Advance rent payment

An advance rent payment (peşinat in Turkish) is when the tenant pays one or more future months' rent in a lump sum at the start of the tenancy. Under Turkish Code of Obligations (TBK) art. 314, rent is due at the end of each month by default, unless the parties agree otherwise — and in practice, the dominant convention in the Turkish rental market is the opposite: rent collected in advance, either month-ahead or as a lump sum covering several months.

Advance rent payment is frequently confused with a rental deposit (depozito), but the two are legally distinct. A deposit is a security: it is set aside to cover the landlord's potential damage or unpaid-debt claims, is returned to the tenant under TBK art. 342 once the lease ends cleanly, and is capped at three months' rent. An advance rent payment is a payment: it directly discharges the rent owed for the covered month, is not returned (the rent for that month is already deemed performed), and carries no statutory cap — landlords may, within ordinary contract freedom, ask for six months', a year's, or longer prepayment.

Seen against the broader concept of teminat (collateral/security), an advance rent payment does not qualify as any form of teminat — it is not a set-aside, recoverable sum but a spent payment. If a lease is mutually terminated before the prepaid months are used, it is generally accepted that the portion of rent corresponding to the unused, not-yet-due months must be returned to the tenant, unless the contract explicitly states otherwise.

When a lease includes an advance payment, the contract should state clearly, in its own clause, how many months it covers and the refund terms if the lease ends early — this heads off 'I paid in advance, so I can't get it back' disputes. Advance payment should not be folded into the deposit or teminat clause; it belongs in the rent-payment clause itself.