Notarial Services

What are the key differences between a Solicitor and Notary Public?

The main difference between a solicitor and a notary is the qualifications and training, the specialism and the primary duty but most importantly and the big difference between a solicitor and a notary, is that any work undertaken. A notary is done with the view of the act that they are performing is recognized abroad or overseas whereas a solicitor only deals with matters relating to the UK.

Solicitor

Deals with a wide range of legal matters

Represent a client on one side of a dispute.

Notary Public

Mostly deal with international documents

Must be impartial in disputes, cannot represent an individual

Have international authority to authenticate documents

How can we help?

CG Solicitors also has a qualified Notary Public, Cecilia Gozzoli. If you have a requirement for a notary public, or want to find out more about their role, she would be delighted to hear from you. Either email her at cg@cgsnotary.legal or call on +44(0)2037699657. We look forward to hearing from you.

Professional Notary Services

Whether you need a Power of Attorney, a Direct Notarial Certificate or an Apostille and Legalisation, we can offer a comprehensive range of notarial services to both businesses and individuals throughout the UK and abroad.

Worldwide Notarisation

We are based in the heart of London and provide a fast, reliable and first-class service to clients worldwide. You can send original documents requiring notarial certification to Notary Cecilia Gozzoli, 107-111 Fleet Street, London EC4A 2AB. 

Personal & commercial notary services

Our services include not only standard notarisation, but also preparing and authenticating documents for use overseas, Apostilles and legalisation through Consular channels.

International Notary Services & Apostille

Notary Cecilia Gozzoli can issue notarial certifications for every country in the world. When documents issued or signed in the UK are to be used in a different country, it is often necessary to have those documents notarised. Notarial Certificates and/or Apostilles/Legalisations may be required, amongst other, for the following documents:

• Memorandum & Articles of Association, Certificates of Good Standing
  Certificates of Incumbency  and other Company Documents
• Powers of Attorney
• Affidavits, Declarations and Acknowledgments
• Translations
• Academic Certificates
• Passports

A ‘Certificate of Good Standing’ is supplied by Companies House to confirm that the company mentioned on the Certificate has filed all the necessary documents and forms to meet legal disclosure requirements. These Certificates are signed by an Officer of Companies House. The certificate shows, at minimum, the company’s name and incorporation number. If requested, it can also show the names of the registered directors and shareholders. The most common reason for obtaining a certificate of Good Standing is to meet the requirements of a bank or finance company, or for the company to carry out certain type of transactions overseas. If the Certificate of Good Standing is going to be used overseas, an Apostille verifying its authenticity may be required.

What does the Notarisation of a document involve?

A document is Notarised when a Notary signs and seals that document in order to certify certain aspects of the document.

For example, a Notary (also known as a Notary Public) may certify: that the signature on the document belongs to the person whose name appears in that document because that person has signed the document in the presence of the Notary and the Notary has duly identified the signatory; or that a copy document is a true copy of its original (either because the Notary has seen the original document or because the Notary has carried out the appropriate search with a Public Registry.

What is a Notary?

A Notary has the status of a Public Officer, who has the authority to witness and attest documents (such as deeds, agreements, powers of attorney), thereby making them official and legal in most countries in the world. The signature and official seal of a Notary make documents recognised internationally.

When do I need a Notary?

The following are examples of situation where you will need a Notary:

• If you need authorisation of documents and/or information that will be used in foreign countries (e.g. Company matters, open a bank account, or adopt a child)
• If you need legalisation of certain documents (for example, if you need a copy of your passport or a Power of Attorney)
• If you need translation of documents for use abroad
• If you want to buy a property or need a mortgage abroad
• If you have business overseas or your business is exporting its products
• If you are involved in litigation in foreign Courts
• Legalisation. Most Official and Notarial documents going to other countries will also need to be legalised (i.e. their authenticity needs to be certified).

Official documents (e.g. documents issued by Companies House, Birth, Marriage and Deaths Certificates, Court Orders, etc.) and Notarial documents (e.g. Certified copies, Powers of Attorney, etc.) can be legalised in one of the following two manners:

With the Apostille, if the country where the document has been issued and where the document is to be used are part of The Hague Convention 1961; or by the Embassy, Consulate or Chamber of Commerce of the country where they are going to be used.

Apostilles

An “Apostille” is a form of authentication accepted in countries which have signed the 1961 Hague Convention. This Convention abolished the requirement of diplomatic and consular legalization for public documents originating in one Convention country and intended for use in another.

Apostilles are often needed in adoptions, extraditions, and certain business transactions. Customers forming companies in the United Kingdom and wishing to have them recognised in other countries by Registries,

Banks or any other public or private bodies will need to have their company documents endorsed with an “Apostille”.

When a document is to be used in a foreign country, it is often necessary to have the notarization or official certification authenticated with an “Apostille”.

With the Apostille, the document is recognised in the country of intended use (no further authentication or legalization by the embassy or consulate of the foreign country where the document is to be used is required).

Procedure for Notarising and Apostille of Company documents

We carry out a Search at Companies House (this is the official Registry of Companies in the UK). We download a copy of the relevant documents and as Notaries, we certify them as true copies. We then take them to the Legalisation Office. We can then send you the document and its Apostille certificate by courier service.

Your final document will contain our Notarial Signature and Seal and any documents attached will be bound with a ribbon. 

Procedure for Notarising and/or Apostille of other documents. 

The procedure will vary depending on the type of document

Timescale. If your order is urgent, we can normally Notarise and/or Apostille your documents within 24 hours (please allow 10-15 days in general cases). 

Embassy or Consular Legalisation of documents

If the country where the UK documents are to be used is not a signatory to The Hague Convention 1961, the UK documents will need to be legalised in the following manner:

The Foreign & Commonwealth Office will need to certify the authenticity of the UK Officer’s signature and/or seal (e.g. the Notary’s signature and seal); and

The Embassy, Consulate or Chamber of Commerce (as the case may be) of the country where the documents are to be used will need to certify the authenticity of the above Foreign & Commonwealth Office certificate.

The procedure, cost and time scale may vary depending on the country where the documents are to be used. Please contact us with your specific requirements and we shall be pleased to provide you with a quote.

Notary Services 

If the Notarial work that you request from us is simple, I will endeavour to charge a fixed fee and provide you with details of any disbursements (such as legalisation fees, postage, courier fees, etc) which apply in addition of our fee. 

Notarisation of documents

Our minimum fee for notarising a documents starts from £150 + VAT (20%) = £180 and additional £50 for each subsequent document. This fee normally apply to copy passports, copy utility bills, and some US documents which require multiple notarisations. Commercial documents starts from £180 + VAT (+£75 for any subsequent document).

The fee will depend on the nature, language and use of the document. In some cases discounts can be applied for multiple documents. Thus, higher fees may apply to documents certifying company matters, issued in a language other than English or that require the drafting of separate Notary certificates or if the document to be notarised contains word to the effect that the Notary certifies any aspects of the document itself (for example, if you require a Power of Attorney for Italy to be notarised). 

We will always advise you in writing of the fees applicable to the services you need from us.

Depending on the job requested we may need to charge you for any advice requested or for correspondence with you or with third parties (for example, with your lawyers in the jurisdiction where you are intending to use the document). If this is going to be relevant to the work you are asking us to undertake for you we will always advise you in writing before we undertake such work. Sometimes we may be able to agree a fixed fee; otherwise our we will apply our hourly rate (£380 + VAT) with a minimum fee of £38+VAT = £45.60.

Drafting documents

An example of drafting a document can be drafting a Power of Attorney for Spain (to be signed on behalf of a company, or by an individual on his or her personal capacity).

Fees will vary depending on the complexity of the document that we need to draft, how many people will be signing the document and whether it is going to be granted by a company or an individual.

We will endeavour to provide you with a written fixed estimate (for you to confirm instructions) for drafting the document that you request before we undertake any work. If we need to obtain further details from you or from a third party in order to draft your document we will also need to charge you on a time basis for this, in accordance with our hourly rate. Before we start working for you we will inform you in writing of the relevant hourly rate and we can agree a fee limit that we must not exceed before we obtain your authority to continue working for you.

Legalisation of documents with the Apostille

We can legalise documents produced or signed by us; or documents issued by other UK authorities or Notaries. For example we can legalise a UK birth, death or marriage certificate.

Our fee for legalising a document (or a batch of documents for you) is £160 + VAT= £192 and a disbursement of £50 per Apostille if we use the Foreign Office standard service

Other legalisations

If additional legalisation is required (e.g. at the Embassy of the country where you are intending to use the document) there will be additional fees and disbursements (expenses that we need to pay on your behalf). We will endeavour to provide you with a written fixed estimate for you to confirm instructions before we undertake this work. Generally we charge £250 + VAT plus the Embassy/Consular fee for legalising a document at a London Embassy/Consulate. Different London based Embassies or Consulates charge different fees, plus £50 for each subsequent document. If the relevant Embassy/Consulate requires that the document is legalised with the Apostille first and you want us to obtain the Apostille for you, the fees and disbursements explained in the above paragraph will also apply.

The cost of posting the documents to you/another person in the UK by signed for post will be £20 + VAT = £24.00.

The cost of sending documents to Europe and some countries in America will be £80 + VAT = £96.

Reviewing a fee estimate

Occasionally unforeseen or unusual issues arise during the course of the matter which may result in a revision of our fee estimate. Examples of this could include where additional documents are required to be notarised, additional translations or legalisations are needed to meet the requirements of the receiving jurisdiction, third party fees are changed (such as the fee charged by the Foreign Office for an Apostille) etc. We will notify you of any changes in the fee estimate as soon as possible. 

Commissioner for Oaths

Commissioner for Oaths documentation, certified by an English qualified Commissioner for Oaths/Solicitor, is not recognised outside England and Wales. Generally we do not undertake this kind of work where the document is to be used only in England and Wales.

As Notaries, we can assist with similar documents to be used Overseas; our fees are as indicated in previous paragraphs. Please contact us and we will provide you with a fee estimate.

For any other type of work, please contact us and we shall be pleased to provide you with information on our fees.

General Information, Redress and Complaints Procedure

My notarial practice is regulated by the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury: 

1, The Sanctuary Westminster London

SW1P 3JT

Telephone 020 7222 5381

Email faculty.office@1thesanctuary.com Website www.facultyoffice.org.uk

If you are dissatisfied about the service you have received please do not hesitate to contact me. If I am unable to resolve the matter you may then complain to The Notaries Society of which I am a member, who have a Complaints Procedure which is approved by the Faculty Office who will refer the complaint to be considered by one or several independent notaries. This procedure is free to use and is designed to provide a quick resolution to any dispute. In that case please write (but do not enclose any original documents) with full details of your complaint to The Secretary, The Notaries Society, PO Box 1023, Ipswich IP1 9XB, Email: secretary@thenotariessociety.org. If you have any difficulty making a complaint in writing, please do not hesitate to call the Faculty office for assistance. Finally, even if you have your complaint considered under the Complaints Procedure, you may at the end of that procedure or after a period of eight weeks from the date you first notified me that you were dissatisfied, make your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, if you are not happy with the result:

Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ Tel : 0300 555 0333, Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

Cecilia Gozzoli

Experienced Solicitor and Italian Avvocato with more than 14 years’ experience the law practice industry, Ms Cecilia Gozzoli is skilled in corporate and private clients and International Law. Cecilia Gozzoli qualified in 2009 and has helped several companies and individuals since then. Strong legal professional with a LLM focused in Banking Law and Financial Regulation from London School of Economics and Political Science in 2010, she has worked with UK and US law firms in London since 2007, before setting up Cecilia Gozzoli Solicitors. 

Cecilia Gozzoli is also a Public Notary in England and Wales.