In brief
An apartment or estate management that employs a caretaker, porter, gardener or security staff is an employer under Law No. 6331. It appoints an OHS specialist and a workplace physician, has a risk assessment carried out, trains employees and provides health surveillance. Following the Constitutional Court decision of December 2025, there is no longer any postponement for less hazardous workplaces with fewer than 50 employees. In an apartment block with a single caretaker the statutory times are small and can be combined within the year, but the obligation does not disappear.
Is an apartment management an employer?
Managers' first question about caretaker workplace safety is usually this: "We are not a company, just an apartment block; do these rules apply to us too?" The answer comes from two articles of the law.
Art. 2 of Law No. 6331 states that the law applies to all public and private sector work and workplaces, regardless of their field of activity. Art. 3 defines the employer as "a natural or legal person, or an institution or organisation without legal personality, employing employees". Even though an apartment or estate management has no legal personality, it falls within this definition when it employs a caretaker. The Condominium Law also treats the costs of porters, boiler attendants, gardeners and watchmen as common expenses of the unit owners (Art. 20) and assumes that these persons' contracts are concluded and terminated by the unit owners' assembly or the authorised manager (Additional Art. 2). In practice, apartment and estate managements register a workplace with the Social Security Institution (SGK) for the caretaker; OHS obligations also run through this workplace registration.
The Law excludes "domestic services" from its scope (Art. 2/2). This exception concerns a person employed by a household in its own home; it should not be confused with a caretaker employed by the management for the building's common areas.
If caretakers are on the payroll of a facility management or cleaning company, that company is the employer. In this case the management shares information and cooperates with the company on hazards in common areas; however, if there is a caretaker the management employs directly, the obligations for that person lie with the management.
Apartment blocks after the Constitutional Court decision
For a long time, the entry into force of the obligation to appoint a specialist and physician for less hazardous workplaces with fewer than 50 employees was postponed. By its decision published in the Official Gazette on 9 December 2025, the Constitutional Court unanimously annulled this postponement provision. There is no longer any new postponement for apartment blocks and estates in the less hazardous class; an estate management cannot defer its OHS obligations on the grounds that "we are a small workplace".
Do not assume which hazard class your apartment block is in; look at the activity code in the SGK workplace registration. The class of the code is checked against the List of Workplace Hazard Classes renewed in 2025; for the steps, see our article on how to find out your hazard class. The calculations below are shown separately for the less hazardous and hazardous classes.
OHS specialist and physician for a caretaker: time calculation
Appointing an OHS specialist for a caretaker may bring to mind a full-time person; in fact, the minimum times for the specialist and the physician are calculated in minutes per employee per month:
| Hazard class | Workplace physician | OHS specialist | Annual total for 1 caretaker | Monthly for an estate with 12 staff |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Less hazardous | 5 min | 10 min (at least Class C) | Physician 60 min, specialist 120 min | Physician 60 min, specialist 120 min |
| Hazardous | 10 min | 20 min (at least Class B) | Physician 120 min, specialist 240 min | Physician 120 min, specialist 240 min |
In an apartment block with a single caretaker these times are very small, and visits of a few minutes a month are not meaningful on site. Art. 11/7 of the Regulation on OHS Services allows monthly times in less hazardous workplaces with fewer than 50 employees to be combined and used within the same contract year. The annual time can thus be gathered into a few visits in which the risk assessment, training and site checks can be carried out. You can see your own figures with the OHS obligations calculator.
Appointments are made through ISG-KATİP (the Ministry's online OHS registration system); the contract is prepared in line with the template in the system and both parties approve it within 5 days at the latest. Details are in our article on ISG-KATİP contract approval.
Caretaker workplace safety: risk assessment based on the real work
A caretaker's risks are not office risks. The risk assessment is carried out by looking one by one at the tasks the caretaker does during the day:
| Task | Main hazard | Basic measure |
|---|---|---|
| Rubbish collection | Glass and needles in bags, heavy bags, biological agents | Cut-resistant gloves, carrying bags away from the body, wheeled bins |
| Cleaning stairs and common areas | Slipping on wet floors, mixing chemicals | Cleaning section by section, warning signs, never mixing chemicals |
| Boiler room and central heating | Burns, carbon monoxide, fuel | Maintenance by an authorised service, ventilation, CO detector |
| Lift | Intervening in a car breakdown, entrapment | The caretaker does not intervene in breakdowns; the authorised company is called |
| Changing bulbs, cleaning gutters | Falls from ladders, electricity | Sturdy platform ladder, isolating power, leaving work at height to specialists |
| Snow clearing and gritting | Slipping, cold, back strain | Non-slip footwear, a suitable shovel, short work periods |
| Garden and landscaping | Lawnmowers, pruning tools, spraying | Protective equipment, machine instructions, leaving spraying to an authorised person |
| Night security | Lone working, violence | Communication arrangement, lighting, incident reporting route |
When cleaning, mixing bleach with acidic cleaners releases toxic gas; the label and safety data sheet of every product given to the caretaker must be read. For risks related to boiler rooms and heaters, see our article on heaters and carbon monoxide poisoning, and for common area electrical panels, electrical panel safety. Under Art. 35 of the Condominium Law, arranging the monthly maintenance and annual inspection of lifts is one of the manager's duties; this task cannot be delegated to the caretaker.
