New era in second-hand vehicle sales: Starts in 1 week

The Secure Payment System, developed by the Ministry of Trade and the Turkish Notaries Union to prevent fraud in the buying and selling of second-hand vehicles, will become mandatory starting September 27.

In a statement made on the ministry's social media account, it was stated, "We are transitioning to a new system that will make second-hand vehicle transactions much safer and completely eliminate fraud cases. The Secure Payment System, implemented in cooperation with our Ministry of Trade and the Notaries Union of Turkey, will become mandatory as of September 27."

Hayrettin Ertemel, President of the Istanbul Motor Vehicle Dealers Association, stated, "As you know, with the recently published regulation on motor land vehicles, the Secure Payment System has entered our lives. While this system was previously applied to car dealers like us who sell with an authorization certificate, it will now be mandatory for everyone starting at the end of the month.

The purpose here is that abuses were occurring when significant amounts of money were being exchanged in automotive transactions. We can say that buyers and sellers were defrauding each other in various ways in this regard. To prevent this, both we, as industry representatives, and our ministry wanted such a practice to be implemented," he said.

Ertemel stated, "This is a very positive development for the end consumer and for us in the automotive industry. However, we are experiencing some issues. Because it was implemented before the system was fully established, problems are arising due to technical glitches. It appears these will be resolved in the future. We can say that the Secure Payment System will put an end to fraud methods. It will certainly eliminate the risk of being defrauded for end consumers who use it correctly."

Speaking about the Secure Payment System, Ertemel said, "When the buyer and seller go to the notary, the buyer first sends the money to the notary. After the vehicle sale is completed, the notary sends the money to the seller's account. Once the transaction is finalized, the notary manages the flow of money between the buyer and the seller."

Lawyer İbrahim Güllü stated, "The system will work as follows: the seller who wants to sell their vehicle will first make a request. As a result of the request, the buyer will block the sale price with an intermediary institution using a reference number, and after the sale transaction is approved by the notary, the seller will receive the money from the intermediary institution. Therefore, certain problems such as fraud will be eliminated for consumers in this regard."

Güllü stated, "We would like to issue a warning to consumers here; sometimes the sale price can be shown differently from the actual figures. For example, a vehicle worth 700 thousand liras might be shown as 400-500 thousand liras in the sale."

"This has the following problem: if there is any defect in that vehicle and the consumer wants to seek their rights, they will be faced with the sales declaration made at the notary. This could lead to consumer grievances. Our advice is to declare whatever the sales figures are, whatever the real values are," he said.