Step-by-step conveyancing and procedure stages

Tell us what happened

Send us the facts and whatever documents you have — the accident report, hospital papers, photographs, any letter from an insurer. We review them in English against the requirements of a Turkish road-accident claim and tell you honestly whether there is a claim worth running, what is missing, and what it will take.

We check the clock before anything else

Your position under KTK Art. 109 is settled first: when you learned of the damage and the liable party, whether the ten-year longstop is in play, and whether a criminal file gives you a longer period. Because Art. 109 governs the pecuniary claim, we check the limitation on any non-pecuniary head separately, under the Code of Obligations. If a deadline is close, that governs the order everything else happens in.

You appoint us remotely

You sign a power of attorney where you live — notarised and apostilled with a sworn Turkish translation, or executed at a Turkish consulate. Our fee is agreed in writing before work begins. You do not travel to Türkiye to instruct us.

We build the file

We obtain the police accident report, identify the vehicle's compulsory insurer through the central records, check whether the vehicle carried any optional extended cover and on what terms, access the criminal investigation file where one exists, assemble your medical records from Türkiye and from home, and take the disability and fault evidence to the standard the forum will expect.

The Art. 97 application to the insurer

We make the written application to the insurer with the documents the General Conditions require, so the 15-day response period actually starts. Silence or an inadequate answer opens the route to arbitration or to court — and either outcome moves the file forward.

Arbitration or court, then collection

We take the claim against the insurer to the Insurance Arbitration Commission or to court, and the claim for what the insurance does not cover — non-pecuniary damages, any excess over the limits — against the keeper and driver. Where a decision is not honoured voluntarily, we enforce it.

Critical statutory deadlines and calendar windows

The clocks that run in a Turkish road-accident claim

15 days~~The maximum period the insurer has to answer your written application in writing before you may go to court or to arbitration (KTK Art. 97). It is a response window, not a payment window.~~

2 yearsPecuniary claims are generally time-barred two years from the day you learned both the damage and who is liable (KTK Art. 109). Non-pecuniary claims follow the Code of Obligations' tort limitation on the same pattern.

2 yearsA settlement or agreement on a compensation amount that is clearly insufficient or clearly excessive may be annulled within two years from the date it was made (KTK Art. 111) — a separate, shorter clock.

10 yearsThe outer longstop for pecuniary claims, running from the day of the accident regardless of what you knew (KTK Art. 109). Where the accident was also a criminal offence carrying a longer limitation period, that longer period applies instead.

What to gather now

Road-accident claims are won on documents generated in the first hours and lost on documents nobody collected. If your accident was recent, this is the part to act on today; if it was years ago, gather what still exists and have the deadline checked before anything else.

A copy of the police accident report (kaza tespit tutanağı) — it is the spine of the file, it feeds the fault report and it identifies the vehicles and their insurance. If the drivers completed a mutual report form instead, keep that form.
Photographs taken before anything moved: vehicle positions, plates, damage to each vehicle, skid marks, road surface, signage, lighting and weather — and the other driver's documents and policy if you were able to photograph them.
The other vehicle's plate, the driver's name, the insurance details, and the names and phone numbers of any witnesses, who scatter within minutes and are effectively unrecoverable afterwards.
Everything medical from Türkiye — emergency admission records, imaging, the discharge summary (epikriz), prescriptions and receipts — and then the same records from your own country, because continuing treatment at home is what proves the harm did not stop when you boarded the plane.
Whatever exists of the criminal file: if a prosecutor opened an investigation it will contain expert work and statements, and if you were the injured party, check that a complaint was actually recorded.
If you were a passenger, the name of the operator of the taxi, bus, minibus or coach — the carrier has its own liability and its own insurance.
The date on any letter, offer or release (ibraname) you have received or signed, and a note of anything you were asked to sign in Turkish without being able to read it.

Governing statutory provisions under Turkish law

2918~~LAW NO.~~

Highway Traffic Law (Karayolları Trafik Kanunu, KTK) · Art. 85, 86, 90, 91, 92, 97, 98, 109, 110, 111

Sets the keeper's strict liability for damage arising from the operation of a motor vehicle, the compulsory traffic insurance (ZMSS) and the injured party's direct claim against the insurer, the exclusions from that cover, the pre-suit application to the insurer, venue, the limitation period for pecuniary claims, and the invalidity of agreements narrowing liability.

6098~~LAW NO.~~

Code of Obligations (Türk Borçlar Kanunu, TBK) · Art. 52, 53, 54, 56

Governs the tort claim itself where the KTK is silent: the heads of damage in injury and in death, loss of financial support, non-pecuniary damages, and the reduction of an award for the claimant's own contribution.

5684~~LAW NO.~~

Insurance Law (Sigortacılık Kanunu) · Art. 14, 30

Establishes the Güvence Hesabı for hit-and-run, uninsured and insolvent-insurer cases, and the Insurance Arbitration Commission — which, for insurances made compulsory by legislation, is open even where the insurer is not a member of the system.

Traffic Accident Compensation in Türkiye: Claim Stages, Insurance Deadlines & Calculations