About notary

Notary

In Italy the notary is a public official.

In all countries of Latin right tradition, the notary is the public authority who gives legal effects to private agreements mostly in real estate and starting up companies. Recently, notaries were introduced in Eastern European States and in the Republic of China. So we can say that the system of civil law based on notaries includes most of the world’s population.

The State delegates this public official to grant all parties who stipulate an agreement in the above mentioned matters. In our country notaries have the same duty as judges: they control and guarantee that legal acts comply with Italian laws. So, Francesco Carnelutti, a famous Italian lawyer in the last century, said “more notaries means less trials”.

Moreover, notaries also have to control public registers in order to certify ownership of real estate and absence of mortgages and property limitations.