Mobile Notary Publics?
Opportunity: An entreprenuerial notary public or an entreprenuer teaming with one…
In Romania, there are countless times when a notarized signature is required. Currently, the process involves heading out to a Notary Public’s office where you are bound to wait. The service, in my experience, has been poor and indicative of a profession where the supply of notaries is less than the demand and you are treated in such a way as to remind you of this. Note – the supply of Notaries is limited by the government and removing this barrier would go the farthest in improving service.
Nonetheless… Even though the notaries could remain in their offices and make a nice living, it is possible for some to charge a significant premium to those clients who value time over money. The large number of real estate transactions alone should guarantee ready adoption of any service - even beyond Notary Publics - that will drive to your location and value your time in exchange for an extra fee…even a significant one.
Written by Steve
January 26th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
Maybe a public notary could train some mobile workers to come to your office / home, pick up documents, take them to her office for processing and bring them back. Any details could be sorted out by phone. In this way, their business could grow without taking more of their time.
However, I don’t know if the legal background here makes it possible.
January 26th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
I’m not sure that will work… I don’t like their services either, but I sort of doubt about them being open minded…
January 26th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
Legalizing a paper/document to the notary should not mean only applying a stamp and a signature of a person authorized to do that…unfortunately in Romania this is what usually happens. As a client I would appreciate a “mobile” notary service and I also think that the solution you proposed is “workable” … however, I do not know if the law would accept this model.
January 27th, 2007 at 10:43 am
To Jeal…Good question but….outside of having to carry around the giant log book (and I would hope you could opt for a smaller version) is there anything tying the Notaries to the office?
I would definitely - and to Zewa’s point as well - that this is one opportunity that is heavily dependent on changing the legal structure.
For all the governmental discussions in Europe and Romania of helping the “small to medium enterprises (SMEs)”…. this is one area of bureaucracy that if liberalized, would help every SME…except, perhaps, the notaries.
January 29th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
I can not help but wonder how consistent should the extra fee be to cover all the other fees lost by the notary during the travel time?
Also, when I usually go to the notary, it is not just the person, it is the whole office and office equipment that is used to create a document, that needs to be signed generally by 2 parties in front of the notary.
And, so that there is no confusion, unlike in US, a public notary in Romania has a law degree. To get the government permit they should have several years of experience and pass some exams (kind like the bar exam for laywers I believe).