period; An agreement could not be reached on the flat, but it was agreed that the summer house would be left to the youngest sibling. The mediator recorded the partial agreement and the unclear issues separately in the final report. Selim Bey's lawyer added this report to the petition and brought the request regarding the flat only to the court. As a result of the expert examination, the court determined that the flat could not be physically divided and decided to share it by sale.
CONCLUSION The flat was sold via auction, and the proceeds were shared among the three siblings in proportion to their inheritance shares. In accordance with the agreement reached in mediation, the summer house was registered in the title deed in the name of the youngest sibling without filing a separate lawsuit. This process has shown that partial reconciliation is possible in mediation and that only the issues that are not understood can be brought to litigation.
Step Action to be Taken Note from the Field 1. Determination of the Estate Issuance of a certificate of inheritance and listing of all assets in the estate, Land Registry records and bank account statements are the first documents to be collected. 2. Compromise Making an inheritance division agreement between the heirs. If an agreement is reached, the title deed trial process can be completed without the need to file a lawsuit.
3. Mandatory: Applying to a mediator before filing a lawsuit. The process takes 3-4 weeks; Mediation must be added to the final report petition. 4. Opening a lawsuit. A lawsuit is filed in the Civil Court of Peace where the real estate is located. It is mandatory for all stakeholders to be included in the lawsuit. If there is a deficiency, time is given to file it.
5. If it is not possible to investigate the possibility of expert and verbatim division, sales cannot be used in immovable properties where condominium ownership has been established.
Should I go to a mediator before filing a lawsuit to dissolve the partnership? Yes. Mediation is a mandatory litigation requirement for cases filed after September 1, 2023; Cases filed by skipping this stage are rejected on procedural grounds.
What happens if other heirs do not want to share? Even the request of only one of the heirs is sufficient for distribution; The consent of others is not required, and heirs who do not consent to the process are also listed as defendants in the petition.
Is the property given to one of the siblings or sold? The court first investigates whether exact division is possible; If the real estate cannot be divided physically or will suffer a significant loss in value, it is decided to divide it by sale.
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Can a brother sell his share to a third party? It is not possible to sell independent shares while joint ownership continues; However, the transfer of the inheritance share (all or part of it) can be made to third parties, provided that it relates to the entire estate.
How long does the case take? Although it varies depending on the number of stakeholders, expert examination and the workload of the court, in practice these cases are concluded on average between 1-3 years.
ATTENTION — COMMON MISTAKES Filing a lawsuit directly by skipping the mediation stage and facing rejection of the case due to procedural reasons,
Requesting compensation through sale of a property where condominium ownership has been established,
Trying to continue the process without including the heirs of a deceased stakeholder in the case, Requesting the exact division of agricultural lands in a way that falls below the legal lower limit.
10. Conclusion Elimination of inheritance partnership is a technical process with strict procedural rules that comes to the fore sooner or later for every estate with more than one heir. Mistakes such as skipping the compulsory mediation stage, creating missing parties, or incorrectly requesting an apportionment may lead to the case being rejected or dragged on for years. As Küheylan Law Firm, our inheritance law department provides comprehensive legal support to our clients at every stage of the process, from the determination of the estate to the management of the mediation process, from the preparation of the petition to the follow-up of the expert examination. If you are considering ending your inheritance partnership, you can contact our office's inheritance law team to complete the process with the right steps and as soon as possible.
Hunting. Mert Deniz Küheylan Important Legal Notice: The information contained in this guide is for general information purposes and does not constitute a legal opinion. The outcome may vary depending on the specific circumstances of each concrete case, the content of the estate and the nature of the real estate. It is recommended that the process be carried out with the support of a lawyer to prevent procedural errors such as lack of a lawsuit requirement.
Burhaniye Mh. Neşetbey Sk. No:12/5 Floor:5 Flat:3 Üsküdar/İstanbul — info@kuheylan.av.tr — kuheylanhukuk.com
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