Rent-a-Nightmare

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Milliyet Newspaper, 16 June 2017)


                       Not a happy camper.

Arif Gül (52), the married father of 3 children lives in France.  Six
years ago he came to Antalya for a vacation with three friends and their
families.  In the course of his 15-day stay then, Gül rented three cars.
When he was driving to Afyonkarahisar the air conditioner in the car
began to smell funny so he called the person he had rented the car from
and asked to change cars.

Half an hour later a new car came and Gül continued on his way.  At the
end of his vacation Gül delivered the car to the rental company and
returned to France.  Six months later, Gül decided to sell a plot in Antalya
to a contractor in exchange for a flat in the building to be built.  But when
Gül learned that there was a mortgage on the deed he was shocked.

Gül went to the related government office and discovered that a 90,000
Euro promissory note had been arranged in his name, which was the
reason for the mortgage on the land deed.  It turned out that a promissory
note taken from the rental car agreement that he had forgotten in the
rented car had been used to sell his home in the Dokuma neighborhood
and the plot of land in the Kültür neighborhood.

Gül explained that he consequently lost all his property and his father
died from a heart attack upon hearing the bad news.  "When we went to
the government office they showed us the promissory note and when my
lawyer looked at the file we realized we had been hoodwinked."

Gül noted that  "because I have had to go back and forth between Turkey
and France to monitor the legal proceedings, my situation in France has
been disrupted.   I warn citizens to be careful when they sign anything.
Look what's happened to me because of my signature.  I'm a lot more
careful about signing things now, even though I don't have anything left
to lose."