An ihtiyati haciz secures a money claim by attaching specific assets of the debtor before the claim has been decided, and sometimes before any proceedings have started. It is provisional, and once its conditions are met it turns into an attachment in execution by operation of law. The English term has to carry both features: the link to money claims and the position before final enforcement.
Basis and contents of the decision
Under Article 257(1) of the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law (İİK), a creditor owed a money debt that is due and not secured by a pledge may apply; a debt not yet due qualifies only in the cases the Article lists. Article 260 fixes five elements of the decision: the creditor and the debtor, the documents the attachment rests on and the amount of the claim, the ground for attachment, the assets to be attached, and the creditor’s liability for any damage together with the security given. If the creditor does not ask the enforcement office to carry out the decision within ten days of the date it was given, the decision lapses (Article 261(1)).
Precautionary attachment
The suggested rendering is “precautionary attachment”, with “attachment before judgment” as a descriptive alternative. “Attachment” conveys a legal hold over identified assets, which is how the Turkish haciz works. The phrase to avoid is “freezing order” or “freezing injunction”. In English law those orders act on the person, restraining them from disposing of assets, rather than creating a hold over particular property. Calling an ihtiyati haciz a freezing order invites the reader to import the conditions, exceptions and sanctions of that remedy into a Turkish decision that has none of them.
The noun on its own
Rendering haciz simply as “seizure” puts the provisional and the final stage under one word. A file can show both: first the ihtiyati haciz, then its conversion into an attachment in execution (icrai haciz) once the conditions of Article 264 are met. Keeping the qualifier every time, “precautionary attachment” for the first and “attachment in execution” for the second, lets the reader follow the stages. The record drawn up by the enforcement officer lists the assets attached and their value (Article 262) and takes the same term as the decision.
The French term, older wording and time limits
In French, “saisie conservatoire” is the suggested term, readily understood as a provisional attachment that protects a claim. Execution-stage seizures such as the “saisie-attribution” carry the idea of final enforcement and erase the provisional character. The İİK is written in an older register, and decisions echo words such as müsteniden (based on) or mükellef (liable); the translation gives their meaning without imitating the archaism. Time limits here run in days, unlike the weeks used for the ihtiyati tedbir: a debtor who was not heard objects within seven days of the attachment being carried out or of service of the record (Article 265(1)). Days remain days in every language.