GLOSSARY

Facility Management Glossary

Name: Orkun Şirketler Grubu
Address: Barbaros Hayrettin Paşa Mah. E5 Yan Yol Üzeri 1992. Sok. No:16/255 VetroCity Residence, Esenyurt, İstanbul, 34522, TR
Telephone: +90-212-854-03-83

Most terms in facility management come from legislation and do not translate directly into everyday language. The definitions below explain, in self-contained form, the terms a unit owner or board member encounters when reading a contract, an operating budget or a proposal.

36terms

5categories

Regulation

Block manager: In multi-building complexes, the manager elected by a single block's owners, responsible for block-specific items such as its lift, roof and entrance.
Condominium Law (No. 634): Turkey's law governing rights and obligations among owners in condominium properties. It sets out the appointment of the manager, the owners' assembly, the sharing of common expenses and the operating budget.
External manager: A natural person or management company appointed as manager from outside the body of unit owners. Turkish law permits this; appointment requires a majority by both number and land share.
Management plan: A contract-like document governing how a property is managed. It is annotated on the title deed and binds subsequent owners as well; amending it requires the votes of four-fifths of all unit owners.
Multi-building complex: A development in which several buildings, often across multiple plots, share common areas. Management is structured in layers: block, island and complex level.
Occupational health and safety: The body of legal obligations protecting workers' health and safety. Risk assessment, training, health surveillance and provision of protective equipment are the employer's responsibility.
Owners' assembly: The body comprising all unit owners in a property, responsible for management decisions. Appointing the manager, approving the operating budget and deciding on common areas fall within its authority.
Personnel file: The mandatory document file kept for each employee, containing the employment contract, social security records, health reports, training certificates, PPE receipts and payslips.
Representatives' assembly: In multi-building complexes, the higher decision body formed by the managers or representatives elected by each block, enabling decisions where an assembly of all owners is impractical.
Statutory lien: A lien granted by law to the management over a debtor owner's unit for unpaid common expenses, significantly improving the collectability of the debt.
Turkish Data Protection Law (KVKK): Law No. 6698 on the Protection of Personal Data. CCTV recordings, resident information and debt notices in residential complexes fall within its scope; the management is the data controller.

Financial

Common expenses: Costs incurred for the protection, maintenance and operation of a property, shared among unit owners. Some items are split equally, others in proportion to land share.
Dues / service charge: The regular amount unit owners pay to contribute to common expenses. It is not merely the management fee; it is the total of items such as staff, energy, maintenance and insurance.
Land share: The co-ownership ratio in the plot allocated to each independent unit on the title deed. Certain common expenses are apportioned according to this ratio.
Late payment penalty: A monthly penalty charged to owners who fail to pay common expenses on time. The Condominium Law provides for five percent per month; a lower rate may be set in the management plan.
Operating budget: A property's annual income and expense statement. It is the legal basis for dues, showing expense items and the allocation basis applied to each.
Sinking fund: A reserve shown separately in the operating budget and accumulated for major renewals such as lifts, roofs and façades, avoiding sudden special levies.

Technical

Hard services: Services touching a building's physical asset and technical infrastructure: electrical, mechanical, lifts, fire systems and building automation. Their interruption halts operations directly.
Heat cost allocator: A device measuring the heat consumed by each unit in a central heating system, enabling heating costs to be allocated on a metered basis.
Mandatory periodic inspection: Inspections that legislation requires at set intervals for equipment such as lifts, fire systems, electrical earthing and pressure vessels. Responsibility rests with the building management.
Planned maintenance: Maintenance carried out on a predetermined schedule rather than after a failure. Compared with reactive repair, it reduces both downtime and total cost.
Predictive maintenance: An approach that anticipates failure by measuring equipment condition (vibration, temperature, oil analysis). It is layered on top of planned maintenance for critical assets.
Red label: A label indicating that a lift inspection found a risk to life safety. The lift must be taken out of service until the defects are corrected and it is re-inspected.
Type A inspection body: An accredited body, independent of the maintenance contractor, that performs the annual periodic inspection of lifts. The lift receives a green, blue, yellow or red label as a result.

Security

Private security: Security services provided under Turkish Law No. 5188 by trained, licensed officers at authorised sites. Armed duty requires a separate permit and separate training.
Relief factor: A multiplier applied to headcount calculations to cover annual leave, public holidays, sick leave and training. Typically between 1.10 and 1.15; without it, posts are left unmanned.

Operations

Audit score: A service quality metric obtained by periodically scoring defined inspection points. It is the objective way to measure cleaning and soft services performance.
Facility management: The discipline of operating a building or complex — its physical asset, technical infrastructure and user services — under a single organisation. It covers security, cleaning, technical maintenance, energy, waste, financial management and legal processes.
Handover record: The document evidencing the transfer of ledgers, financial records, receivables, personnel files, maintenance records, fixed assets and system credentials during a change of management.
Integrated facility management (IFM): A model in which all services required to operate a facility are consolidated under a single contract and a single point of contact, preventing tasks that fall between services from being left unowned.
KPI (key performance indicator): A measurable success metric for a service. In facility management, typical indicators are fault response time, budget variance, audit score and collection rate.
ORTECH: The digital helpdesk and work order tracking platform developed by Orkun Group. Fault reporting, assignment, time tracking and closure records are handled in a single system.
Outsourced service: A model in which staff are employed by the service provider rather than the property. Payroll, social security, severance, notice and OHS obligations transfer to the provider.
SLA (service level agreement): A contractual commitment to maximum response and resolution times by fault category. A commitment without a defined measurement method carries no enforceable consequence.
Soft services: Services that make a space usable and shape user experience: cleaning, security, landscaping, waste management and reception. Performance is measured by audit score and satisfaction.
Zero Waste: A management system aiming to reduce waste at source and route what remains to recovery through separation. In residential complexes it requires bin arrangement, a storage area, collection frequency and record keeping.