NOTARIAL OFFICE KATARZYNA MEYSZTOWICZ

A notary carries out notarial activities: drawing up notarial deeds, certifying signatures on documents, certifying the conformity of photocopies of documents with their originals, always in accordance with law and the rules of notaries’ professional ethics. To the extent of their powers, the notary acts as a person of public trust and performs a public role. Notarial acts performed by notaries are official documents, which are drawn up in the Polish language. Upon request, the notary can perform a notarial act with the assistance of an interpreter who has been appointed and sworn in by the Ministry of Justice. The notary provides services at their own Notarial Offices. Should special circumstances of notarial activities so require, the notary can also perform notarial activities outside their Notarial Office (e.g. the client’s home or office or at a hospital) and at weekends. Further, the notary sees that the rights and interests of each party to a notarial act are safeguarded and are in compliance with law and, in connection with the performance of her duties, the notary is bound to observe professional secrecy with regard to all information gained in carrying out her duties.

A notarial deed is a special form of a public document that confirms that a given legal act has been performed (e.g. conclusion of a sale agreement, a donation agreement, a marriage contract, a marital agreement on the distribution of jointly held assets, agreement on formation of a commercial law company, drawing up one’s last will and testament, or granting power of attorney). Lack of the form of a notarial deed where required by law results in ineffectiveness of a given legal act and its invalidity. The parties to a given notarial deed receive only official copies of the deed while the original document always remains at the Notarial Office and must not be removed therefrom. The notary transmits notarial documents (including original notarial deeds) for archiving to the land and mortgage registers archives at the competent district Court ten years after they are signed or when the Notarial Office ceases to operate.

A certified copy of a notarial deed has the same legal value as the original document and is a true and complete, i.e. identical, copy of its content. A certified copy of a notarial deed is issued to the parties to the deed or persons for whom the right to be issued a certified copy of the deed was reserved in the deed and their legal successors. With the consent of the parties to a notarial deed or on the basis of a final decision by a Regional Court within whose jurisdiction the Notarial Office is situated, a certified copy of a notarial deed can be also issued to other persons. The heading of a certified copy of a notarial deed shows then a note to that effect. In the closing paragraph, it is noted to whom and when a certified copy was issued. The notary signs the deed and stamps it with her official seal. If consisting of more than one sheet, each page should be numbered, stapled together, initialed, and sealed.

To draw up an appropriate notarial deed, the notary will need various information and documents and, in the case when we should appear on behalf of a third person, also relevant authorization (power of attorney). Before the visit, you should call the Notarial Office and inquire free of charge as to what documents will be necessary to bring and to get an estimate on the cost (notarial fee, court fees, tax on transactions in civil law, gifts and inheritance tax, as the case may be). It is also possible to set an appointment with the notary to obtain a consultation free of charge. Naturally, the kinds of documents and their number will depend on the subject matter of the notarial deed and the circumstances; for instance an excerpt from land and mortgage register, certified copy of entries in the land register with a copy of a cadastral map, a certificate of zoning of a plot of land in the local master development plan, the title under which the acquisition of real estate took place (e.g. a notarial deed, a final court decision on ascertainment of one’s acquisition of an estate, a certificate of succession).

In order to transfer ownership to real property or any other component of one’s property upon death, it is necessary to draw up a testament in the form of a notarial deed, which in its content will include a specific bequest. In such a testament, the future testator identifies a person who shall acquire a specific bequest (a component of the estate described in detail in the testament) upon the testator’s death. The subject of the bequest can include a specific thing, like a real estate property, a disposable property right, a business, an agricultural holding, a usage or easements established to the benefit of a legatee. A bequest is not effective if at the time of the testator’s death the thing bequeathed did not belong to the testator or if the testator was obligated to dispose of it prior to his death.

Leasing premises under an occasional tenancy agreement aims at increasing the protection of the landlord’s rights. Unlike in a regular lease agreement, upon its termination it allows the landlord to evict the tenant from the premises without a court proceeding in a case for eviction, thus faster, more effectively, and without the necessity to ensure the tenant social housing. This type of tenancy agreement is a written agreement concluded for a limited term of up to ten years. The occasional tenancy agreement must include a tenant’s statement attached in the form of a notarial deed in which: the tenant submitted themselves to enforcement and undertook to vacate the premises and hand it back to the landlord within the deadline indicated in the landlord’s notice; the tenant’s statement indicating different premises in which they will live in the case of performance of the eviction notice to vacate the premises; and the premises owner’s statement or a statement by a person holding the title to the premises in which they express consent for the tenant and the persons living in the premises with the tenant to occupy the premises under the occasional tenancy agreement (with signatures certified by a notary). The owner of the premises is obligated to notify a tax office having competence over the place of his residence about the conclusion of an occasional tenancy agreement within 14 days from the commencement of the lease.