Estate staff training, health surveillance and emergencies
Training. Every caretaker receives at least 2 hours of face-to-face, practical induction training before starting work. Basic OHS training is completed within 3 months of starting work at the latest; it is at least 8 class hours in the less hazardous class and at least 12 in the hazardous class, repeated every 3 and 2 years respectively. The job-specific risks section of estate staff training should be built around the tasks in the table above.
Health surveillance. A pre-employment examination is carried out. Less hazardous workplaces with fewer than 50 employees can also obtain the pre-employment report from a family physician or other public healthcare providers instead of the workplace physician; details are in our article on the pre-employment health report. Periodic examinations take place at least every 5 years in the less hazardous class and at least every 3 years in the hazardous class.
Emergencies. The caretaker is often the first person to notice an emergency in the building. Under Art. 125 of the Regulation on the Fire Protection of Buildings, the building manager assumes responsibility for fire safety in buildings subject to condominium ownership; Art. 126 requires firefighting, rescue, protection and first aid teams to be set up in estates housing more than 200 people. The caretaker needs to know where the main electrical switch, the natural gas valve and the fire hose cabinets are, and to learn how to use an extinguisher in practice. For mixed-use buildings that also contain workplaces, see our article on the shared emergency plan.
What is requested at inspections, and the risk of fines
At an inspection, an apartment or estate management is usually asked for these documents: the specialist and physician appointments approved on ISG-KATİP or the employer's undertaking, the risk assessment, the emergency plan, induction and basic training records, pre-employment and periodic examination records and PPE issue records.
Some administrative fines at 2026 base amounts are:
- Not appointing a specialist or physician: 111,263 TL for each person not appointed; the same amount every month the breach continues. If there is neither a specialist nor a physician, this comes to 222,526 TL a month.
- Not having a risk assessment carried out: 66,725 TL; 100,119 TL for each month the breach continues.
- Not providing training: 8,980 TL per employee.
- Not having health surveillance carried out: 22,194 TL per employee.
In a less hazardous workplace with fewer than 10 employees, these amounts apply without increase; in the hazardous class, fines other than those calculated per employee are increased by 25 per cent. You can calculate your own situation with the OHS administrative fines tool. For the general obligations of small workplaces, see also our article on OHS obligations of small businesses.
For apartment and estate managements in Bursa and the surrounding provinces, we provide specialist appointments through our OHS specialist services and pre-employment and periodic examinations through our workplace physician services; for management offices and common areas, see our office and retail page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does an apartment block with a single caretaker have to hire an OHS specialist?
Yes. A management employing a caretaker is an employer and appoints a specialist and a physician. In less hazardous workplaces with fewer than 50 employees, the manager can also provide the service personally after completing the Ministry training; examinations are outside this.
Where is a caretaker's pre-employment report obtained?
From the workplace physician. Less hazardous workplaces with fewer than 50 employees can also obtain this report from a family physician or other public healthcare providers.
If the caretakers come from a service company, who has the obligation?
The company that employs the caretakers on its own payroll is the employer, and the OHS obligations lie with it. The management shares information and cooperates with the company on hazards in common areas; if the management employs a caretaker directly, the obligation for that person lies with the management.
How is the hazard class of an apartment management found out?
The activity code in the SGK workplace registration is looked up in the List of Workplace Hazard Classes renewed in 2025. Specialist and physician times, training hours and examination intervals are set according to this class.
A certified specialist matched to your hazard class: site inspections, approved logbook, training plan, annual plan and report follow-up.
Bursa SİSTEMER OSGB Technical Team — written from the field experience of our OHS specialists and workplace physicians. Legal information is valid as of the publication/update date; contact us for an assessment specific to your business.