Trust and quality

The notary is not mandatory

Despite what is believed, the need of a notary is only mandatory for a small scale of cases (e.g. incorporation of a capital company, matrimonial agreements, donations). For all other acts, resorting to a notary is absolutely optional. For instance, even selling or buying a house does not need the presence of a notary. A lawyer could draft the contract and then register it with the relevant authorities, having obtained a court recognition.
Therefore, in the majority of cases, it is deemed fit to resort to a notary, because he is a law expert, he is quick and efficient and overall cheaper than other professionals. The Civil law notary is a law specialist, trained specifically in civil law matters (the public exam to became notary is considered the most difficult in the juridical area), he offers and performs his services usually in a short period of time, as he manages a structure which is specifically dedicated to achieve this, and notarial fees are objectively lower than other professionals' in the legal field.

Not all notaries are the same

All notaries have formally passed the same type of selection and are equally public officals. However, as with other professionals (doctors, lawyers, etc.), not all notaries are the same, and they are not all replaceable indifferently.
A notary works with his intellect and his organisation, as other professionals do. Consequently, a notary can be more or less studious and competent, more or less watchful of details, more or less organised, more or less right, and, sadly to say, more or less honest.
One entrusts a professional applying standards of trust, reputation and past experience. Surely, the standard applied cannot exclusively be how much the services cost. For example, we do not look for the cheapest doctor, but the one that seems more trustworthy for our health. A doctor takes care of a person's health, a notary takes care of a person's assets.

Notaries may solve problems and find solutions or cause serious damage

A notary's job may be extremely delicate, and often includes operations on important people's assets and fundamental rights (buying a property with one's life savings, contracting to pay off a mortgage for twenty years, division of an inherited estate, etc.).
Because he operates on important aspects of a person's estate, the damages that a notary may cause are very serious. Just like an unskilled doctor may cause serious harm to his patient, an unskilled notary may literally cause the loss of his client's personal assets, or, in any case economical loss and damage.
A notary's activity is the most complex in the field of legal professions. It requires detailed attention and a deep legal and fiscal background, with a daily review of civil and fiscal legal updates and changes. For a notary, competence-knowledge of the subject, attention to details and rigour, and the promptness with which the matter is carried out, are fundamental.
Consequently a notary who is not well prepared or does not keep up to date, who is not watchful of details, who does not perform his duties as soon as possible, may cause serious economical damage to his client. For instance, failure to consider a rule of law, failure to indicate fiscal relief, offering legal counsel which is not adequate, failure to register entries quickly, etc., up to more serious examples of misconduct, such as failure to pay tax and duties on behalf of the client.

Quality of notarial service

The above sentence may have a number of meanings for such a particular service like the notarial one, who puts into being both private and public interests at the same time.
Quality of service means that the professional:

• personally dedicates his time to the client, instead of delegating to his staff

• commits his time to professional study and keeping up to date

• commits all the necessary time to an in-depth examination of his client's matter

• keeps the client informed

• acts in compliance to the rules of law and codes of conduct

• uses and employs an efficient structure and acts promptly.

By comparison, it would be easy for everyone to reduce fees, should the professional not carry out the service personally, by delegating to assistants, or should he not commit his time to the client, offering the minimum service possible with no respect to his professional code of conduct.
In a similar way, no one would ever entrust a doctor who is not up to date, who delegates checks and visits to a nurse, who does not request lab tests or who does not read them personally, who works in a messy and disorganised practice and gives out the medical results only days after the visit. The same applies to notaries, however, if the damage caused by a doctor may be immediately obvious, the damage caused by a negligent notary may appear only years down the line.

Notarial fees

Notarial fees are established by ministerial decree (d.m. 27/11/2001), and later integrated by local notarial councils. Aside from certain acts which have a fixed rate (e.g. powers of attorney, separation of goods, etc.), notarial fees are proportionate to the value of the matter at hand, as applied to all other professionals in the legal-accounting field.
The notarial fee, beyond a minimum and mandatory base, also allows for a margin of discretion for the notary, based on the difficulty of the matter at hand. Due to the fact that the notary upholds a public service, accessible to all citizens, his fees must by law be maintained within acceptable levels. The mandatory fee is a guarantee for the less privileged, who may thus obtain a quality service. In fact it is proved that a system of freedom of fees favors the "stronger" parties, damaging the more modest belt of the population. Furthermore, notarial fees have been frozen since 2002, despite the fact that inflation rates and expenses have gone up.
Unlike what is common belief, the notary is not an expensive professional. The truth is that the notary is the professional with the best "market price", if one considers all the transactions he performs and the work that he carries out, either personally or through his firm, as well as the responsibility that he takes on. Execution of a deed is only the final step of a very long working process, which is complex and detailed, as well as the starting point of later fulfillments with public offices.
Notarial fees are much lower than the fees of other professionals, such as lawyers and accountants, and majorly lower that what is normally charged by, for instance, estate agencies. However, by comparison to these professional roles, the notary takes on huge responsibilities and, even by law, secures the result of his actions. It may appear that the notary is receiving large sums, but these are, for the vast majority, represented by advanced payments of taxes and duties that the notary pays to the State on behalf of the client.
Generally, a notary's fees comprises:

• advance payments that the notary pays to the State on the client's behalf (tax and duties)
• fee (notary's turnout, deduced of income tax and totalling firm's expenses)
• VAT (20% of the fee)

The fee also normally varies depending on the value of the act and its difficulty. It also includes firm's expenses. Finally, it also includes contributory fees which are paid to the National Notariat Treasury, which is completely self financed.

Whose choice is it?

The notary has a duty and needs to be trusted by all parties to a transaction. However, it has become common use, for the choice of the notary to fall on the buyer in a conveyancing agreement and on the mortgagee in an mortgage deed, namely the party that will settle the relative costs.
On one hand, in fact, the buyer, as opposed to the seller, is normally the subject that incurs major risks, and therefore requires more protection. In any case, the notary has a duty to act impartially, without favoring one party to the other.
The buyer and mortgagee can chose a notary with complete freedom, and surely with no pressure from the other side. "Forceful" and "mandatory" indications of a choice of notary by banks, mediators and agents is not acceptable. The choosing party must always be free to chose their trusted notary, even if different to the "suggested" one.
Forms such as "the bank's notary" "the company's notary" "the agency's notary" are completely unacceptable. These figures quite rightfully raise objections and doubts regarding their independence and impartiality with regards to the suggesting party. It is not to be forgotten, that a notary is a public official, and as such must be freely choosed by his client.