Estonia: Notary Acts can be Carried Now out in Foreign Embassies

Estonia: Notary Acts can be Carried Now out in Foreign Embassies
27.04.2020

Several Estonian embassies have joined a pilot project to allow distant authentication making it possible to perform notarial acts from abroad without traveling to Estonia.

The new E-notary 3 platform launched in February. The first foreign missions to provide the service are embassies in Brussels, Stockholm, London and Riga. The embassy in Helsinki will join the pilot at a later date. If the pilot project is successful there is room for expansion of both services and participating embassies.

In the new self-service environment, it will be possible to book a notary appointment, exchange documents and data concerning the notarial act, inspect the document project prepared by the notary and submit proposals for changing or amending it.

Distant authentication allows the user to perform transactions with shares of private limited companies, prepare proxy letters, submit applications for marriage and divorce, and applications for inheritance. It also allows for the deleting or assignment of property rights and commercial pledges.

Merle Saar-Johanson, chairman of the Chamber of Notaries, said: “The new self-service portal will make communication with a notary easier for anyone who has business to do with a notary – be the reason succession, a real estate transaction or, for example, transfer of a part of a business,” She added that the new system will also enable the client to have a look at the content of the agreement or some other documents in a convenient environment, like at home, before signing anything.

“We are well aware that coming to Estonia from abroad to perform only one act is too time-consuming and it is not always the best solution to establish a proxy. The goal of the remote verification project is to increase user-friendliness, because we want to contribute to the creation of a more attractive business environment in Estonia and to enable customers to make several transactions from a distance,” Saar-Johanson said. “Once the project is running smoothly, we are hoping to expand the circle of remote verification activities and users,” she added.

In order to perform distant authentication in a foreign mission, the client first needs to schedule an appointment with a notary of their choice and then arrive to the foreign mission as scheduled, in order to perform the act. The customer needs an Estonian ID-card, Digi ID, E-resident’s Digi ID or Mobile-ID with valid codes. The identification system is based on biometric face authentication technology by Veriff.

The self-service portal is accessible on the website of the Chamber of Notaries.

Source: https://news.err.ee

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