Evacuation-Demolition Process Under Law No. 6306 | Deadlines, Service Interruption, and Judicial Review
After the risky structure determination becomes final, the evacuation and demolition process is subject to specific stages. In accordance with Article 5 of Law No. 6306 on the Transformation of Areas Under Disaster Risk and Article 8 of the Implementing Regulation, the fundamental principle is the priority of agreement with owners. If an agreement is reached, temporary housing/workplace allocation or rent assistance comes into question.
1. General Principles and Priority of Agreement
In accordance with Article 5 of Law No. 6306 on the Transformation of Areas Under Disaster Risk and Article 8 of its Implementing Regulation, the fundamental principle in the evacuation and demolition of risky structures is to primarily seek an agreement with the owners. As emphasized in the decisions of the 6th Chamber of the Council of State and the 7th Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation, agreement with owners is essential in the demolition of risky structures and in the implementations in these areas. For owners, tenants, and limited real right holders of structures evacuated through agreement, temporary housing/workplace allocation or rent assistance is foreseen.
2. Stages of the Evacuation and Demolition Process
A. Finalization of Risky Structure Determination: For the process to begin, the determination of the risky structure must be finalized. According to the decision of the 6th Administrative Litigation Chamber of Istanbul Regional Administrative Court, the determination becomes final if the objection made against the risky structure determination is rejected or if no objection is made. Demolition procedures initiated while the objection process is ongoing are considered unlawful.
B. First Stage: Period Granted Not Less Than 60 Days: For structures where the risky building determination has been finalized, the Directorate of Infrastructure and Urban Transformation or the Provincial Directorate of Environment and Urbanization requests the relevant Administration (Municipality or Special Provincial Administration) to carry out the evacuation and demolition procedures. The Administration grants the building owners a period of no less than 60 days for the demolition of the risky structure.
Notification Obligation: In the notification made to the owners, it is warned that the owner must notify the tenants or limited real right holders using the building for evacuation. If the owner fails to make the notification, this notification is carried out by the Administration.
Procedural Irregularity in Time Limit: The 6th Chamber of the Council of State annuls demolition procedures established without granting the 60-day legal period (e.g., by giving a period of 29 days), finding them unlawful in terms of procedure.
C. Second Stage: Additional Period and Administrative Notification: If the demolition is not carried out by the building owners within the initially granted period, the Administration states that the structure will be demolished by administrative authorities, and an additional period of no less than 30 days is granted. In some recent decisions (Council of State 6th Chamber, 2023/6447), it has been stated that this period can be arranged not to exceed a total of 90 days.
3. Evacuation and Demolition Carried Out by Administrative Authorities
For structures not demolished by the owners at the end of the given periods, a notification is made to the local administrative authority. After this stage:
Evacuation and Demolition: The evacuation of structures from people and goods, and demolition procedures, are carried out or commissioned by the local administrative authorities with the participation of local administrations.
Use of Law Enforcement: In accordance with Article 5/4 of the Law, if evacuation is obstructed, eviction is carried out by law enforcement with the written permission of the civil administrative authority, by opening locked doors.
Costs: Demolition costs are primarily covered by the special account for transformation projects, but are subsequently collected from the owners in proportion to their shares.
4. Coercive Measures and Suspension of Services
To ensure the evacuation of risky structures, the suspension of infrastructure services such as electricity, water, and natural gas is stipulated.
Legal Status and Annulment Decision: The Council of State Administrative Litigation Divisions Board (2019/2841 E., 2021/1574 K.) annulled Article 8/2-(ç) of the Implementation Regulation. The justification for the annulment stated that the absence of the condition “obtaining the opinion of the right holders” in Article 4 of the Law within the Regulation’s provision narrowed the underlying law. Therefore, the necessity of obtaining the opinion of the right holders for the application of service cuts was emphasized.
5. Judicial Review and Technical Deficiencies
Judicial authorities technically review the “risky building detection reports” that form the basis for evacuation and demolition procedures. In a decision by the Istanbul Regional Administrative Court’s 6th Administrative Litigation Chamber, the demolition and evacuation process based on risky building detection was annulled due to erroneous surveying of the building and inadequate modeling of the load-bearing system. Furthermore, the 4th Chamber of the Council of State deemed an insufficient number of column inspections (e.g., 6 columns instead of 8) as a procedural error.
6. Constitutional Court’s Annulment Decision
The Constitutional Court (2012/87 E., 2014/41 K.) annulled the regulation in the 5th paragraph of the 5th article of the Law, which concerned the placement of a “joint mortgage” on the title deed for demolition costs, finding it contrary to the right to property.
7. Secondary Sources
The following points have been considered as secondary sources, providing limited information or indirect context in the decision texts:
Fee Exemption: It has been stated that the fee exemption (Law Art. 7/9-10) should be protected within the scope of “acquired rights” at all stages of the urban transformation process, even if there is a change in the purpose of use or an increase in area, during the demolition and rebuilding of risky structures (Council of State 9th Chamber).
Rental Assistance Procedure: It has been stated that applications for rental assistance after evacuation must be made within 1 year from the date of evacuation, and that this period is within the administration’s planning authority. Furthermore, the condition of a “notarized consent form” required by the Ministry for the transfer of rental assistance rights has been found lawful (Council of State 4th Chamber).
Relationship to Urgent Expropriation: It has been accepted that in areas where an agreement cannot be reached or where the risk of disaster must be urgently eliminated (e.g., structures on a streambed), “urgent expropriation” can be resorted to in accordance with Article 27 of Law No. 2942 if the evacuation process under Law No. 6306 is stalled, and that this serves the public interest (Council of State 6th Chamber).
Declaration of Risky Area and Sampling Method: It has been emphasized that instead of examining all buildings individually in risky area declarations, a statistically significant sampling method can be used; however, in small areas with a low number of buildings, this method may be insufficient, and a detailed analysis of each building may be required (Council of State Grand Chamber of Administrative Cases)
Frequently asked questions
60 günlük süre dolmadan yıkım yapılabilir mi?
Hayır. En az 60 gün verilmesi zorunludur. 29 gün gibi eksik süreler usulden iptal sebebidir. İtiraz süreci devam ederken tesis edilen yıkım işlemleri de hukuka aykırı kabul edilebilir.
Elektrik ve su kesilirse ne yapabilirim?
Hizmet kesintisi için hak sahiplerinin görüşünün alınması gerekir. Bu koşul sağlanmadan yapılan kesintiler iptal davasına konu edilebilir ve yürütmenin durdurulması talep edilebilir.
Uzlaşma olmazsa acele kamulaştırma mümkün mü?
Afet riskinin ivedilikle giderilmesi gereken hallerde, süreç tıkanırsa 2942 sayılı Kanun m.27 kapsamında acele kamulaştırma gündeme gelebilir. Ancak her somut olayda kamu yararı ve ölçülülük denetlenir.
Why is Legal Support Necessary?
Eviction-demolition processes are multi-layered in terms of deadlines, notifications, technical reports, and service interruptions. Within the scope of Istanbul Tuzla urban transformation consultancy and legal services:
Supervision of the procedural compliance of the 60+30-day periods
Technical objection to risky building reports
Suspension of execution against electricity-water cut-offs
Protection of rent assistance and fee exemption rights
Development of strategies against urgent expropriation
requires expertise. Missing deadlines or making an incomplete technical objection can lead to irrecoverable loss of rights. Therefore, it is important to obtain professional legal support from the beginning of the process.
