Deposits are one of the measures to ensure the performance of obligations and are made by agreement of the parties. According to the provisions of the Civil Code, the Land Law, the Housing Law, deposit contracts in general and apartment purchase deposits in particular are not required to be notarized.
However, to ensure legality and basis in case of dispute, the parties should make a deposit contract according to the procedures in the Notary Law below:
According to Article 40 of the 2014 Notary Law, when notarizing the deposit contract, the requiring person must present a photocopy, printed copy or a machine copy (copy) with the complete content, accurate as the original and not certified.
a. Documents to be submitted
- Notarization request form (original - by form) includes the following contents: Name, address of notary requiring person, requirements, list of documents attached...
- Draft apartment sale and purchase deposit contract (if any).
- Certificate of house ownership or related documents such as handover minutes... (copy).
- Identification documents of the depositors and deposit recipients (copy): Certificate of residence/Citizen identification card/ valid passport, household registration book/residence confirmation paper, marriage registration certificate/singlehood confirmation paper...
- Other documents related to the apartment purchase deposit contract.
b. Documents to be presented
In addition to submitting a copy of the above documents, during the notarization process, after the Notary re-checks the draft deposit contract, explains the content of the draft and when notarizing the contract, the Notary will require the parties to present the original documents mentioned in the above section.
After checking the original, comparing with the contract content, and seeing full legal value, the Notary will take the next steps.
c. Where to do
The notary of the apartment purchase deposit contract is the notary organization: Notary Office or Notary Office where the apartment is deposited (according to Article 42 of the Notary Law).
d. Time for settlement
Pursuant to Article 43 of the Notary Law, the notary period for apartment purchase and sale deposits is from 2 to 10 working days. Only extend the notary period to 10 days if the apartment deposit has complicated content.
e. Fees to be paid
The deposit contract notary fee is a percentage of the contract value as prescribed in Article 4 of Circular 257/2016/TT-BTC.
