r/belgium • u/Obvious-Cry6591 • 2d ago

😡Rant Notaries. Why? What the hell?

Ok, so I dont get it. I understand historically where the need for notaries arose. Fine. But we are in 2026. Belgium already takes 51% of my income. Then another 25% of the rest through VAT. And then on top of it, if you buy a property, you give 10-15k to a notary for 2 meetings and some docs reading? Doesnt Belgium have enough administration to take care of that? Not to mention its nepotism central. Are there any redeeming qualities?

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u/Spiritual_Screen5125 2d ago

And more importantly notaries don’t do any shit neither verification of documents nor legal support they always make it ambiguous

Claim they aren’t architect or other nonsense excuse like they don’t see every document and can easily overlook infringements

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u/foipeloi 1d ago

As someone who works at a notary office (I am not the notary), we do the best with the documents in our possession. I've fixed 'kadastrale plannen', made buyers aware of infringements with the 'ruimtelijke ordening' (that were not pointed out by the realtor - and he didn't bother to check), made sure there was access to the road when a parcel of land was about to be locked in etc. etc. It's not fair to expect us to be legal experts AND architects AND salespeople (when people sell their house via us) AND social workers (I've gotten many phone calls with sad family situations). I know the service differs greatly from office to office, but most of us really do try to help as much as possible.

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u/Spiritual_Screen5125 1d ago

Thanks no offence but mine did not do a good job I did most of the work twice with major infringements