Property Legal Fees

[scouser2]

Hi All. Does anyone know the aproximate legal costs of selling my apartment. I am selling to a local person and (Turkish)and buying from a fellow Brit.I have owned my apt for 5 years and the owner of the apt I want to buy has owned theirs for 6+ years.The prices paid for the properties are not reflected on the TAPU of the properties. Will local solicitors be aware of this and duplicate the arrangement so no tax is paid? (property gains tax or whatever it may be called)

[keng38]

The way things were described to me is that after owning for 5 years you dont pay capital gains tax.
I also believe that on the tapu it is very common for the seller to severely undervalue the property so if you do sell you end up paying the tax afterwards.

I may be wrong but this was directly from a turkish property builder.

[Scunner]

If you have owned it for over five years (and "owned" means the tapu has been in your name for 5 years+, not when you agreed to buy it or when you paid for it etc - the date is taken from the tapu) then there is no capital gains tax to pay when you sell it in any circumstances. You will have to pay property purchase tax on the property you are buying, the length of time that has been owned by the vendor is not relevant to this tax payment. There is no possible arrangement that will result in you paying no tax - you buy a new property, you pay property purchase tax - no exceptions I'm afraid.

The prices on the tapus is not greatly relevant these days - the amount you will have to pay will be set locally, not based on what the value as stated on the tapu.

[scouser2]

Thanks for the info Keng and Scunner.
So any idea what purchase tax will cost?.

[Scunner]

It is quoted as 3.3% of the purchase price, the figure will be taken from local figures and normally be fairly close to that.

[scouser2]

Thanks Scunner.

[scouser2]

I have another question. I bought my property in July 2006. My TAPU has got two dates on it.The first date in the bottom left hand side in the Tarih box is 28/9/2006, and the other date in the bottom centre Tarih box says 6/11/2006. Can someone please tell me what is the date that I can sell without paying tax?
Thanks in anticipation.
Chris.

[Scunner]

As I recall, and I may be wrong [] the later one (the one above the signature/stamp) is the date of change of ownership. The other is the date the project was signed off by the authorities.

[scouser2]

Thanks for all your help Keith.