Gia Dinh Private Notary Office is visited by few clients

Poor promotion, lack of customer trust and rigid rules have hampered the operations of new notary offices in HCMC.

Mai told Thanh Nien she had to get up very early to join the long queue at the department which was overwhelmed with droves of customers. As she spoke, Mai pointed to the notary officers who were working at breakneck speed to handle the enormous piles of papers.

When asked why she didn’t go to a private notary office to expedite the authentication process, Mai said she was unfamiliar with the availability of such a service in the city.

“I have heard of [private notary offices] located in outlying districts, but my house is in District 1 so I opted to have the documents notarized here,” she said.

Unbeknownst to Mai, the private Saigon Notary Office and Gia Dinh Notary Office had both opened up in District 1 in early November.

The debut of a third private notary office in District 1 is also in the offing after it was recently granted permission by the HCMC government.

Of the eight private notary offices licensed in HCMC, five have already started operating since August.

But like Mai, many customers remain in the dark about the existence of such private branches.

“I suppose private notary offices would charge higher fees than state-owned ones,” said Phan Nhu Thanh, a client at the public Notary Department No. 4 in Tan Binh District.

In September, the Ministry of Justice had issued a dispatch requiring private and public notary offices nationwide to charge the same notary fees.

The Notary Law also said that private and public notary offices are organizations entitled to practice notary services in Vietnam equal under the law.

But since their debut, private notary offices have averaged fewer than 100 customers a day compared to the huge clientele at state-run departments.

The poor turnouts occur despite private notary offices taking great strides to improve their services across the board.

Heads of private notary offices admit they have not done the best job in promoting their services, but they also blame lack of trust from the general public for their sparse clientele.

Tran Quoc Phong, chief of Gia Dinh Notary Office, said one time a bank official had expressed doubt over the validity of documents notarized for a client under his watch.

“Private notary? It sounds strange. I wonder if this work is legitimate enough,” the official had said to the client.

“When such a state official is not convinced about the [private] authentication of documents, how can other people trust it?” Phong said.

Inflexible regulations

Private notary officers also have decried several rigid regulations which have hindered their daily operations.

An article attached to the Notary Law requires the working hours of private notary offices to be similar to those of public departments, meaning a private notary office is only allowed to be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“Such a regulation constrains private notary offices from working overtime to expedite paperwork for clients,” the head of a private notary office in HCMC said.

“The authentication of a will can be made at anytime upon the request of customers,”

Phan Van Cheo, the former head of the state-run Notary Department No. 1, said. “But if the notarization is made outside of the official working hours, would it be considered illegal and declared null and void?”

Cheo has urged the Ministry of Justice to issue specific guidelines to help private notary offices out in this regard.

Le Hong Son, head of the Saigon Private Notary Office said bank regulations only approve mortgage documents notarized by state departments. These rules haven’t changed even with the debut of private notary offices.

“Several banks have insisted on rejecting documents authenticated by private notary offices,” Son said. “This policy scares away a large clientele for private notary offices.”

The Notary Law had come into effect last July. The move to privatize notary work came amidst fears that the 140 notary offices around the country, particularly those in large cities like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Da Nang, were being overwhelmed by their workload.

Since July 25, the Hanoi municipal administration has granted licenses to 16 private notary offices in eight districts.

Private notary offices in Vietnam adopt the organizational models of European and American notary agencies.

To protect the public, private notary offices found violating regulations would be fined, asked to compensate clients, and be subjected to criminal charges.

Reported by Le Nga