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Notary Public & Notarial Services

What is a Notary Public?

A Notary Public is an attorney with an additional qualification who has been admitted by the High Court.

A Notary Public has been given statutory and common law powers to prepare and attest certain specialised legal documents, administer oaths, and perform wide range of administrative functions of a national and international nature.

The functions of notaries include the preparation and witnessing of certain types of specialised documents, such as: documents for use internationally, deeds for registration in various public offices (Such as Antenuptial Contracts), wills and powers of attorney, administering oaths, witnessing signatures on affidavits, statutory declarations, certifying copied documents, noting and protesting bills of exchange, and the preparation of ships’ protests.

Notarised documents

At Van Deventer & Van Deventer Incorporated , we offer notarial services in relation to the following documents:

  • Powers of attorney
  • Notarial bonds
  • Antenuptial contracts, Life Partnership Agreements
  • Shipping protests - In maritime law, a sea protest is a notarized statement obtained after a ship enters port after a rough voyage.
  • Long and short term lease agreements
  • Witnessing the execution of documents and verifying the authenticity of signatures
  • Authenticating copies of documents
  • Arranging Apostille Certificates
  • Legalising documents for use abroad in terms of foreign and/or international law
  • Authentication of South African documents for use abroad
  • Usufructs & Servitudes
  • Trusts & Wills

Examples of documents authenticated by Van Deventer & Van Deventer Incorporated may include university degrees, passports and identity documents, birth certificates, as well as application forms for visas and immigration permits.

Documents that are issued in one country and intended for use in another country has to be authenticated – or legalised - in order to be recognised in the foreign country. The legalisation procedure depends on whether the country is a party to the Hague Convention – international treaties and declarations.

If the country is a party, the only legalisation required is an apostille certificate.

When a country is not party to the Hague Convention, a more complicated procedure is necessary. This procedure requires authorisation from four authorities in South Africa. At Van Deventer & Van Deventer Incorporated , we have perfected this process by following the right steps.

These steps include:

  • One of our notary experts authenticates the South African documents
  • The notary expert’s signature gets authenticated by the Registrar of the High Court
  • The Registrar’s signature must, in turn, be authenticated by an official from the Foreign Affairs Department
  • The document is then transmitted to the foreign embassy in South Africa of the country in which it is intended for use
  • That foreign embassy, in turn, sends it on to the relevant authority in the country that requires the document