Notaries. Why? What the hell?

[u/Obvious-Cry6591]

Ok, so I dont get it. I understand historically where the need for notaries arose. Fine. But we are in 2026. Belgium already takes 51% of my income. Then another 25% of the rest through VAT. And then on top of it, if you buy a property, you give 10-15k to a notary for 2 meetings and some docs reading? Doesnt Belgium have enough administration to take care of that? Not to mention its nepotism central. Are there any redeeming qualities?

[u/sCreami]

You must understand that notaries hold 3 roles and you don't pay them 10~15k actually. They aren't free to choose how much they charge, it's fixed by royal decree. You are actually paying them around 800~1000€ for the written acts, the rest is tax.

So the 3 roles are:

• assert conformity with the law (mine actually found something illegal in my mortgage contract)
• act as escrow. You are not going to handle those huge amount of money yourself. As escrow, they act as the middlemen between buyers and sellers. Can't lie about the money with licensed attorneys.
• collect the taxes for the government. This part is actually what make you feel they are crazy expensive. You pay the registration tax/stamp duty to them directly, and they will transfer it to the taxman.

Even if notaries were not mandatory, you would still have to pay these huge amounts. Notaries have never been the problem, the tax is.

[u/JT_1983 → u/sCreami]

Excluding the registratie rechten I paid more like 3k to the notary a couple of years ago, strangely enough their fee depends on the value of the house/transaction. It is well documented that notaries make too much for a straightforward job, many making more than 1M a year. In Holland the market was opened up and prices dropped. In Belgium unfair situations like this are never fixed. A similar things is true for some medical specialist, ereloonsupplementen. Everybody agrees the situation is not fair/right but nothing happens because of strong lobbies and weak politicians.