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Comment by ng55QPSK | Hacker News Reader

point 1) "as the notary might try to rip you off" i'd like to see an example. The position of the notary is the neutral one on signing deals OR notfifying the documents you sign to give you an undisputable legal binding document. Any notary trying to rip you off is walking dangerously close to immediately loosing his job - forever.

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I had the same assumption. However the last notary that I worked with didn’t hand in documents in time (which caused lots of trouble), handed in incorrect documents and simply did not answer to emails or calls for weeks.

He only started to act when I used my lawyer to threaten him. Even then my lawyer said that it would be very hard to start legal proceedings against the notary.

If you think notaries are 100% trustworthy you should also have a look at https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/millionen-immobilie-in-be...

You cannot secure any system against intentionally criminal behaviour - and it looks like the actual transfer had started an investigation.

I would have to look up the exact details but I was basically following the standard "Musterprotokoll" to found my company, with one tiny difference/change somewhere. Well-established court rulings said that this change didn't make a difference regarding the notary fees. The notary still charged me for it. When I pointed out the court rulings to them, their response was basically "Right, sorry, we forgot".

I have heard about several other cases like that from friends.

I see. But this sounds like his/her office made a mistake in calculating the fee, but let's say this far away from "ripping off" and can be cleared in one telephone call.

That was not my impression. I asked them about the fee, they claimed that it's legal/required by law. Then I asked them again (in a more detailed manner, i.e. explaining my thinking why there shouldn't be a fee), they still upheld that it's legal, and then I send them the court rulings and suddenly they had "forgotten" about that.

Notaries are supervised by (depending on state) some local court and there is a feedback system if you are not satisfied with the process.

Plus, notaries are working on standardized fees. No ripping of to be had. Settimg up special charters is diffnrent so, but those are best done by a specialized lawyer anyway.

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