Croatian notaries public turn to German example and go digital

February 4, 2022 – Croatian notaries public are turning to Germany and adopting a much more digital approach. For those of us who have used notaries public (and their infamous stamps) in this country, this will be very good news.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Suzana Varosanec writes, the mandate of the new leadership of the Croatian Chamber of Notaries (UHJK) looks promising and much more digital. Thanks to the further digitization of notarial services, we can expect more services to be available on screen, including a high degree of legal certainty and dispute prevention, and services concerning related legal matters to property rights.
The bodies for a new three-year term were elected at the electoral assembly, and the president is Zvijezdana Raus-Klier. According to current news, the Chamber’s plan is to further improve cases that will facilitate access for citizens and increase legal certainty when using the services of Croatian notary public, especially with regard to public registers such as land records and court records.
“Our goal and our mission is to be at the service of all citizens, to prevent disputes, to secure the data of the land register and the judicial registers and in this context we will continue to improve the processes and the level of service of the notarial profession,” said Rausch-Klier.
UHJK plans to finalize many new projects that involve the digitization of Croatian notary public, so from the summer, with the help of a new application linked to eNotar, it will be possible to create a business remotely or to make changes to an existing business.
Croatian public notaries should also be ”relieved” of being too busy with land registers this year, as proposals for land register entries and the issuance of extracts can be resolved electronically. In addition to this, a brand new computer system of registers is being developed maintained by the Chamber (wills, advance orders and debentures), with the possibility of introducing new digital registers (such as for powers of attorney and deeds) .
The whole digitization process for Croatian notary public is actually the digitization of preventive justice, and this in particular is carried out within a separate IT system with the highest levels of digital and legal security, under the supervision of the HJK, and not via commercial platforms.
With the support of the Ministry of Justice and Administration, Croatian notaries public across the country will soon implement the so-called German model of “remote” notaries public, which will certainly be a relief not only for those who carry these services, but those who seek them.
This will all be done through a combination of video conferencing and electronic identification and a preview of a photo of the party in question from their identification document, and then the parties will be together in a ‘secure virtual room’ ” without the need for a physical presence in an office.
This is an application that, as explained, will be easy to use for all parties involved, but at the same time will be maximally secure in terms of cybersecurity, protection of personal data, confidentiality of secrets and compliance with regulations on the prevention of money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
Travel costs will be reduced, time (and nerves) will be saved, and people will be able to use their time more economically, while email-generated documents will be “available and stored in an appropriate electronic form and immediately enforceable in electronic registers and electronic databases such as land register, court register, tax databases, pension and health insurance databases, etc.
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