What the action does
Where a property is held in shared ownership (paylı mülkiyet) or joint ownership (elbirliği mülkiyeti) and the co-owners cannot agree on how to use, divide or sell it, any one of them may apply to end the co-ownership. Consent of the others is not required, and no co-owner can be forced to remain in co-ownership indefinitely.
The action is brought against all other co-owners. In joint ownership arising from inheritance this means every heir must be named; a file that omits an heir is returned for correction and loses time.
Division in kind comes first
The court does not go straight to a sale. It first examines whether the property can be physically divided so that each co-owner receives a part corresponding to their share. An expert examines:
- whether division is physically possible on the ground,
- whether division would cause a significant loss of value,
- whether the zoning rules permit parcels of the resulting size,
- whether an equalising payment between the parties could make an imperfect division fair.
For land, division in kind is more often possible than for a single building; for a flat it is almost never possible.
Sale by auction
If division in kind is not possible, the court orders the property to be sold and the proceeds distributed in proportion to the shares. The sale is carried out by public auction through the enforcement office. Two points matter in practice:
Anyone may bid, including strangers. Co-owners can ask the court to order that the sale be made only between the co-owners, but the court is not bound to grant it.
Auction prices are frequently below market. This is the main reason a negotiated sale, agreed before or during the proceedings, usually leaves every co-owner better off than the judgment does.
Costs and duration
Court costs and expert fees are shared among the co-owners in proportion to their shares, whoever brought the action; the successful party does not recover them in the usual way, because the judgment benefits everyone. Duration depends on the number of co-owners, whether all can be served, and whether a site inspection is needed.
Where it interacts with other files
Where the shared property came from an inheritance, the dissolution file frequently sits alongside a claim of collusive transfer or an annulment of title. Where one co-owner has been using the whole property alone, a claim for occupation compensation may run with it. Deciding the order in which these are brought is part of building the file.