Types of Alimony That May Be Claimed in Divorce Proceedings and Their Conditions

Types of Maintenance and the Duration of Maintenance

The Turkish Civil Code states that maintenance shall be awarded for an indefinite period to the party who is less at fault for the divorce because they will fall into poverty after the divorce. Although the legislator used the expression indefinite, maintenance is awarded indefinitely on condition that the circumstances and conditions do not change. Indeed, maintenance may be discontinued where the recipient finds a new job, remarries or improves their financial position, and it may also be reduced where the person liable to pay maintenance falls into financial difficulty. On the other hand, an increase in maintenance may also be requested for reasons such as inflation and the loss of value of money.

Types of maintenance discussed in the article

Interim Alimony

The first and foremost type of maintenance that may be claimed during divorce proceedings is interim maintenance (tedbir nafakası). This is a temporary form of maintenance which may be ordered by the judge of their own motion, or requested by the parties, only until the divorce judgment becomes final, and is payable during that period. This maintenance, which may be requested at any stage of the divorce proceedings, will be ordered by the judge by way of an interim decision. Interim maintenance is ordered to be paid to the party who, following an examination of their financial circumstances, would be left financially weak, irrespective of the degree of fault of the requesting party.

Poverty Alimony and Its Conditions

Another type of alimony is poverty alimony (yoksulluk nafakası). Poverty maintenance can be established and collected only once the divorce judgment becomes final. When this type of maintenance is awarded to a party, the most important point is that the requesting party must be without fault or less at fault than the other party. A party who will not genuinely fall into poverty and can sustain their life with their own financial means cannot claim poverty maintenance.

It should also be remembered that a party who remarries or whose financial position improves cannot claim poverty maintenance, and poverty maintenance established in their favour may also be discontinued in line with the changed circumstances.

Child Support for the Child

The last, and the most important type of maintenance, since it concerns the parties’ common children as well as the parties themselves, is child support (iştirak nafakası). It is maintenance that, under the divorce judgment rendered in the divorce action, the party not granted custody of the common child must pay to the party granted custody for the care, education and other expenses of the common child. The judge may award this maintenance in favour of a minor child even without any request. Since the essential consideration here is the care of the common child, no determination or examination of the spouses’ fault may even be made. As a rule, child support ends when the child reaches the age of 18, marries or is declared of age by court decision under Article 12 of the TMK.

• Reaching the age of 18
• Evlenme
• Being declared of age by court decision

You can access our article on actions for an increase in maintenance https://utuhukuk.com/nafakanin-artirilmasi-davasi/ via this link.

What Happens If Maintenance Is Not Paid?

Since maintenance falls within the group of priority claims, under the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law, where it is not paid by the maintenance debtor, the attachment in enforcement proceedings initiated by the maintenance creditor will be placed first in the order of priority and will be the first item collected from the sale of the attached movable or immovable property.

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