Notaries in Montenegro fear that it will not be profitable for them to do business if their tariffs are lowered, as announced by the Ministry of Justice.
Notary from Bijelo Polje, Biljane Konatar, said that they will have to adapt to the decisions of the Ministry of Justice, even though the current tariffs are realistic because of the responsibility of notaries.
"We are also responsible for the content of the acts we certify, whereas before the court did it without going into the content. Now we have to answer for each act with our property and examine everything in detail and warn that there should be no court disputes", Konatar told the agency Mine-business.
She added that lowering tariffs will affect the business of her office.
"If the tariffs are reduced, I personally regretted starting this job," said Konatar.
As she said, the state did not help the notaries with renting and furnishing the office, nor with paying employees, and 60 percent of their income, as they are registered as natural persons, is taxed by the state.
Hard survival
The notary from Nikšić, Marinko Perović, announced that notary fees in Montenegro are similar to those in Bosnia and Herzegovina, while they are twice as low as in Croatia.
He added that it will be difficult for him to survive if the prices of notary services are lowered, because the fees he pays are huge.
Notary services are not cheap anywhere, nor, by the nature of things, can they be, but it is agreed that some tariffs should be corrected
According to him, notary services are not cheap anywhere, nor, by the nature of things, can they be, but he agrees that corrections should be made to some tariffs.
Branka Kašćelan, a notary from Kotor, stated that notary fees and costs are high, and that she will not be able to maintain her office if the tariffs are lowered.
"Given the volume of work I have, I already employ three workers, I pay value added tax (VAT) to the state and I am not registered for a flat rate, but for actual profit," Kašćelan said.
She said that she has large expenses, first of all the VAT she pays, insurance for workers, as well as duties for business premises.
The Chamber of Notaries formed a working group made up of three notaries, and as one of its members, Tanja Čepić, told the Mina-business agency, its role will be to correct the prices and present it to the Ministry of Justice.
"The working group will negotiate with the Ministry about the tariffs, but we agree that they have the right to correct the tariffs due to their unevenness," explained Čepić and added that the meeting with the Ministry of Justice will be held soon.
The Chamber of Notaries of Montenegro previously announced that they do not dispute that the correction of their tariffs is necessary, but they believe that the prices of services are commensurate with the scope and responsibility.
The tariffs are not in accordance with the Montenegrin economy
Deputy Prime Minister Duško Marković announced at the beginning of the week that notary tariffs will soon be lowered because some of them have been raised to a level that does not correspond to the social and overall economic environment in Montenegro.
The law stipulates that one notary should be appointed for every 15 inhabitants, but the Chamber of Notaries announced that there is little interest in notary work.
There are currently 30 notaries operating in Montenegro, and there should be 59. There are no notaries in Kolašin, Mojkovac, Žabljak, Pljevlja, Andrijevica and Plužine, because there was no interest of lawyers in the north of Montenegro for that work.
Notaries started working on July 25, and according to the law, they are authorized to make notarial records, minutes, certifications and certificates.
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