The Ministry of Justice is set to cut notary fees, but not everyone is happy with the new deal

Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro has signed a decree to enact a new law slashing notary fees related to the sale and transfer of real-estate assets.
Fees will be reduced by 50 - 70 percent, and caps on the maximum value of notary fees will be lowered over all payment brackets, to a maximum of zł.100 for transactions up to zł.3,000 and
a maximum of zł.10,000 for transactions above zł.2 million. These measures will provide
a potential savings of some zł.2,000 on the purchase of a standard apartment valued at some zł.500,000.
The move is intended to relieve the public of onerous costs related to notary services in the wake
of increased activity in Poland’s residential market. The law is also seen as chastisement
for the industry’s recent activity in discouraging individual firms from negotiating lower fees.

Big business
Currently, real-estate transactions make up 75 percent of all business for Poland’s notaries.
“The majority of transactions for the sale and transfer of property require the services of a notary public”, said Grzegorz Zawada, a partner with legal firm Kaczor Klimczyk Pucher Wypiór. “However, rather than basing notary fees on value, payment should be based on the level of complexity related to a particular transaction”, he remarked, adding, "a uniform slashing of fees across the board does not address the issue that some transactions require a great deal more attention and care than others, regardless of value”. The law has not yet been published in the legal register and therefore has not yet come into force. Officials stated they could not give
a date for when that might happen.

Political gimmick?
Critics called the new measures a political gimmick intended to woo the public before the elections. The National Notary Council has issued a series of statements lambasting the act, saying the cuts will hurt the industry and smaller notary firms in particular. According to Zawada, the government would do better to use its own resources to finance measures to reduce fees related to real-estate transactions rather than reaching into the pocket of the notary public.
“One substantial move would be to reduce the tax imposed on such transactions from two percent to one percent, which would provide savings of zł.10,000 for a property worth zł.1 million”, Zawada said.
Agnieszka Le Nart