Family & Divorce
Mortgage in Turkish Divorce: Who Owns the House?
Paid the mortgage during marriage but title is in spouse's name? Learn how Turkish courts calculate commingled assets and contribution claims.
"I bought the house before we met, so it remains 100% mine, right?"
This is the most common misconception in Turkish divorce cases. While the Title Deed (Tapu) might carry only one name, the financial reality is often more complex.
If any mortgage payments, renovation costs, or loans were paid using marital funds (salary, income) during the marriage, the "commingling" of assets creates a significant financial claim for the other spouse.
In this guide, we break down the mathematical formulas Turkish Family Courts use to calculate "Contribution Claims" and separate "Personal Goods" from "Acquired Goods."
Key Takeaways
The title deed does not settle it. Under Article 202 of the Turkish Civil Code (Türk Medeni Kanunu, TMK), participation in acquired property (edinilmiş mallara katılma) is the default regime, and it produces a money claim, not co-ownership.
TMK Article 225 ends the regime on the date the divorce case was filed; Article 235 values the asset at liquidation. Your contribution is frozen in the past, the price tag is today's.
Three claims exist — participation claim (Article 236), value increase share (Article 227) and a contribution claim for pre-2002 years. Pleading the wrong one costs years.
Article 239 allows payment in money or in kind, so you normally receive cash, not the house. Article 240 — staying in the family home — applies only where a spouse has died.
Article 15 of the Private International Law Code (MÖHUK, Law 5718) sends immovable property in Türkiye to Turkish law on liquidation.
The Core Concept: Personal vs. Acquired Property
Under the Turkish Civil Code (post-2002), distinguishing between what you owned before and what you paid for during the marriage is the foundation of asset liquidation.
Personal Goods (Kişisel Mallar): Assets purchased before the marriage or acquired via inheritance/gift. These are generally immune from division.
Acquired Goods (Edinilmiş Mallar): Assets (or parts of assets) paid for with labour income or savings during the marriage.
The Friction Point: Legal conflict arises when these categories mix—specifically, when a house is bought before marriage (Personal) but the mortgage is paid off during the marriage (Acquired).
Article 219 lists acquired goods: earnings from work, social security payments, compensation for loss of earning capacity, income produced by personal goods, and substitutes. Article 220 lists personal goods: purely personal items, everything owned when the regime began, anything later inherited or received gratuitously, non-pecuniary damages, and substitutes. Article 222 then decides most files — whoever says an asset is personal must prove it, and until then every asset of a spouse is presumed acquired.
Three Different Claims — Only One Fits Your File
Foreign clients arrive asking for "half the house." Turkish law offers three separate claims, each with its own formula and its own evidence.
Participation claim (katılma alacağı) — Article 236
Each spouse takes half of the other's residual value (artık değer): under Article 231, the total value of that spouse's acquired goods including add-backs and equalisation, less the debts attached to them, with decreases ignored — a negative balance counts as zero, not as a debt you owe. Since Article 219 treats earnings from work as acquired property, a stay-at-home spouse claims here without tracing a lira of their own. Article 236 also lets the judge cut or cancel the guilty spouse's share where the divorce is granted for adultery (zina) or an attempt on the other spouse's life (hayata kast).
Value increase share (değer artış payı) — Article 227
Use this where you funded something belonging to your spouse: the pre-marital flat, the car in their name, the shop. Article 227 gives a claim proportionate to your contribution in that asset's increase in value, calculated on its liquidation value. If the asset lost value, the article falls back to the initial value of your contribution; if your spouse already sold it, the judge decides according to equity (hakkaniyet). Spouses may waive the share or vary the ratio in writing — the point of a Turkish marital property agreement.
Contribution claim (katkı payı) for pre-2002 years
Married before 1 January 2002? Article 10 of Law No. 4722 keeps your earlier regime alive up to that date and treats you as having chosen the statutory regime from it unless you picked another within a year. A 1996 marriage therefore splits in two, and the earlier years are pursued as a contribution claim under general principles.
The "Credit Calculation" Formula
When a property is financed via credit, the court does not simply look at the title deed. It calculates the proportion of the asset financed by marital funds.
The Step-by-Step Calculation:
Identify the "Acquired" Portion: Any loan payments made during the marriage are considered "Acquired Property," regardless of whose specific salary paid the bill.
Establish the Ratio: The court calculates the ratio of the credit paid during the marriage to the original purchase price.
Apply to the Liquidation Value: Critically, the claim is not based on the historical cash paid. It is based on the market value the property carries at liquidation — in practice, the expert valuation closest to judgment.
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Case Study: The Math in Action
To visualize this, consider the following scenario based on Supreme Court precedents:
Original Purchase Price: 100,000 TL
Credit Paid During Marriage: 40,000 TL (using marital funds)
The Ratio: 40% of the home's value is attributed to marital effort.
At the time of liquidation: The regime already ended on the date the divorce case was filed (Article 225), but Article 235 counts the flat at its value at liquidation — and by then the house has appreciated to 200,000 TL.
The "Acquired" Pool: 40% of 200,000 TL = 80,000 TL.
The Settlement: Since acquired goods are split 50/50, the non-owner spouse is entitled to 40,000 TL (Half of the Acquired Pool).
Key Takeaway: The non-owner spouse gets a share of the current appreciated value, not just the old money they contributed.
The Two Dates That Decide the Number
Article 225 ends the regime retroactively on the date the case was filed, so what follows sits outside the pool: the instalments still being paid, the March bonus, the second flat. Article 235 then counts acquired goods existing at that moment at their liquidation value, while assets added back are valued as at the date they were transferred away. That gap is why the court expert's (bilirkişi) valuation report decides these cases.
