Notarial Services
NOTARIAL SERVICES - GENERAL INFORMATION
A Notary Public’s main duty is to authenticate documents and facts for use outside England and Wales. These can relate to a wide range of activities including overseas property transactions, administration of the affairs of people who have died, commercial transactions in other countries, court proceedings and immigration.
Matthew Healey a partner in the firm of Thomas Flavell & Sons has been appointed a Notary Public by the Archbishop of Canterbury in accordance with the relevant Acts of Parliament. He is supervised by The Faculty Office, 1 The Sanctuary, Westminster, London, SW1P 3JT.
Matthew’s practice as a Notary Public is separate from his Solicitors’ practice with Thomas Flavell & Sons, although he does most of his work from the same offices. Please note that his Notarial Practice is not supervised or regulated by either The Solicitors Regulation Authority or The Law Society.
Matthew is normally available between 9am and 5pm Monday to Fridays. So that you do not make a visit to his office when he is not available please telephone (01455-610747) in advance for an appointment.
Matthew normally sees people at Church Walk, Hinckley. Where people are unable to come to his office because of disability or for other special reason and he is willingly make arrangements to see them in their own homes or at another convenient meeting place.
PROCEDURES
As a Notary it is Matthew’s duty to ensure that the people appearing before him are properly identified and he will normally require to see the appearor’s passport and one other item with their current address on (eg current driving licence or recent utility bill). If these are not available then he will need to discuss what satisfactory evidence can be produced. All transactions by limited companies need to be supported by similar evidence of the identity of the appearing officers of the company and in some cases the relevant resolutions authorising the transaction; Matthew will make a search at the Companies Registry to check the status of the company and its officers.
Matthew does not advise appearors on the effect of the documents he is asked to authenticate and appearors should obtain advice from competent advisers on any matters that they are entering into (this frequently means obtaining advice from foreign lawyers acting for the appearors in the transaction). Matthew’s duty is limited to ensuring that the appearors understand the sort of transaction they are entering into. This can present problems if the document is in a foreign language. If Matthew is asked to work in a foreign language he does not understand sufficiently he may have to ask for a translation or restrict his authentication.
Time, expense, and error may be saved if clients, or their advisors, provide, in advance of any personal consultation, the originals or exact and complete photocopies of:-
• All documents to be notarised
• Covering correspondence or forms of instructions from the country to which the document is to be provided that relate to that act
• Identification evidence (as referred to above)
Many matters are dealt with at one appointment, but when Matthew has to prepare or read documents this will take longer and he will give you an estimate of how long a matter is likely to take when he sees you for the first time.
Matthew will keep a record in perpetuity of all documents he authenticates. Copies of his records can be made available for a fee to the parties to the transaction and to anyone else with good reason including the police, tax officials and courts. Under the legislation relating to money laundering some transactions may be reported to the Serious Organised Crime Agency.
FEES
Matthew’s fees are based on the amount of time it takes him to complete a matter including recording it. It is unusual for any matter to take less than 30 minutes and it is unlikely therefore that his basic fees will be less than £75 but he will inform you what his charges are likely to be when he has seen what is involved. In addition to his fees there may be fees payable to third parties such as the Foreign Office, consuls or superintendent registrars. Matthew’s fees are normally payable when the appearors sign their documents or collect completed documents from his office.
LEGALISATION
Many countries wish to be sure that Matthew Healey is properly authorised to act as a Notary. This is done by a procedure called legalisation. For most countries this means applying to the Foreign Office Legalisation Office in London for an apostille under The Hague Convention on Legalisation. Some countries require documents to be legalised by their consuls.
Matthew will normally arrange legalisation. The current Foreign Office fee is £33 per document. The fees charged by consuls vary widely from a few pounds to around £100 or more. Matthew can usually tell you what the fees are likely to be. If you need your document legalised quickly you can take it to the Foreign Office or consul yourself. The Legalisation Office is located at Norfolk House, 437 Silbury Boulevard, Milton Keynes and is open from 9.30am to 4.30pm, the length of time it will take depends on how many other people are waiting but it is unlikely to be less than 30 minutes and could be more than 2 hours at peak times.
The Foreign Office normally legalise and return documents sent by Matthew Healey for legalisation within about 3 or 4 days.
If you would like further information Matthew will be pleased to try and answer your questions. You can contact Matthew on 01455-610747 or e-mail him at mbh@thosflavell.co.uk