Notary frustration

[Genady]

To notarize my signature on a US document, it is easier for me to fly to Curacao and to do it in the US consulate there, then to do it with a Dutch notary here on Bonaire.

[Sensei]

Life would be too easy without bureaucracy.. and they would have to find a real job..

 

35 minutes ago, Genady said:

To notarize my signature on a US document, it is easier for me to fly to Curacao and to do it in the US consulate there, then to do it with a Dutch notary here on Bonaire.

See? You're giving "bread" to the aviation, transportation, financial, tourism and oil and gas industries..

 

[Genady]

14 minutes ago, Sensei said:

Life would be too easy without bureaucracy.. and they would have to find a real job..

 

See? You're giving "bread" to the aviation, transportation, financial, tourism and oil and gas industries..

 

Right. And I rather do this than pay to the pompous Dutch notary.

Edited October 12, 2023 by Genady

[Sensei]

Humanistic professions are a cancer on the healthy fabric of the economy. They create jobs for otherwise unemployed and unneeded people (e.g., software patent lawyers in the US. In the US it is only possible. A non-IT-company ("catch-and-go") buys IT-company just to get their software patents which it created (or acquired) and have nothing else, no offices with programmers, just licenses them to interested parties. Crap).

 

[exchemist]

1 hour ago, Genady said:

To notarize my signature on a US document, it is easier for me to fly to Curacao and to do it in the US consulate there, then to do it with a Dutch notary here on Bonaire.

You have struck a nerve. Notaries are the devil. The trouble I had with French notaires, when my wife died, was unbelievable. The problem is twofold. First they are not only acting for you as their client, but also in an official capacity for the government - which gives them a licence to treat you as a supplicant and dick you about. Secondly, at least in France, the number of them less than what is needed to provide an efficient service: it's one of those professions restricted artificially by the qualification process, creating an endemic shortage of notaires. This enables the profession to become a kind of "brotherhood" that can act as a cartel, pushing up fees, increasing the time it takes to get the simplest thing done or even providing basic customer service such as answering emails.

I had to give up with one and employed another via a bilingual firm of solicitors in the UK that specialises in French inheritance and property law. So I left it to them to chase the blighter up all the time. It cost me a bomb and delayed everything by 2 years. And my brother-in-law also had to sack the one dealing with his mother's "succession" (=estate) when she died, because he was incompetent and dilatory. And the one he got in exchange was not great, either.  

Dealing with English solicitors is a breeze by comparison. We also have notaries, but luckily their role is far more restricted, just confined to witnessing and stamping certain kinds of official document.

By the way, curiously, English "notaries public", as they are called, are bizarrely run by the Church of England! Amazingly antiquated. 

[Sensei]

@exchemist You are hardly convincing. I would get on his computer and start typing messages directly on his desktop wallpaper and his cell phone would start talking with a speech generator..

The more it takes, the more they (and associates, such as the aforementioned law firm) earn if they are paid on an hourly basis.

Edited October 12, 2023 by Sensei

[exchemist]

1 hour ago, Sensei said:

@exchemist You are hardly convincing. I would get on his computer and start typing messages directly on his desktop wallpaper and his cell phone would start talking with a speech generator..

The more it takes, the more they (and associates, such as the aforementioned law firm) earn if they are paid on an hourly basis.

This guy was in Rouen and I live in London. 

[TheVat]

2 hours ago, Genady said:

To notarize my signature on a US document, it is easier for me to fly to Curacao and to do it in the US consulate there, then to do it with a Dutch notary here on Bonaire.

I was surprised so short a distance (60-70 km, from the map I looked at) would need a flight.  Is there not a ferry boat of some kind?  Flying seems like an expensive method for inter-island travel.

[Genady]

45 minutes ago, TheVat said:

I was surprised so short a distance (60-70 km, from the map I looked at) would need a flight.  Is there not a ferry boat of some kind?  Flying seems like an expensive method for inter-island travel.

No, there is no ferry. I heard that there was one many years ago, but the sea between the islands is very rough, it took too long and was very unpleasant. It was discontinued eventually.

OTOH, there are about dozen flights each way daily. It's like taking a bus. Many people go back and forth for work regularly. Takes about an hour one way*. Not terribly expensive.

 

*The actual flight time is about 25 minutes.

Edited October 12, 2023 by Genady

[TheVat]

7 hours ago, Genady said:

No, there is no ferry. I heard that there was one many years ago, but the sea between the islands is very rough, it took too long and was very unpleasant. It was discontinued eventually.

OTOH, there are about dozen flights each way daily. It's like taking a bus. Many people go back and forth for work regularly. Takes about an hour one way*. Not terribly expensive.

 

*The actual flight time is about 25 minutes.

Thanks, I had not been aware of the rough seas problem.  And that would make a fast ferry difficult.  My experience is limited to calmer Pacific waters, and also one that ran from Cape Cod to Nantucket.

Sorry to hear notaries are such a pain there.  As in UK, notaries here are a very simple thing, just witnessing and stamping documents.  And they are everywhere.  I used to shop at a supermarket that had a notary.  Libraries, banks, post offices, municipal offices, etc all have notaries.  

[Genady]

18 minutes ago, TheVat said:

Thanks, I had not been aware of the rough seas problem.  And that would make a fast ferry difficult.  My experience is limited to calmer Pacific waters, and also one that ran from Cape Cod to Nantucket.

Sorry to hear notaries are such a pain there.  As in UK, notaries here are a very simple thing, just witnessing and stamping documents.  And they are everywhere.  I used to shop at a supermarket that had a notary.  Libraries, banks, post offices, municipal offices, etc all have notaries.  

Yes, I know how simple and inexpensive is notarizing in the States and how common notaries public are there (I lived in NYC 15 years.) Notarizing in the US Consulate is equally simple. Also, the Consul comes to Bonaire couple times a year to provide services to US citizens. I will avoid the Dutch notary and hope to never need them.

I'm already avoiding them by NOT transferring my late father's real estate to my name. I asked what's involved and that was enough. The only limitation of not transferring is that I cannot sell it. But I don't plan to do so anyway. Otherwise, I can use it as I wish. 

BTW, I took the ferries from Cape Cod to Nantucket and to Martha's Vineyard several times. My wife used to live in Boston before eventually moving to NYC and marrying me.

[studiot]

11 hours ago, TheVat said:

Sorry to hear notaries are such a pain there.  As in UK, notaries here are a very simple thing, just witnessing and stamping documents.  And they are everywhere.  I used to shop at a supermarket that had a notary.  Libraries, banks, post offices, municipal offices, etc all have notaries.  

Notaries are not as common in the UK as where you obviously are.

One of my friends who is a solicitor also has a notary qualification, for which he had to do an extra course and examination.

In lean times, and there have been many in recent years in the legal world, that brought in useful extra income as most solicitors are not so qualified.

There are also other officials who offer officially certified copies of particular official documents.

In the Uk these officials are often known as registrars, as we have many different registers.

Of late, like other departments of government, they have tried to extract as much money as possible through fees.