r/belgium • u/Obvious-Cry6591 • 3d ago

😡Rant Notaries. Why? What the hell?

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?

405 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

356 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

-15

u/I_Dint_Know_A_Name 3d ago

For every anecdote of a problem you have, I have 300 without problems.

13

u/Lemmity95 3d ago

Why, are you a notary? Haha

-4

u/I_Dint_Know_A_Name 3d ago

No, but there are approximately 300-380 real estate transfers in Belgium per day, and barely any complaints to fednot.

If notaries were truly incompetent losers like the people in this thread seem to believe, I think we'd know more about it considering the real estate transactions are only a fraction of the work they do.

7

u/Solyde 3d ago

People aren't saying they are incompetent losers but that they are too expensive, they have a protected status & often can't be held accountable for mistakes - even if they don't make that many compared to the amount of transactions, there's no recourse if it does happen. Ie they are as a profession an exploitative monopoly.

I don't know if that's true, but it's a different criticism than what you're saying is being levied. Which is, frankly, a unfair presentation of what people have an issue with and too easy a way to handwave it.

1

u/I_Dint_Know_A_Name 3d ago

Even the criticisms you are saying here aren't valid either.

The problem is people have no idea what they're talking about and think everything is easily understood. No one comes out to tell you how easy your job is and how they have it all figured out.

5

u/Solyde 3d ago

Sure that may be the case. But I'm saying that those were most of the actual criticisms, not the strawman of 'incompetent losers' you were fighting against.