Notaries Dr. Wolfgang Ott LL.M. and Dr. Dr. Stephan Philipp Forst in Munich
The service of a notary is mandatory in cases of particularly complicated and consequential transactions and this is required for good reason: With the advice and instruction of the notary, you are protected from bringing about legal consequences that you did not wish, taking on risks that you had overlooked, or even sustaining financial damages that you had not anticipated. Whether you buy a house, establish a company, write a last will and testament or a testamentary contract – the notary is a specialist in these areas and will gladly advise you in detail.
Such important legal transactions are a matter of trust. Therefore – with multiple contract partners – all parties involved can trust the notary because he – unlike a lawyer – is bound to neutrality. He advises both contracting parties equally and sees to a fair and balanced contract configuration. The Bavarian Chamber of Notaries, the Notarial Account Office Institute of Public Rights and the Justice Administration watch over the reliable and neutral administration of the notary. Therefore, you can trust that you will be comprehensively advised about the legal advantages and disadvantages of a notarial legal transaction.
The notary guarantees your legal security!
Specifically, the following notarial activities are to be distinguished from one another: For the most important legal transactions (for example, sales contracts, transfer contracts, matrimonial contracts, dispositions of property upon death), notarial certification is required: The notary reads the entire certificate text to you before it is signed. For less important legal transactions (for example, commercial and association registration applications, repudiation of an inheritance), a notarial attestation of signature is sufficient. For such certificates, the text will not be read to you; the notary just confirms the authenticity of your signature below the text. Ultimately, the notary is responsible for documentary authentications: He verifies the conformity of a document copy with the original of a document submitted to him. In addition to the traditional documentary authentication on paper, the notary can, upon request, also make an electronically certified copy in file format. This can then only be read and checked for correctness, using special software, by the addressee, for whom this electronic certificate was intended.
The notary of your choice.
You select “your” notary as a person of trust. For this, you do not have to take into account the location of the subject (for example: of the property or of the seat of a company) to be negotiated. The duties of a notary public are not limited to legal transactions, which concerns his official seat; rather, he is also authorized to handle legal transactions that are related to another location in Germany. For example, we can easily notarize and settle a property purchase agreement for a property in another location, even in another German federal state, or a corporate legal matter for a company that does not have their seat in the Munich area.
Cooperation with attorneys and tax consultants
Notaries are fully qualified lawyers and that means that they have passed both of the state legal examinations. This unites them not only with the judges, but also with the attorneys. Therefore, you can assume that you receive qualified legal advice from the notary. This particularly applies to the areas in which the notaries specialize: property law, family law, inheritance law and corporate law. As long as, and to the extent that the parties involved in a legal transaction, for example, a property purchase or founding of a limited liability corporation (GmbH), are essentially in agreement over its contents, additional legal advice from a lawyer is therefore not required. If a notarial legal transaction is concluded, no additional costs, for the earlier consultation by the notary, will be incurred.
If, contrary to expectation, despite the notarial certification of your legal transaction, a dispute (for example with defects recognized after the fact, for a property already sold) arises, the notary cannot replace the court. However, he is available to act as a mediator during mediation talks.
For unreconcilable disagreements, the notary can no longer replace the lawyer because the notary is committed to neutrality. In such cases, you will, only with their help, be able to assert your interests and reach an agreement with your contractual partner. The lawyer is also a value tool with his specialized knowledge (for example: by clarification of construction law for property matters, resolution of tenancies, the calculation of the alimony in matters of divorce, execution of antitrust proceedings in corporate mergers, etc.).
Under no circumstance does the notary replace the tax advisor. The notary is not liable for the economic and fiscal goals that you have envisioned that you will reach. Nevertheless, he will draw your attention to the land transfer tax and gift or inheritance tax consequences of the legal transactions notarized by him. In any case, he is obligated to report these transactions to the tax authorities.
A multitude of notarial-certified transactions therefore require the accompanying consultation of a tax advisor (for example: purchasing of land from agricultural or commercial business assets, transfer contracts with usufruct measures, alimony agreements, transfer of company shares, businessmen’s last will and testament). In particular, every company founder is well advised, not just for bookkeeping obligations, in taking the first step into self-employment, not only with the help of a notary, but also in cooperation with a tax consultant.
Therefore, for the interdisciplinary cooperation with your attorney and tax consultant, we are happy to help.
