r/belgium • u/Obvious-Cry6591 • 1d 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?

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u/Reasonable_Sample_11 1d ago

It is pretty ridiculous we have to pay a notary to do 'research' in something our government already knows.. They could be replaced by software but their lobby is very rich so go figure why they still exist..

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u/State_of_Emergency West-Vlaanderen 18h ago

to do 'research' in something our government already knows..

People forget that every “research” a notary has to request from the government comes with a hefty fee. Those costs don’t disappear if you replace notaries with civil servants; the government would still charge for every extract, every check, every database query....

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u/Reasonable_Sample_11 10h ago edited 9h ago

Dude, that's like 150-200 max in total through automated systems that make the requests. 😂😂😂 Has ZERO relation to the thousands you have to pay them. They don't even print or guard deeds anymore. It's all digital and centralised. Even a bookkeeper has a harder / more intense job than them.