NEWSLETTER-2019-metin

215 LAW OF OBLIGATIONS On the other hand, when it comes to a lease relationship where the lessee is a trader and the leased area is a workplace, one may ar- gue that with respect to the pre-contractual phase, it is no longer the battle of the unequal parties, especially from a financial standpoint, as the lessee has sufficient financial power and position to carry out the negotiations for its own commercial benefit. For this reason, the legislature has concluded that at least for a specific period of time, no party in such relationship should be more protected than the other through the law. From this position, these nine articles i.e. Articles 323, 325, 331, 340, 342, 343, 344, 346 and 354, all of which protect lessees in lease agreements in different aspects, but are only limited to, the Commer- cial Lease Relationships, have been postponed to 1 July 2020. To this end, below are the evaluations of the articles of law which we consider to be of import in terms of legal consequences. Early Termination – Article 325 of the TCO Article 325 of the TCO regulates the premature termination of a lease agreement by the lessee and its consequences. The Article states that if the lessee terminates the lease agreement prior to the expiry date, the lease agreement shall, nevertheless, continue for a reasonable time in which the lessor may be leased under similar conditions. It also provides a lesser with an alternative for early termination if the lessee finds a new lessee who is capable of fulfilling the payment obligation and is willing to duly take over the leasing relationship. If that is the case, the lessee’s obligations under the lease agreement immediately expire. Prior to the TCO, where the former Turkish Code of Obligation numbered 818 (“fTCO”) was in force, there was no clause that regu- lated early termination, nor was there any reference with respect to a new lessee. Therefore, the disputes arising out of premature termina- tions were settled by precedent of the Court of Cassation (“CCass”). For this reason, with respect to Commercial Lease Relationships, the CCass’s precedents are the main source for settling lease disputes. To this end, while the CCass widely accepts that the reasonable period in which the lessor may be leased under similar conditions is three