Registering visitors to villas/apartments

[Mick07413]

Hi hope all is well in Kalkan.
This will be our first year as owners of property and intend visiting in the coming months/years. At this stage we do not intend renting the property out, however our family will be visiting at various times throughout the year. Question - do they have to notify the local police of the times they are in the property or is that just on a commercial basis.

Many thanks

Linkback: https://www.enjoykalkan.com/forum/index.php?topic=13636.0

[chrissy1]

From what I've read if it's visiting family/ friends who are not paying it's not necessary to register them ... read that only yesterday on a KTLN article

[hobbo]

link to KTLN article http://kalkan.turkishlocalnews.com/portal/kalkan-news/501189-important-regulations-on-short-term-rentals-come-into-effect

Note there will be still some confusion about the exact processes and local implementations, looking at other sources for different areas there is the normal range of differing interpretations of the rules... best keep an eye on KTLN for updates.

[bibi]

Hi Mick

The new requirements only apply to owners who are commercially letting. That means are pursuing rental clients for the purpose of income e.g. advertising online, facebook or other social media. If your property is not present anywhere online and you are genuinely only using it for family and friends then to the best of our research about the law on this point, the changes will not affect you.

[kalkan4eva]

Saw this today on Facebook



See post which was put on here yesterday by Gonca, KEP .....

CORRECT INFORMATION ABOUT PASSPORT DECLARATIONS AND HOW THE SYSTEM IS WORKING

Update on Passport Declarations - CORRECT INFORMATION WHAT OUR CLIENTS RECEIVED FROM US

I want to update you about the new legislation with correct information about passport declarations which had been mystery for all of us sometime. I have just completed a meeting with a gendarmerie sergeant who is responsible of GIYKIMBIL (identity declarations) system.

Please find below what needs to be done and how are we going to handle it for you.

1- We are registered with the system as your management company. Only official companies can register and receive a user name and password to complete declarations. We now have a password and a user name.
a. What Does it Mean an to have an Official Maintenance Company
This means if you have a guy working for you as an individual not registered with the tax office as a proper maintenance company they will have no right to make these declarations on behalf of you. Gendarmerie is not giving them a user name or a password for this job.  In that case you will need to do it yourself, going and registering at the gendarmerie in Kas, and using a system for declarations only available in Turkish language.

2- Who is going to be declared and what is the process
a. Everyone including the owners needs to be declared during the stay every day, this includes infants as well. I raised the question twice about homeowners or first relatives; they still need to be declared as this is a second home not permanent residence. The declarations are repeated every day to the system.
b. Declarations will be made online to gendarmerie system via a private software we purchased. Declarations will be made every day during the stay and we will need copies of passports before arrivals for each guest. After making sure the arrival is realized by our supervisors for previously declared guests we will upload the information on the system. If there is an early departure or change of names of arriving guests we will need to be informed. Our supervisors will double check the arrivals and guest names during welcoming.

3- Failure to Declare
a. Failing to declare is subjected to high fines, first time of failure will subject 5000 TL and second time another 5000 TL. There will be no 3rd time failure they will cancel our license to operate and close your house. Therefore both parties have serious responsibilities.
b. Declarations need to be made as soon as possible after arrivals. That means if the arrival is late, we will welcome guests until 10.30 am next day and make sure they arrived to the property. If arrival is until 6 pm we will check arrivals same day and make declarations. You will need to inform guests accordingly.

4- Your Responsibilities:
a. We will be happy to make the declarations for you, as long as you provide all passport copies to us before arrivals. You will need to ask same information to be provided to your travel agents’ if you are renting through an agent, and email us the passport copies. As an owner you are responsible of providing us the copies of passports. We cannot rely on the travel agents sending us copies of passports. If failed you and us will be facing the fines. Please contact with your agents regarding the importance of the matter.

5- Our Fees:
a. We hired and additional staff to handle the job for all properties we are managing. This is an everyday job during the season. For the days the property is unoccupied we will still have to declare as NOT OCCUPIED. We also purchased private software that works together with GIYKIMBIL to upload the data. Even though each person can be entered manually to the system this is an impossible job to enter each guests’ information every day during the stay.

6- Tax Matters:
a. The system is not connected with the tax office for now. We advise all our clients to declare rental income in Turkey. Reason being you earn in Turkey rental income tax need to be paid in Turkey. Because we have a reciprocal agreement with UK you can deduct the tax paid here from your tax in UK.  In future the system may or may not be connected to tax office. There are no connections at the moment.

We will start declaring as of tomorrow and uploading the houses to the system. Please do not hesitate to contact us for any questions in mind. It sounds complicated but there will be no difficulty when handled professionally.

Actually similar system is in place in all Europe you may have experienced the same registration process staying in any other holiday lets or a hotel in any other country.

Kind regards,
Gonca.

Gonca Özel
www.kalkanexclusiveproperties.com
Mobile: +90 533 663 2101

[Kalkan regular]

I think KTLN's report should be out soon.

