Svetlana Zhanzharova: “A notary is the most accessible lawyer for the population” | 04/25/2024 | Kaluga News

The President of the Kaluga Regional Notary Chamber spoke about the nuances of notary work in the region.

On the eve of the professional holiday – Notary Day in Russia – the agency “Komsomolskaya Pravda – Kaluga” invited the chief notary of the Kaluga region to the live broadcast studio.

Svetlana Zhanzharova answered a huge number of questions. Here we have selected the most frequently heard ones. Watch the full video version on the KP40 page on the VKontakte social network.

Notary is protection

The conversation with Svetlana Zhanzharova about the results of 2023 is also relevant because in 1993 the Fundamentals of the legislation of the Russian Federation on notaries, according to which notaries work, were adopted. 2023 is an anniversary year for the notary.

— Svetlana Valerievna, what has changed in the work of the regional notary over the years?

— Over these 30 years, my colleagues and I have managed to create a modern, highly effective team of notaries, like-minded people, all those who deal with the issues of qualified protection of the rights of our citizens, primarily residents of our region.

— How many people work in the ward?

— The Notary Chamber includes notaries and their assistants. Today our team numbers about 90 people. And all of them provide solutions to the main tasks that the law assigns to the notary.

I always emphasize that today a notary is the most accessible lawyer for the population. We are always open. In any unclear situation, go to a notary. Moreover, we provide all consultations with a notary free of charge.

I would like to note that any document certified by a notary has special legal force. By the way, a notary has several degrees of protection against any unlawful actions. This includes professional liability insurance. The minimum amount for which a notary is insured is 5 million.

If this is not enough, we have a compensation fund, which, through deductions from notaries at the Federal Notary Chamber, also provides additional protection.

And the main degree of protection is the full property liability of the notary. Notaries are responsible for their actions with all their personal property that they have, like individuals.

— So you don’t just put stamps on pieces of paper?

– Yes, I want to debunk this myth too. To put a stamp, a notary must do a tremendous amount of work with the situation, with the citizen, request information, give a legal analysis, comprehensive legal advice so that legal ignorance is not harmful, and only after that prepare a notarial document, sign it and put a seal on behalf of the Russian Federation.

— It would be nice to say a few words about tariffs here…

— At the end of 2023, changes occurred in the legislation on notaries. The state has established a single notarial tariff for payment for notarial acts.

The legislator put an end to this issue and explained that the notary collects a single notarial fee when performing any notarial act, which consists of two amounts. This is a federal notary tariff, which is regulated by the tax code, which, by the way, has not been increased for notaries since 2004, and a regional notarial tariff. The amount of the regional notarial tariff for each notarial act is established on the basis of a formula approved by the Ministry of Justice and the Federal Notary Chamber. The regional tariff rates approved for the calendar year are mandatory for use by all notaries in the region.

Therefore, there is no need to be afraid and worry about who is more expensive and who is cheaper – this does not exist in our country today. Tariffs can always be found in notary offices, the notary chamber or on our website.

About inheritance and debts

A lot of questions during the live broadcast concerned the topic of debt obligations and distribution of inheritance.

— What debts pass to the heirs, and do they all pass to them?

– Let’s explain what an inheritance is. Inheritance is not only movable property. The inheritance also includes property rights and obligations, including debts.
If the heir accepted the inheritance, he also accepted the debts, and in full. The law does not allow you to choose “I want to accept this property, a specific one, and a specific part of the debt.”
But at the same time, it is important to remember that the heir is liable for the debts of the testator within the limits of the value of the inherited property transferred to him.

— That is, if a person does not want to pay, he should not enter into an inheritance?

– If he did not accept the inheritance, did not apply to the notary to accept the inheritance, if he did not perform actions indicating the actual acceptance of the inheritance, then he did not accept the debts.

— What to do if there are several heirs? How then are debts divided?

— Debts are divided equally, proportionally. However, if we are talking about inheritance by will, when the testator, by his will, determined the share in the inheritance of each heir, it may be unequal. Some people get three-quarters of their property, others one fourth. This is the proportion in which debts will be inherited. But in any case, the property of the heir himself is protected. The claims of creditors do not apply to him. This must always be remembered and proceed from the principles of rationality and expediency of actions. Accepting an inheritance is a citizen’s right, not an obligation.

About real estate

— Before executing a transaction for donating a share of an apartment, should a notary check it for arrest or prohibition of registration actions?

– Of course, I should. The notary must ensure the legality of any transaction. To do this, he must carry out a number of verification actions, including installing it, but we have this opportunity, and I would like to thank Rosreestr for prompt interaction in electronic form. The notary has access to information from the Unified Register of Real Estate, has access to the Federal Bankruptcy Register, and a number of other registers to establish facts relevant to the conclusion of an agreement.

— Is it possible to get a loan secured by real estate from a notary without registering an encumbrance with Rosreestr?

– It is forbidden. A pledge is a mortgage, it is an encumbrance, and an encumbrance is subject to mandatory state registration.

— The spouse is in the service, is it possible to remotely obtain consent from a notary to purchase an apartment with a mortgage? Joint, I mean.

— He has the right to contact the nearest notary office, if we are talking about annexed territories, such as Lugansk, Donetsk. The notary will produce such a consent and send the document in electronic form via the electronic interaction system through the Unified Information System, and the notary at the location of the spouse in the Kaluga region will issue the document on paper.

– So this is possible in principle?

— Yes, and people are using it more and more often. It is very comfortable.

— Is it necessary to contact a notary to sell an apartment?

— Mandatory and necessary: ​​if you want to receive property guarantees, if you want to sleep peacefully and be sure that you have entered into a legal transaction, always contact a notary.

Family matters

— Svetlana Valerievna, this is the Year of the Family in Russia. Do you have any preferences for, say, large families?

— I would note the following. The notary works in two directions. He is a regulator of family and marital relations, as a notary, as a person performing a notarial act. But one cannot help but belittle the work of the notarial community as a whole and the work of notary chambers. On an ongoing basis, we work with various departments, including the Women’s Union of Russia. Some members of the notary community are members of this public organization.

— What about male notaries?

– But of course! We work with the Council of Fathers. We participate in many charitable projects for the family. We organize weeks of legal assistance for large and foster families, provide legal education and counseling to children in orphanages. We work, in particular, with the Kondrovsky and Azarovsky orphanages. We have many projects with boarding school No. 1, with the Kaluga Regional Center for Tourism and Local History. We do a lot of work in terms of patriotic education, because we work for the benefit of our residents, the residents of our region.
Our mission is, of course, to ensure service to the law, service to our citizens.