What can I expect of my Notary?

The Notaries Society have produced a useful leaflet, which summarises the functions of a Notary.

You will need to provide evidence of who you are. The usual Anti-Money Laundering checks will also be made. Notaries must verify for each client their identity, legal capacity and understanding of the document as well as their authority if signing on behalf of another party such as a limited company. The notary will not attest documents unless they are completely satisfied that they have seen the originals (not copies) and where there are signatures of clients, that these are genuine. For this reason, you will not generally be able to have documents attested for someone else, even a family member.

The amount of work can depend, therefore, on the complexity of the documentation as well as the number of documents.

Please note, a notary will not check the work of your main lawyer.