Mandatory Mediation In Rental Disputes
Inflation, which has been increasing recently in our country and all around the world, has shown its effect in every field, as well as in the housing field. There have been unprecedented increases in house rents in history, and this has negatively affected owner-tenant relations. This issue, which caused the workload of the courts to become heavier, delayed the resolution of disputes.
These negative situations necessitated changes in the legislation and significant changes were made in the “Law on Amendments to the Execution and Bankruptcy Law and Certain Laws” numbered 7445 and the “Law on Mediation in Civil Disputes” numbered 6325, published in the Resmî Gazete numbered 32154 dated April 5, 2023. The scope of disputes that can be resolved through mandatory and voluntary mediation has been expanded.
With the said regulation, Article 18/B titled “Mediation as a condition of litigation in some disputes”, which will come into force as of September 1, 2023, has been added to the Law Number 6325, and “Leased immovable properties are subject to the Law Number 2004” included in paragraph 1/a of this new article. Accordingly, with the expression “disputes arising from the rental relationship, excluding the provisions regarding the eviction through execution without judgment”, it is mandatory to apply to the mediator before filing a lawsuit for the disputes arising from the rental relationship, and mediation has become a condition of litigation for these cases. In this context, it has become mandatory to apply to a mediator before filing a lawsuit for rent disputes as of September 1, 2023.
However, in accordance with the phrase “Except for the provisions regarding the evacuation of rented immovable properties through execution without a judgment in accordance with Law Number 2004…” in the regulation, the provisions regarding the eviction of rented immovable properties through execution without a judgment in accordance with Law Number 2004 are exempt from the institution of compulsory mediation.
If mediation is decided as a case condition, parties filing a lawsuit without applying to a mediator will cause their cases to be rejected due to lack of a case condition. For this reason, first of all, the parties apply to the mediation office where the competent court is located, with the application form they have filled out, depending on the subject of the dispute between them. The mediator appointed as a result of the application contacts the parties and determines the date and place of the first meeting. Parties may request to attend mediation meetings with their attorneys or legal representatives. The responsibility of the mediator appointed during the meeting is to bring the parties together in a suitable environment or online to ensure that they communicate their demands freely and establish a fair, respectful and solution-oriented communication. In the meeting held under the supervision of a mediator, the parties state their demands and try to reach a compromise. If the dispute cannot be resolved in the first meeting, negotiations continue within the period specified in the code and a solution to the dispute in question continues to be sought. During this period, the mediator encourages the parties to reach a common decision by acting peacefully and impartially and considering the interests of both parties.
In the mediation negotiations held between the parties under the management of the mediator, a fair solution that suits the interests and needs of both parties is found and if the parties agree on this solution, the dispute in question will result in an agreement. In this case, an agreement report is prepared by the assigned mediator and signed by the parties. Thus, the dispute is resolved in a faster and more reasonable way, without the need to resort to litigation. As a matter of fact, this is what the legislator aimed to bring this institution to Turkish Law.
In the period from the date of application to the mediation office to the date of the final mediation report, the statute of limitations regarding rent disputes ceases and the limitation periods do not apply. As of the date of the final report stating that the parties could not reach an agreement and the dispute could not be resolved through mediation, the statute of limitations and limitation periods begin to run again. Parties who cannot reach an agreement through mediation, may file a lawsuit by attaching the final report of mediation to their petition, within the period stipulated by law.
Since the purpose of the mediation institution is to quickly resolve disputes, mediation meetings are limited to a certain period of time. This matter is stated in the 9th paragraph of Article 18/A of Law Number 6325: “The mediator shall finalize the application within three weeks from the date of appointment. In accordance with the same provision, this period may be extended by the mediator for a maximum of one week in cases of necessity.” are given with the following expressions.
The fact that the use of mediation has been made mandatory in order to bring disputes arising from the lease relationship to the court has already brought results, as a matter of fact, the parties reached an agreement and shook hands during the mediation process in 11 thousand 544 files, which constitute 59.16% of the total number of files related to the disputes arising from the lease relationship.