The balance of the introduction of the notary is, in just over a year, close to 30.000 notarial records, 21.738 notarizations, the temporarily sealed notary office in Nikšić, criminal charges against two notaries and problems with out-of-date and unreliable data from municipal cadastres, which should be partners of the Notary chamber in creating "legal security of citizens".
The office of the Nikšić notary Ljubiša Marković was temporarily closed, due to the violation of authority in running the office as stipulated in the Law on Notaries. According to "Vijesti" information, Marković filed an appeal to the second instance body within the Chamber against the decision on suspension.
"Vijesti" was unable to obtain information on how many individual cases 40 notaries in Montenegro had from either the NK or the Ministry of Justice, to which lists of notaries' performance are submitted every six months as a supervisory and control body. The Ministry did not want to announce how much money the introduction of the notary brought to the state budget, nor whether the notary brought "legal security to the citizens", as claimed by Minister Duško Marković while advocating the project.
Even the Chamber does not have precise data, whose president Tanja Čepić- Mugoša says that notaries paid around 350.000 euros for the first six months of this year only in the name of value added tax. They know that everyone, down to the last cent, pays their obligations to the state and that notaries employ over 100 professional associates, mostly young people.
First at the notary, then the money for the apartment
Čepić told "Vijesta" that the controls, which are carried out with the Ministry, which is the control body, are coming to an end and will show whether there were any omissions in work and responsibility.
"The management board of the NKCG has taken the position that there will be no false professional solidarity with those notaries who, due to carelessness, ignorance, or possibly bad intentions, damage the reputation of the notary. Such notaries must be ready to take full responsibility for their actions or inactions," said Čepić- Mugoša to the "News".
She announced that the controls so far have shown "really rare irregularities in the work, which can be measured by the thousands, but still cause damage to the reputation of the notary profession, as well as their ambition to contribute to a higher level of legal security for everyone in society."
According to NK records, so far there have been more than 10 such controls and several warning and disciplinary measures have been issued. "After those controls, one notary from Nikšić was suspended," says Čepić.
She warns of the widespread phenomenon of citizens first giving money to a real estate seller, and only then coming to a notary to certify the contract, which can lead to abuse and fraud.
"In the interest of legal certainty, a citizen should first come to a notary who will warn him of all possible legal shortcomings of the deal, help him draw up a suitable contract, and then pay for the property or conclude some other legal deal," points out Čepić.
According to her assessment, the story of the notary proved to be very successful "because they did a great job in 15 months and because the citizens' trust in their work is growing day by day". It is a fact, she says, that the majority of complaints submitted by citizens relate to a lack of understanding of notaries' powers and their legal obligations, and that complaints about the quality of work are rare, or almost non-existent.
Now it is easier to collect taxes
Čepić notes that it is not the Chamber's problem that there is a big difference between notary offices in terms of the scope of work: "All notary offices have equal chances and rights, and it is the exclusive right of the parties to voluntarily choose the notary with whom they will work. It is clear that in some cities or regions there are more work due to the economic dynamics of the city or area in which the notary works. So, notaries are in a market competition like many other professions. At the same time, one should not lose sight of the specificity of this profession, which must not be guided exclusively by business logic, and never may subordinate anyone's business interests to complete legality in work," she says.
At the level of the NK, a solidarity fund has been created, to which notaries donate two percent of their income, and with that money, notaries who have little work are "helped"
That's why a solidarity fund was created at the level of the NK, to which notaries give two percent of their income, and with that money, notaries who have little work are "helped".
Notary offices in Podgorica have the most work, while it is much less in the north, but also in some cities in the south. Thus, some sign the thousandth copy of the contract, while others deal with the figures of only a few cases per month. Čepić says that because of these problems, the Ministry made a decision to assign legal affairs related to the municipality of Kolašin to notaries from Bijelo Polje.
Since notaries work, tax authorities automatically receive notifications about concluded legal transactions. "In addition, changes in property rights are immediately reported to the competent cadastre, the Directorate for the Prevention of Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism is also notified in a timely manner, so state authorities can react more quickly and efficiently in order to collect fiscal obligations based on legal transactions concluded with a notary," says Čepić. - Mugoša.
Problems with the cadastre
Čepić indicates that the essence of the notary is the protection of the citizen in legal traffic, but that it should be understood that the notary is not the only one in the chain of institutions that can guarantee the legal validity of concluded deals.
"The notarial deed is credible only on the condition that the data taken from the public registers on the date of making the record are up-to-date and correct"
"The notarial deed is credible only on the condition that the data taken from the public registers on the date of making the record are up-to-date and accurate. Since the notary does not have the possibility of checking, that is, we have a "blank space" from the submission of a request to the real estate cadastre until the change is made , that period can be very controversial due to the impossibility of direct connection with the Real Estate Administration.
It should be known, however, that a notary has no and cannot have an interest in putting a stamp on a legally harmful business," points out Čepić-Mugoša. The problems that notaries have with cadastres are that notations about mortgages and other encumbrances are not made in the cadastral papers of real estate, so appear two or three months after they were given, as well as the fact that the records are full of old, unupdated data from years ago.
Certificates that the notaries have checked the data in the cadastre, which the officials are obliged to issue at their request, depend solely on their good will to whom and when they will issue them because there is no direct access to the database.
Gallery
Bonus video:
