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On 16 July 2026, the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye (TBMM) adopted the bill publicly known as the “12th Judicial Package”. This package is not a remote legal debate; it brings a series of changes that directly touch daily life, from the house you inherit to your bank account, from the receivable claim you file to your hearing calendar. So what has changed for ordinary citizens? Let us explain.
On 16 July 2026, the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye (TBMM) adopted the bill publicly known as the “12th Judicial Package”. This package is not a remote legal debate; it brings a series of changes that directly touch daily life, from the house you inherit to your bank account, from the receivable claim you file to your hearing calendar. So what has changed for ordinary citizens? Let us explain.
One of the most talked-about novelties concerns the sale of inherited immovable property. Until now, when a dispute arose between siblings and the court ordered “the termination of co-ownership by sale”, the house left by your grandfather was put up for public auction and was often closed by someone from outside the family, moreover below its value. Under the new regulation, the first auction will be held only among the heirs themselves. In other words, the heirs are granted a right of priority so that the family property first remains in the family. This right is a one-off; if no result is obtained at the first auction, the sale will continue under the general rules.
The second major heading is the group publicly known as “IBAN victims”. Thousands of people who let others use their bank account or card were, without realising it, becoming accomplices in the offence of fraud and could face penalties as heavy as those of the actual fraudster. Under the new regulation, the penalty of persons whose contribution to the offence consists solely of giving account, card or payment instrument details to another will be reduced by half. This does not mean that letting others use your account has become permitted; a crime remains a crime. However, the courts will now be able to reflect in the sentence the difference between the person who “lost control of his or her account” and the person who “set up the fraud”.
The deferral of the announcement of the judgment (hükmün açıklanmasının geri bırakılması), known by its Turkish abbreviation HAGB, has also been fundamentally restructured. For offences requiring two years or less of imprisonment or a judicial fine, if certain conditions are met, the judgment will not be announced and the defendant will be placed under a five-year supervision period. The case against a person who completes this period without committing a new intentional offence will be dropped. The really important novelty is this: an appeal to the Regional Court of Appeal (istinaf) and, in certain cases, a further appeal on points of law (temyiz) is now available against HAGB decisions. The era of the “unreviewable HAGB”, criticised for years, is closing. In addition, HAGB cannot be applied to offences of torture, cruelty, and ill-treatment committed by public officials by reason of their duties; it is no longer possible for such offences to go unpunished through “deferral”.
Another change of interest to you if you are a creditor concerns statutory interest. Where no interest rate has been set in the contract, the annual interest to be applied to receivables will now be calculated on the basis of the Central Bank rediscount rate, and certain changes in that rate will also be reflected in the interest in the second half of the year. The system in which statutory interest, which remained fixed and low in a period of high inflation, virtually punished the creditor is changing; interest is becoming more consistent with economic realities.
There is also important news on the procedural front for those who bring actions. The indeterminate claim action (belirsiz alacak davası) mechanism has been abolished. Instead, a claimant who does not know the full amount of the claim will first sue for a part of it and will be able to increase the claim once until the investigation is completed. In addition, the interval between hearings may not, as a rule, exceed three months; the judge may set a longer interval only in compulsory circumstances such as expert examination and by giving reasons. For citizens who for years have been given “a hearing six months away”, this is a concrete step towards speeding up proceedings.
On the other hand, there is also the other side of the coin: in cases below a certain monetary threshold, recourse to appeal on points of law (temyiz) has been closed. Disputes of small amounts will become final at the istinaf stage; decisions concerning solely litigation costs or attorney's fees can likewise no longer be taken to appeal on points of law. The aim is to reduce the workload of the Court of Cassation (Yargıtay); however, this means that a citizen acting on the expectation that “my case will go to the Court of Cassation” must reconsider his or her strategy from the outset.
Other headings of the package that touch daily life are as follows: Notarial documents, court and prosecution requests will be transmitted electronically with a secure electronic signature, and no separate fee will be charged for these transactions. Immovable property belonging to persons under guardianship, and movables other than valuables, will be sold by transparent auction through an electronic sales portal integrated with UYAP (the National Judiciary Informatics System). In line with the annulment decision of the Constitutional Court, genetic examination results will be stored stripped of identity information, expired records will be destroyed in the presence of a prosecutor, and the persons concerned will be able to request the deletion of their records once the conditions are met. Prosecution may be conducted against defendants who have fled abroad; however, no conviction may be rendered against a fugitive defendant who has never been questioned, and the right of defence will be protected.
Finally, an important fact to know: there is no general amnesty, special amnesty or mass enforcement reduction in this package. The “mass release” claims circulating on social media have no official basis whatsoever. The law will enter into force upon its publication in the Official Gazette; some provisions, however, will start to apply three months after publication. In addition, owing to the transitional provisions, certain regulations will apply only to actions filed after the entry into force of the law.
In short, the 12th Judicial Package redraws a broad area, from the sale of inheritances to the calculation of interest, from HAGB to the hearing calendar. If you have a pending case, an enforcement file or an inheritance dispute, we recommend that you have the effect of these changes on your file assessed by a lawyer.
DG Legal Law & Consultancy
