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NOTARIES (RECORDS) RULES 1991

REVOKED BY THE NOTARIES PRACTICE RULES 2001 SUBJECT TO THE SAVINGS IN RULE 24.2

Citation and Commencement

1. These Rules may be cited as the Notaries (Records) Rules 1991, and shall come into operation on the 1st day of October 1991. These Rules shall not however apply to ecclesiastical notaries until such date as the Master shall, by a subsequent Order, appoint.

Interpretation

2. In these Rules "The Master" means the Master of the Faculties.

Duty to keep a record of notarial acts

3. (1) It shall be the duty of every public notary practising as such in England or Wales to maintain and keep in accordance with good notarial practice a permanent record of all notarial acts made and performed by him after the date on which these Rules come into effect.

(2) For the purposes of this Rule "good notarial practice" as to the information required to be recorded in the Register in relation to any class of instrument, the classes of instrument of which copies or duplicates are required to be kept, the materials or stationery to be used in making any record, and the storage and security of records, may be conclusively defined in

(a) regulations made by the Master from time to time, or

(b) publications (or parts thereof) approved by the Master in writing as containing a statement of good notarial practice.

Inspection of Records

4. (1) Records kept pursuant to these Rules shall be open at any time to inspection by the Master or a person authorised by him for the purpose.

(2) A notary having custody of any record kept pursuant to these Rules shall, on request by any person having a proper interest in the subject-matter of any instrument so recorded (or believed to be so recorded), cause a diligent search to be made for such instrument, and shall (if it is found) furnish to that person on request a notarially certified copy of the instrument (if he has a copy or duplicate in his custody), or an extract from the Register relating thereto, or both; provided that a proper fee shall be paid by the person making any such request.

(3) Any question as to whether a person has a proper interest in the subject-matter of any instrument for the purposes of paragraph (2) of this Rule may be determined by the Master.

Notaries ceasing to practise

5. (1) Upon a notary ceasing for any reason to practise as such, arrangements shall be made by him, or failing him by his continuing notarial partners or failing them by the persons having for the time being possession or custody of the records kept by him pursuant to these Rules, for such records to be transferred

(a) to another notary in practice appointed by him or by his continuing notarial partners, or

(b) to another notary in practice appointed, with the approval of the Master, by the persons having possession or custody of the records, or

(2) The provisions of Rule 4 shall apply to a notary or archive to which the records of any notary are transferred pursuant to paragraph (1) of this Rule as they apply to the notary himself.

Application of Rules to Ecclesiastical Notaries

6. The provisions of these Rules shall apply to notaries appointed for ecclesiastical purposes only subject to the following modifications:

(1) The requirement of Rule 3 to keep a record of notarial acts shall apply only to such ecclesiastical acts as law or custom requires to be performed in the presence of a public notary and recorded in writing.

(2) Any act or transaction properly recorded in the Act Book of any Archbishop or Bishop, or in the Minute Book of any Cathedral Chapter, shall be deemed to have been properly recorded in accordance with good notarial practice.

(3) The Master may make different Regulations, or approve different publications, under paragraph (2) of Rule 3 for the definition of "good notarial practice" in relation to ecclesiastical notaries from those made or approved in relation to other classes of notary.

(4) Paragraphs (2) and (3) of Rule 4 shall not apply to ecclesiastical notaries.

(5) Rule 5 shall not apply to ecclesiastical notaries, but upon a person ceasing for any reason to hold the office in respect of which he was appointed an ecclesiastical notary, any records kept by him pursuant to these Rules shall be transferred to the succeeding holder of that office (being an ecclesiastical notary) upon his appointment.