The notarization of documents or signatures on them is one of the most relevant legal services for Cypriot residents.
Nowadays it can be done, for example, by going to a notary's office, visiting a mukhtaris, consulate, or embassy. However, soon notarial signatures to certify documents will only be done at Citizen Service Centers - Citizen Service Center or Το Κέντρο Εξυπηρέτησης του Πολίτη (ΚΕΠ).
This was announced by the Cypriot Ministry of Interior on Wednesday, February 21. In particular, the ministry submitted a new bill to the Parliament for consideration. At the same time, the Ministry emphasized that 200 certified notaries will continue to perform their duties until retirement, but no further appointments will be made.
By the way, in Cyprus, there is a special kind of notaries, which are called certifying officers. You can come to them to certify a power of attorney, housing lease agreement, purchase of a house or car, employment contract, and in general any contract that needs to be presented to the bank, tax office, land registry, CYTA, EAC, Water Board, immigration service. The certifying officer also certifies visa forms, bank and tax forms, forms for CYTA, EAC and Water Board, child travel authorizations. As a rule, certifying officers come with already prepared documents, drawn up at least in English.
The Ministry noted that the new Legislation is aimed at preventing cases of fraud and distribution of forged certificates, leading to misappropriation of foreign property or problems of conflict of interest with persons holding offices that offer such services. It is worth noting that the new rules provide for the introduction of new fees for signatures and/or seals of certifying officers. Specifically, the fees will depend on the number of pages in the document to be certified, rather than the number of signatories to the document, as was previously the case.
The maximum fees, regardless of how many times the same signature/seal there are in a document, are set as follows: up to two pages - €5, three to ten pages - €10, 11 to 100 pages - €25 and 101 pages and above - €40.