The contract of care until death is regulated in article 611 of the Turkish Code of Obligations. Namely;
“The contract of care until death is the contract in which the care debtor undertakes to look after the care creditor until he dies, and the care creditor undertakes to transfer an asset or some asset values to him.”
This contract is a type of contract that allows people who are elderly, in need of care, alone, in need of someone’s care and supervision, to live comfortably by making a death-related savings with their assets. The contract of maintenance until death is not valid unless it is made in the form of an inheritance contract. It is obligatory to make it formally as a condition of form in the contract. This contract must be drawn up before a notary public or before a Magistrate. Therefore, contracts made in ordinary written form between the parties will not yield any results.
The contract of care until death is a contract that imposes a bilateral debt on the parties of the contract. With this contract, the maintenance creditor transfers the ownership of the contractual property to the maintenance debtor; the maintenance debtor is also the maintenance creditor, in the Code of Obligations art. As stated in 611, he is under the obligation of looking after and watching until he dies.
Here, it is also possible for the care creditor to transfer the value of his assets to another person with such a contract in order to be comfortable in the future while he is healthy. The death of the care creditor shortly after the contract does not affect the validity of the contract.
In case the parties of the contract, in a way that does not comply with their real will in order to deceive third parties, arrange a contract of care until death among themselves, collusion is encountered. In this case, the parties usually try to smuggle goods by issuing a contract of care until their death, even if their main will is to forgive a person they want to deprive of inheritance or to receive a lesser share.
At this point, in its decision dated 01.04.1974 and numbered ½ of the Grand General Assembly of the Supreme Court of Unification of Jurisprudence, certain criteria were counted in order to determine whether the transfer made by the bequest (the care creditor) in return for his care until his death, according to the Decision to Unify Beliefs, is a collusion or not. These:
Age, physical and general health status, family conditions and relationships of the inheritor (inheritor, care creditor) at the date of the contract,
It is counted as the ratio of the assets subject to the contract to the total assets.
On the other hand, the dispute about the contract of care until death may arise from the claim of breach of contract arising from the parties’ failure to fulfill their debts. In case the maintenance debtor does not fulfill the maintenance debt against the maintenance creditor as per the contract, the maintenance creditor may also request deed cancellation and registration upon termination of the contract. (Court of Appeals 1st Civil Chamber 2007/10133 E., 2007/11890 K., 06.12.2007)
