Certification of legally material facts and declarations

Notaries shall, on request, execute a certificate ascertaining certain facts in the form of a public deed, for example:

• on procurement of a document;
• on the protest of bills of exchange and other documents to be produced to enforce specific rights;
• certificates of general meetings of commercial corporations;
• that someone is alive;
• about other facts and states of affairs;
• affidavits;
• outputs from the public administration information system;
• authorised document conversions.

In addition, notaries carry out

a) authentication, i.e., verification of the conformity of the copy of the document with the original document;
b) legalisation, i.e., authentication of the signature;
c) activities in the field of commercial law: certifications of decisions of corporate bodies and of the proceedings of general meetings, or other meetings and proceedings of other bodies of legal persons and certificates for registration in the public register.

These are subject to separate services.

Notaries may execute certificates other than those listed above if the certificates in question meet the requirements of the Notarial Code for their execution.

Notaries may certify that a document has been submitted to the notary, and when this was done in the form of a certification clause on the submitted document, which shall include the date, month and year and, if applicable, the time when the document was submitted to the notary.

Notaries may certify the proceedings of the general meetings in a notarial record indicating the place and time of the general meeting, the resolutions adopted and everything relevant to the assessment of the proper conduct of the meeting.

Notaries may certify that someone is alive only if they know that person personally or if they ascertain that person's identity in the manner provided for in the Notarial Code (from an official identity card or from the statements of witnesses). The notarial deed on this certificate shall also contain an indication that the notary has personally seen the person to whom the certificate relates, as well as the day, month, year and hour on which this happened.

Notaries may also certify other facts and events, such as the result of a lottery, discharge of a debt or presentation of movable property or condition of immovable property, as well as other events and states of affairs, if legal consequences may be connected with them or claims may be proved before a court and if the factual event took place in the presence of the notary or if the notary ascertained the state of affairs.

Notaries also certify declarations made by persons if legal consequences are to be attached to them.

With regard to outputs from public administration information systems, notaries issue, in particular, extracts from the Commercial Register, extracts from the Trade Register, extracts from the Land Registry.