General terms and conditions
Assignments accepted by the office of Notaries Beenen Dantuma Verschuren, hereinafter referred to as "the Notary's Office", with effect from 1 May 2021, shall be carried out subject to the following General Terms and Conditions.
Article 1
All assignments shall be accepted solely to the exclusion of the applicability of Sections 7:404 and 7:407(2) of the Netherlands Civil Code.
Article 2
The notary's liability is limited to the cover for which a professional liability insurance has been taken out, plus any excess. The applicable Rules of Professional Conduct include minimum standards which the insurance must meet.
Article 3
The civil-law notaries associated with the civil-law notary's office are members of the Royal Dutch Notarial Association (KNB) and satisfy the insurance requirements prescribed by the KNB.
The limitation of liability described in Article 2 shall also apply in the event that a civil-law notary is liable for the malfunctioning of equipment, software, or other devices used by the notary in
the performance of the assignment, no exception being made.
The civil-law notary shall never be liable for any indirect loss or damage in any way connected with or caused by a defect in the performance of the work by the
latter. The Client shall not be liable for any damage to or the destruction of Documents during transport or dispatch, regardless of whether the transport or dispatch takes place by or on behalf of the Client, the Contractor or third parties. The Client indemnifies the Contractor against all claims from third parties that are directly or indirectly related to the performance of the Agreement.
Article 4
The undisputed acceptance of a (draft) deed prepared by the notary's office at the request of the client implies the acknowledgement of the granting of an assignment. If the client sends documents or has documents sent to the notary office, such as proof of identity and/or data concerning the names of guardians, executors and administrators, followed by the acknowledgement of receipt thereof by the notary office, this also implies the acknowledgement of the granting of an assignment.
Also the receipt of a (purchase) agreement by the notary implies the acknowledgement of the granting of an assignment by both buyer and seller.
Article 5
If the order is given by a natural person on behalf of a legal entity, then this natural person is also the private client.
In the event of non-payment by the legal entity, the natural person in question will be personally liable for payment of the invoice, irrespective of whether this
is made in the name of a legal entity or in the name of the client as a natural person.
Article 6
The notary office reserves the right to adjust the agreed (hourly) rates annually per 1st of January.
Article 7
a. The civil-law notary shall inform the clients in a clear and timely manner of the financial consequences of his services.
b. The civil-law notary shall inform the clients in good time if more costs will be charged than agreed.
c. The civil-law notary may not charge the costs of his work to another assignment, another part of the assignment or to anyone other than the client.
d. Payment of invoices must be made before or, at the latest, upon execution/signing of the deed(s), unless otherwise agreed in writing or stated otherwise.
e. For real estate transactions and transactions with other registered property, in addition to the notary fees, turnover tax, land registry tax and land registry surcharges shall be payable in advance
into an office account, transfer tax and other costs charged to clients must be paid in advance, before the execution of the relevant deeds, into an office account.
f. Invoices for handling an estate or a divorce or any other matter, advice or file can be charged by the notary office once every 3 months, or on the basis of another frequency, and must be paid within 10 days thereafter, insofar as settlement cannot be made from the funds in the notary's office.
g. Court fees and other charges are to be paid before the notary's office draws up the related documents.
h. When a term of payment is exceeded, the client is in default without a notice of default being required and without any appeal to suspension or set-off being permitted, and a default interest, equal to the statutory interest, is due. In addition, the legally permitted collection costs and interest shall be charged.
If collection measures are taken against the defaulting client, the costs related to such collection shall be borne by the client.
If the client is in default, the notary office can immediately and unilaterally terminate the assignment, without this leading to any liability for damages.
Furthermore, the notary office can
- require from the client that an advance payment be made before starting the work;
- if so desired, proceed with an interim statement of expenses for its activities;
- require from the client that prior to the execution of the deed an irrevocable power of attorney be granted for a one-off direct debit payment.
i. If one or more financial institutions charge negative interest to the notary office, the notary office will charge a fixed amount as custodial fee to clients.
Article 8
If the client does not appear at the agreed and written confirmed time or cancels/removes this appointment within two days before this time, the notary office will charge costs for this, unless otherwise agreed.
Article 9
The notary office reserves the right to destroy the documents kept in the file relating to the assignment five years after the beginning of the day following the day on which her activities in the file have ended.
Article 10
All rights of action and other powers of whatever nature which the client may invoke against the notary office shall in any case expire one year after the moment the client became aware or could reasonably have become aware of the existence of these rights and powers.
Article 11
The provisions of these General Terms have been stipulated not only for the benefit of the Notary's Office, but also for the benefit of the junior civil-law notaries and all other persons who are or have been employed in any way at, for or on behalf of the Notary's Office.
Article 12
The services and any liability are governed by Dutch law. Only the Dutch court or the Disputes Committee is competent to settle disputes.
Article 13
The majority of the services provided by the notary's office come under the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Act (WWFT).
In connection with this, the notary public may be obliged to report situations or transactions of an unusual nature to the Financial Intelligence Unit - Netherlands (FIU-Nederland).
According to the law, the notary is not allowed to inform his client of such a report.
By giving the assignment, the client declares that he agrees with this.
Information for clients on the application of the WWFT is provided at https://denotarissen.nl/home/wwft.
Article 14
In transactions, the notary office reserves the right to pay money only to the party who is a party to the deed and can claim the payment on the basis of the legal act laid down in the deed and not to make any other payments on behalf of and/or for the benefit of that party or a third party.
Article 15
Where an assignment has been given or is considered to have been given to the notary office for the drawing up of a deed and in case the passing of the deed, for whatever reason, does not take place after the granting of the assignment or where the assignment is withdrawn afterwards, the notary office reserves the right to submit a bill to its client(s) for the activities carried out at that time on the basis of the time spent on the file and calculated on the basis of the hourly rate which the notary office then applies for such activities.
Article 16
Our services are subject to the Complaints and Disputes Procedure for Notaries. See also www.denotarissen.nl, and also www.knb.nl and www.degeschillencommissie.nl.
Article 17
Personal data is processed in accordance with the privacy regulations of the Notaries, available at https://denotarissen.nl/home/privacy
Article 18
The civil-law notary shall observe all existing rules of professional conduct. An explanation of these rules can be found in the consumer brochure 'Spelregels voor notaris en consument', which was prepared by the KNB in consultation with the Consumers' Association and Vereniging Eigen Huis.
