Renting out a summer house or a room and hostility toward the citizen

Let's say you have a summer house that you want to rent out.

Or perhaps you have an empty room in your home, and you want to turn it into a guesthouse.

The economic situation is well-known; the money a retiree receives is below the poverty line, meaning everyone is looking for extra income. However, we have a government today that, if a citizen is about to earn a couple of pennies from somewhere, does everything in its power to block it, to plug that hole.

Under pressure from hotel owners, they passed a law and introduced fines of up to 1 million liras to prevent those who want to earn a few pennies by renting out their home or a room.

According to the law on the Rental of Residences for Tourism Purposes, here is what those who want to rent out their home or a room must do:

• If the house the citizen wants to rent out is in an apartment building, they must obtain permission from all residents of the building; if it is in a housing complex, they must obtain permission from all residents of the complex. Imagine there are 300 people in the complex; you have to get permission from the site management and seek the consent of three hundred people. If even one neighbor objects, you cannot do it.
• After obtaining permission, you must go to the provincial directorate of tourism to receive a 'Tourism Residence' certificate.
• To obtain the tourism certificate, the residence must have a fire extinguisher, smoke detector, emergency plan, and equipped devices.
• A sign must be posted at the entrance of the complex or apartment building stating, 'There is a residence in this building rented for tourism purposes.'
• You will pay VAT on 20 percent of the rental income.
• If you do not do these things, you will first be fined 100 thousand TL, and if it is repeated, the fine will go up to 1 million.
• And to force the citizen into all of this, renting out homes for less than 100 days is also prohibited.
• What is the citizen to do? They immediately found a way to bypass this 100-day rental rule; they say 100 days but rent it out weekly. In other words, an environment has been created where the government, through the force of law, encourages citizens to violate the law.
• Renting out a home on a daily basis has now become like committing a crime because it is treated with police measures as if a 'safe house' were being rented, even though no one is looking for actual 'safe houses.'

Can you believe all these conditions? But they are all true.

Yet, in the developed world, these things are done according to free-market principles. Are you going to one of the world's most developed cities? Rent a house on Airbnb, rent a room on booking.com, pay the money, go and stay; no one interferes, no one questions. On the contrary, as a gesture, the hosts even put two bottles of cold champagne in the fridge because you have arrived.

In half of London, citizens rent out the empty rooms in their homes to those coming from all over the world for education, and with this money, they go on vacation; both they and the country benefit.

The same thing exists in France, Germany, everywhere, but it is not possible to do it in Turkey.

In fact, sites like booking.com are not allowed to operate in Turkey due to the pressure of hotel bosses.

And the hotel owners wanted all these bans, and that is how the law was passed; just like taxi drivers refusing to accept any other developed transportation system just so they can make money themselves.

Might makes right; it is the law of the jungle.

The hotelier gets home rentals banned, the taxi driver gets the Uber system banned, the airport operator extorts those who write names on paper to welcome arriving passengers. Because the ratio of tenants to landlords is 1 to 10, and because their votes are more numerous, the state prevents the citizen from increasing rent while it arbitrarily increases rent itself.

Let me give you another example. You know they passed a zoning amnesty. Let's say you are in a housing complex; everyone who benefited from the zoning amnesty has added two floors to their house and is sitting pretty. You didn't do it at the time, and now if you try to change a window, the person who benefited from the zoning amnesty reports you, and a fine comes immediately. Where is the principle of equality? Where is the justice?

Then they ask why the government lost votes?

They have no concern for thinking in favor of the citizen. If the citizens, who are subjected to so much oppression, are still giving them a single vote, they should be grateful.