Proposals for disciplinary penalties “deprivation of legal capacity for a period of one year“ of three notaries and a warning for deprivation of legal capacity for a fourth notary were sent by the Minister of Justice Georgi Georgiev to the Notarial Chamber.
The disciplinary proceedings are a result of inspections carried out by the Inspectorate at the Ministry of Justice on the order of Minister Georgiev.
The first request for deprivation of legal capacity for a period of 1 year and imposition of a financial sanction is for a notary from Sofia, and the violations are related to the issuance of a notarial deed of ownership and subsequent ones - for purchase and sale.
The issued notarial deed of ownership is for a property on “Tsar Boris III“ Blvd. with an area of 469 sq. m. with a residential and agricultural building built on it. The report was filed by the daughter of the owner of the property, who learned about the change of ownership from a notification of a change in the cadastre from the Agency for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre. Less than three months after issuing the notarial deed, the same notary also issued a notarial deed for the purchase and sale of the property in question, followed by another sale 8 months later.
The Inspectorate's inspection found significant violations in the issuance of all three notarial deeds. In the first notarial deed, the notary accepted that the person had acquired the property by prescription based on an unmotivated decree. Only witness testimonies were heard, with one witness not being approved by the mayor of the municipality, as required by the Civil Procedure Code. The notarial deed of sale was signed, although a claim and a foreclosure were registered in relation to the same property. The notary not only did not refuse to acknowledge the transaction, but he also recorded in the deed that there were no encumbrances on the property, which does not correspond to the facts.
With regard to the same notary, the Inspectorate also found violations in the issuance of another ascertainable notarial deed for a property located in the capital's "Iskar" district. When issuing it, the notary did not check for the presence of other rights to the property, who it was registered with the tax office and who pays taxes for it. He prepared an unmotivated decree based only on the testimonies of witnesses who are not neighbors of the property, although he indicated the opposite.
The second proposal is for the deprivation of legal capacity for a period of 1 year of a notary from Kazanlak. The inspection was conducted following a report from a citizen that out of all the properties he owns, 4 were donated and one was sold without his knowledge. This happened with a general power of attorney, which gives the authorized person the right to donate and sell the property in the manner in which it was done. Other violations related to the payment under the single negotiable transaction and the documents attached to the acts have also been established. The case is also being investigated by the prosecutor's office with suspicions of fraud.
The third notary, in respect of whom a 1-year disqualification has been proposed, is from the town of Balchik. Again for issuing a notarial deed in gross disregard of the required preliminary checks.
A disciplinary penalty of “warning for disqualification“ has also been proposed for a notary from Varna. The violations found by the Inspectorate in this case are related to the preparation of a notarial deed for the exchange of real estate for a motor vehicle. It was established that the notarial deed was entered two days after the transaction, as well as the absence of the notarial register during the inspection, which was taken out for binding.
The results of all inspections have also been sent to the prosecutor's office for inclusion in the materials collected on the signals from citizens, also sent to it.