Notary Public Services
A Notary Public can help you in many different ways:
Verifying your signature and identity
Power of Attorney
When you have been asked to get a Power of Attorney notarised, you are probably granting a power of attorney to a friend, relative, lawyer or business associate overseas to enable that person (the attorney) to conduct business overseas on your or your company’s behalf.
The actions your attorney will take and the legal documents which the attorney will sign on your behalf, will likely end up in a public authority of some sort, for example, a Court or Land Registry.
It will be this final recipient of the documents who will request that, the Power of Attorney is notarised, and legalised, if necessary.
This is so it can be sure that the person or company to which the final documents relate, actually have been signed and authorised by that party and the attorney is legitimately acting on their behalf.
Other Documents Needing Notarisation
Other examples include where specific documents need the signature and identity of the signatory confirmed.
These documents are usually highly important in nature, such as, closing documents on land and real estate transactions, opening of bank accounts, filing with overseas companies registration offices.
Often the formality of closing a deal overseas is vastly different to that in the United Kingdom. In many cases, the role of the Notary in the overseas territory is paramount to executing the documents which close the transaction.
Notaries are internationally recognised in fulfilling this role, linking you to the part of the world where your transaction is taking place without the need for you to travel there to give it such effect.
Verifying your signature and identity on Foreign Language Documents
Notaries in England and Wales can verify a signatory’s signature and identity on a foreign language document if it is clear that the signatory understands the contents of the document and is happy to put his or her name and signature on the document to bind them to a specific transaction mentioned in the document.
If the signatory has taken the advice of an overseas advisor who have explained the contents of the document to him or her, we are happy to verify the signature and identity.
Please note however, if you are not 100% sure of the contents of the document, then you should take the precaution of getting a proper translation of the document especially if the subject matter of the document is high in value to you. We always advise on getting a proper, professional translation done so that you can be sure that you completely understand what is at stake.
If it is apparent that you have no idea what you are meant to be signing, we will usually refuse to counter sign with you, as to do so, would be giving the impression to the person relying on our notarisation, that we have ensured that you understood it.
Providing Certified Copy of Passports and Other Documents
Most of our clients who need a certified copy of their passports are trying to prove their identity to an organisation, such as a bank, who are obliged to check the person’s identity, not only to enable them to be sure who they are dealing with, but also to comply with Anti-Money Laundering and KYC legislation.
Examples of documents which usually require certified copies are:
– Passports
– Driving Licences
– Proof of address documents such as bank statements and utility bills
– Certificates
We know that a lot of relationships which people now have with utility providers and banks are now handled online therefore, if you can login to your service provider and print a statement showing your address, we accept this as proof of address.
Certified Translations or Sworn Translations
Due to the expansion of UK resident’s ties with foreign countries there is an ever increasing need for certified document translations of important documents.
In many countries, there is an official government function of providing official or sworn translations. There is no such function provided In the UK the most common way of Notarising a translation is for a Notary Public to arrange the translation of the document by a trusted and qualified translator who is known to the Notary Public.
The Notary Public then produces a Notarial Certificate stating that the translation of the original text into the destination language, whatever this may be, has been carried out by a qualified and competent person. This gives some reassurance that the translation hasn’t simply been put through an online translation tool.
Notarised translations are usually required when documents are needed to be sent overseas translated from English into a foreign language.
If you require this service, you should check with the person or organisation in the overseas territory where you are dealing and ask them for clarity on their requirements.
Examples of documents which usually require notarised translations are:
– Certified translations of Passport
– Professional translation of Birth certificates
– Marriage certificate translation
– Official Translation of Commercial documents
– Certificate of Incorporation
– Articles of Association
The cost of this service depends on the size of the document (word count), the popularity of the language, and the speed at which the translation is required.