[MartynE]

Much as I respect Gonca, I think everyone would be wise to await further corroboration from KTLN. John, the Editor will be reporting soon, following a meeting in Kas, and he has no axe to grind on this issue other than finding out what the exact position is for the benefit of owners and holidaymakers alike.

Always beware of "facts" from people who have a financial interest in the outcome!

[DRBD]

Can imagine there will be extra mainentance payments added by those who are authorised to deal with this  issue on behalf of their villa owners who rent out, all that administration is not going to done for nothing.   

[Cosetta]

Gonca has said she will only perform this service for her property management clients, not others.  Which means there is an opening for another Turkish speaker willing to invest the money and time to service others for a fee without the requirement to also manage their properties.  But first we should indeed wait for John's report (although I believe he is speaking to the same officials as Gonca did.)

[monthehoops]

Gonca told me a couple of days ago that she intends to charge an additional £70 on top of the standard maintenance fees.
I await John's report with interest, as Gonca is the first to highlight that the new registration scheme applies to owners who do not rent out their properties.

[kalkan4eva]

We are planning to send scanned copies of our passports to the owner of the property we are renting sometime this week. They havent asked, but I'd rather they had them well in advance.
I'm sure confusion will continue for sometime yet....

[MartynE]

Gonca has said she will only perform this service for her property management clients, not others.  Which means there is an opening for another Turkish speaker willing to invest the money and time to service others for a fee without the requirement to also manage their properties. 

Carole, this is one of the things we are looking at in association with some other well-known Kalkan specialist rental agents. We are hoping maybe to set up a co-operative venture to handle this issue, but we are waiting the fine detail. I believe that some of the details published by others are not 100% correct. We are waiting until we have the definitive answers! then we will see about putting something together.

[chrissy1]

Ok, so we live here permanently, both on the tape and have STRP but in July my family is visiting for 2 weeks and staying with us. I am hearing that I will have to register them but does that mean I have to pay the hefty cost to register just for them to visit as I have no intention of renting out at all in the future as it's our only home.  That doesn't seem very fair, I have no problem regards the passport info given to the Jandarma but not at great expense. Anybody know how I will get round this or am I reading the info wrong.

[hobbo]

Chrissy1 these are the sort of questions that we are all waiting for clarification on, as Martyn mentions several of the 'articles' have been written by people with vested interests.. As far as I am aware if you are not renting out (and haven't in the recent past) then you will not need to register the property nor any family visiting, However the truth is nobody really knows at the moment.

[chrissy1]

Thanks Hobbo you are correct we bought our apt as our forever home so it's never been advertised as a rental ever. I was under the same impression initially then all these different versions are bandied about sowing seeds of doubt. I really wish people would wait for the official versions before voicing their own interpretations. I shall wait and see but thank you anyway.

[Cosetta]

In no version of this rumor is there any mention of giving passports to the Jandarma in Kalkan.  If necessary, such info will have to be automatically processed through a software program that none of us is going to buy.

Martyn, the more gov people asked, the more conflicting information you all will receive.  It is always like this.  The top says "A" and by the time it gets to local responsibles, the version is "Z".

IMHO, when they realize what they've done, they will rescind the whole thing.  Maybe in a year.  As what happened with the residence permit requirements and the 120 day rule.

Even if nothing changes, it will be impossible to enforce this ruling.  Imagine that in the tiny town of Kalkan there are about 700 properties on the market.  Add all those guests plus the guests of all the properties for rent along all Turkish coastlines and big cities.  The gov would have to hire thousands of people just to keep track of who complied and who didn't!  Maybe in 2030 they will match them up ...

[Tyros]

We have just received an email from our management company, who look after our apartment while we are not there, which is almost identical in wording to  Gonca Özel. The only difference is the charge of £15/month that they want to impose for this registration process!! What bothers me is that we do not rent our apartment out and only occasionally have friends or family staying with us.
Since we are the registered owners of our property this seems to me to be a sledge hammer to crack a nut.....

[onelove]

The official line is if you don't & never have rented your property you don't have to do anything so no need to worry

On the other hand if you have or do rent your property you HAVE to register Everyone that stays including friends, paying guests, family including yourself, you even have to 'register' when it's empty. This has been brought in by the Turkish Giv on the grounds of security, so I think it's a very good idea.

To do this you are going to need to use a company (maintenance ) that can do it for you, of course they will charge a small amount for doing it as it takes time to do and they have had to buy the software.

In short it's no big deal. 

[onelove]

....grey area ?

I was chatting to an xpat friend your lives in Kalkan in a rented villa on a long term let (5 years) and was asking me did I think this will also apply to him & oh. I'm not sure about his situation but would think the same applies as he is still renting ie : the owner of the villa will have to register them ?

Time will tell ?

[Cosetta]

Many owners do not have a management company.  Some companies have said they will provide this service only for their clients. For these people, only a cooperative is feasible.  Martyn has said he is looking into the feasibility of setting one up.  I think many owners will simply withdraw their properties from the rental market and wait a year to see what transpires.