Turkish authorities fine owners of daily rental apartments

ANTALYA / KOCAELİ

Police have raided apartments rented out on a daily basis in the Mediterranean resort province of Antalya and the western provinces of Kocaeli and Düzce and fined the owners of the flats on grounds they made the premises available for accommodation without notifying authorities.

Police inspected a number of apartments in several districts of Antalya including Alanya, Akseki, Manavgat, Aksu, Serik and Kemer.

In Alanya, the owners of seven apartments were fined a total of 42,000 Turkish Liras ($8,100).

In Serik, 95 apartments were inspected but no fines were issued.

In Kocaeli, the teams, made up of more than 200 police officers, raided several apartments in the early hours of Aug. 5. They inspected a total of 118 apartments rented out on a daily basis. Police also checked the IDs of the people accommodating in those apartments. In the İzmit district, an apartment owner was fined 5,000 liras and in the Darica districts, two owners were fined a total of 23,000 liras.

In the province of Düzce, police teams raided a total of 187 apartments, issuing 71,000 liras of fine to 12 apartment owners.

Last year, between January and August, some 10 million liras were collected in fines imposed on apartments unofficially available for daily rental across Istanbul.

Daily rental houses, which are part of Istanbul’s sizable grey economy, including illegal prostitution, are also seen as a security issue for officials, amid concerns that they are often used to harbor terror suspects.