Renovation, Inheritance and Money That Got Mixed
You paid for the kitchen in a flat that is not yours
Renovation is Article 227 territory, not Article 236, and the burden of proving what you paid is yours. Article 222 will not help: its presumption classifies assets, it does not prove you funded the new roof. Keep the contractor's contract, invoices in your own name and bank transfers; cash handed to a builder is worth little in evidence.
Inheritance money spent on the family home
Article 220 keeps inherited and gifted assets personal even when they arrive mid-marriage, and extends that status to whatever replaces them — but you must trace it. Article 230 is the mechanism: where one category's debt was paid out of the other, equalisation (denkleştirme) can be demanded at liquidation, and where one category funded the acquisition, improvement or preservation of an asset in the other, equalisation follows the contribution ratio and the liquidation value. A debt whose category cannot be established counts as acquired.
Which Country's Law Applies If One of You Is Not Turkish
MÖHUK Article 15 lets spouses choose, at the time of marriage, the law of their habitual residence or of one of their nationalities; absent a choice it runs through their common national law, then their common habitual residence law, then Turkish law. Its second paragraph settles mortgage disputes: on liquidation, immovables follow the law of the country where they sit, so a flat in Beşiktaş is dealt with under Turkish law however the rest of the marriage is governed. Jurisdiction is a separate question, covered in our guide on filing for divorce in Türkiye.
Filing the Claim: Court, Timing and Cost
Liquidation is a separate lawsuit before the family court (aile mahkemesi), not a paragraph inside the divorce petition. Article 214 gives venue to the court competent for the divorce or annulment case, and the file normally waits for that judgment to become final. On timing, Article 178 bars rights of action arising from the dissolution of the marriage one year after the divorce becomes final, while Article 146 of the Turkish Code of Obligations sets a general ten-year limitation that liquidation claims have in practice been treated as falling under. Work to the first year and the argument never arises.
It is a money claim, so a proportional court fee attaches to the amount claimed. Since the right figure is unknown before the expert values the property, the route is now a partial claim (kısmi dava) under Article 109 of the Code of Civil Procedure: the indeterminate claim (belirsiz alacak davası) of Article 107 was repealed by Law No. 7589, in force on 31 July 2026, and a fourth paragraph was added to Article 109 in its place. Where only part of a debt is sued for, the claim may be increased once in the same case, free of the bar on widening claims, at any point until the investigation phase (tahkikat) closes — and limitation counts as interrupted from the date of filing for the increased part as well. So you sue for a minimum figure and raise it once the valuation report lands; files opened before that date continue under the old Article 107. Article 239 then governs payment: money or in kind at market (sürüm) value, deferral for a debtor spouse facing serious difficulty, and interest from the end of liquidation. Build the paper trail early — loan agreement, payment schedule, account statements, dates. Our family and divorce team works these files in English, usually under a power of attorney.
Common questions about mortgage payments and property division in a Turkish divorce
Does my spouse get a share of the house I bought before marriage?
Generally, no. Under Article 220 an asset bought before the marriage is a personal good. But mortgage instalments paid from marital income during the marriage give your spouse a claim, measured as a proportion of the property's value at liquidation.
What happens to property I inherited during the marriage?
Article 220 keeps inheritances and gifts personal even when received during the marriage, and so is whatever replaces them. The risk is commingling — selling an inherited flat to buy a joint home. You must then prove the source of funds, because Article 222 presumes everything acquired.
We renovated my spouse's pre-marital house. Can I get my money back?
Yes, as a value increase share (değer artış payı) under Article 227. Turkish courts do not return the nominal cash you spent: they apply your contribution ratio to the property's value at liquidation, falling back to your contribution's initial value if the property lost value.
I was a stay-at-home spouse and didn't pay the mortgage. Do I still have rights?
Yes. The regime does not ask who paid the bills. If the mortgage came out of your spouse's salary, Article 219 makes that money acquired property and Article 236 entitles you to half of the residual value generated during the marriage.
How do courts calculate the value of the house? Is it the purchase price?
No. Article 235 counts acquired goods existing when the regime ended at their value at liquidation, not the price paid. The purchase price matters only to fix the ratio of marital contribution that is then applied to the liquidation value.
How long do I have to claim after a divorce in Turkey?
Article 178 sets one year from the date the divorce becomes final for rights of action arising from the dissolution of the marriage; Article 146 of the Code of Obligations sets a general ten-year period, which liquidation claims are in practice treated as falling under. File within the first year.
Can I still file an indeterminate claim if I do not know what the house is worth?
No. Law No. 7589 repealed Article 107 of the Code of Civil Procedure with effect from 31 July 2026, so no new indeterminate claim (belirsiz alacak davası) can be filed. You open a partial claim under Article 109 for a minimum figure and, under its new fourth paragraph, increase it once — up to the close of the investigation phase — after the expert values the property, with limitation interrupted from the original filing date for the increased part too.
Can I stop my spouse selling the house before the case ends?
If it is the family home, Article 194 blocks a transfer without your express consent and lets the non-owner spouse ask the land registry directorate (tapu müdürlüğü) to enter the family home annotation (aile konutu şerhi) on the title. If it has already gone, Article 229 adds certain transfers back by value and Article 241 lets you pursue the third party who benefited — within one year of learning of the prejudice, five years of the regime ending. See asset hiding in Turkish divorce.
This guide is general information on Turkish law, not legal advice on your own matter. Rules and practice change; check the position before you act.