Notaries Society

The Notaries Society was founded in 1882 and is the representative society for approximately 900 Notaries Public who practise in England and Wales. Membership is open to all Notaries in England and Wales, and to other Notaries whose Faculty is derived from the Court of Faculties. In addition, associate membership is open to all bona fide students and candidates for the examinations.

The Notaries Society is a membership body for the profession and has no disciplinary functions. The rules governing the behaviour of notaries are dealt with through the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Further details can be found on the page Faculty of Notaries elsewhere on this web site.

In addition to the Notaries Society, there is The Worshipful Company of Scriveners of the City of London who represent Scrivener Notaries practising mainly in the City of London. For more information see the separate section in this web site entitled Scrivener Notaries

A Notary is a qualified lawyer and is appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury. He or she is subject to regulation by the Court of Faculties under rules very similar to the rules which affect Solicitors. All notaries must be fully insured and must maintain fidelity cover for the protection of their clients and the public. As in the case of solicitors, notaries must keep clients? money separately from their own, comply with stringent practice rules and renew their practising certificates every year.

The most common tasks undertaken by notaries are:

• preparing and witnessing powers of attorney for use overseas
• dealing with the purchase or sale of land and property abroad
• providing documents to deal with the administration of the estate of people who are abroad, or owning property abroad
• authenticating personal documents and information for immigration or emigration purposes, or to apply to marry or to work abroad
• authenticating company and business documents and transactions

In addition to these duties, notaries can also provide authentication and a secure record for almost any sort of transaction, document or event and can do any form of legal work except taking cases to court.

Although most notaries are also practising solicitors (and therefore regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority) a few (including the Scrivener notaries in London) practice only as notaries doing commercial, property family and private client work.