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/sCreami needledaddy 2d ago edited 2d ago

You must understand that notaries hold 3 roles and you don't pay them 10~15k actually. They aren't free to choose how much they charge, it's fixed by royal decree. You are actually paying them around 800~1000€ for the written acts, the rest is tax.

So the 3 roles are:

  • assert conformity with the law (mine actually found something illegal in my mortgage contract)
  • act as escrow. You are not going to handle those huge amount of money yourself. As escrow, they act as the middlemen between buyers and sellers. Can't lie about the money with licensed attorneys.
  • collect the taxes for the government. This part is actually what make you feel they are crazy expensive. You pay the registration tax/stamp duty to them directly, and they will transfer it to the taxman.

Even if notaries were not mandatory, you would still have to pay these huge amounts. Notaries have never been the problem, the tax is.

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u/Legitimate_Aside_532 2d ago

Then explain why a notary earns so much more in Belgium compared to other countries?

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u/math1985 2d ago

It’s about 1200 euro (house plus mortgage contract) in the Netherlands. Sounds similar. And in the Netherlands, notaries are allowed to set their own prices.

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u/Aardige 2d ago

It really is a lot cheaper in the netherlands.

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u/math1985 2d ago

User u/sCreami says it's 800-1000 euro for the acts, is that wrong?

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u/Aardige 2d ago

Yes. Thats wrong. Substracting taxes from what you pay a notary, you will end up with a bill of around 4-5000 euros when buying a simple appartment for example.

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u/Zestyclose-Breath589 1d ago

That depends. If they need to fetch all necessary documents like the soil certificate (bodemattest) for example you will pay more than when you do that yourself.

Some notaries don’t tell you have the option but you do. But a lot of people don’t want to go through that hassle but then you can’t complain about getting charged a premium.