By: Vitor Ferrari and Ivan Kubala

For many, the terms “notary’s office” and “notary’s office” are synonymous and refer to places where documents are issued, signed and modified.. However, this is not true. These institutions have different purposes, responsibilities and attributions, which complement each other.

Notary offices are public institutions, managed by private employees, whose responsibility is to register documents in order to store them in their databases., providing security regarding their existence, since they cannot simply be deleted.

For each class of document there is a specific registry office: documents relating to people, for example, such as birth, marriage, divorce and death certificates, must be registered in civil registry offices for natural persons; documents relating to real estate and the real estate sector, such as the registration of public deeds and the registration of registrations, for example, must be registered in real estate registry offices.

In addition, notary offices are also responsible for authenticating documents and recognizing the signatures on them. The function of these services is to provide legal security, providing reliability to parties when conducting business.

Notary offices are institutions dedicated to providing notarial services.: drafting of legal acts, formalizing the will of the parties and authenticating facts. Among its duties are: drafting notarial minutes, authentication of copies of documents, recognition of signatures on documents (notarization), protest of titles, carrying out extrajudicial inventories and consensual divorces (when the couple chooses to divorce by mutual agreement).

In short, notary offices are responsible for registering and authenticating documents, while notary offices are responsible for drafting and ratifying them.

It is important to know the difference between these institutions to protect yourself from possible inconveniences, as often the simple issuance of a document at a notary's office is not enough to provide legal security to the parties.

This is the case with property registration: simply signing a purchase and sale instrument at a notary's office is not enough to transfer ownership of the property to the entire society. It is necessary to register the signed instrument at the appropriate notary's office.

Therefore, the need for professional monitoring for many civil acts is evident, in order to avoid future hassles and legal actions. 

With the collaboration of Luís Felipe Simão