Notary Public

What a Notary Public does daily

• Land conveyancing — the most significant volume function of the Sri Lanka Notary; preparing and attesting deeds of transfer and purchase of land and property; the conveyancing process: client instruction; title investigation (reviewing the chain of title through Land Registry entries — a meticulous, legally demanding process in Sri Lanka where title chains can be complex given the historical layers of Dutch, British, and post-independence land grants and transfers); survey plan review; preparation of the deed of transfer; reading of the deed to the parties (or verification that they have read and understood the Sinhala/Tamil/English text); attestation of signatures; registration of the deed in the Notary's Protocol; lodging the deed for registration at the Land Registry; the Notary is personally responsible for the legal validity of the deed and the accuracy of the title investigation on which it is based
• Will preparation and attestation — preparing and attesting wills under the Wills Ordinance of Sri Lanka; taking the testator's instructions on the disposition of their property on death; drafting a will that accurately reflects those instructions and is legally valid; reading the will to the testator; the testator acknowledging the will before the Notary in the presence of two witnesses; attesting the will; entering the will in the Protocol; the Sri Lanka property-owning population generates significant demand for professionally drafted, notarially attested wills — particularly as the awareness of the consequences of dying intestate (without a valid will) has grown
• Powers of attorney — preparing and attesting powers of attorney (general and special); a power of attorney grants another person (the attorney-in-fact or agent) the authority to act in a defined capacity on behalf of the donor (the principal); in Sri Lanka, powers of attorney are commonly used for: overseas Sri Lankans authorising a local agent to manage property transactions on their behalf (particularly important given the significant Sri Lanka diaspora in the Middle East; UK; Australia; Canada who own property in Sri Lanka); corporate powers of attorney for business authorisations; property management delegations; the attestation of the power of attorney by a Notary Public is the legal formality that gives it validity under Sri Lanka law
• Partition deeds and survey-based conveyancing — preparation and attestation of partition deeds under the Partition Law No. 21 of 1977; these are deeds executed following a Court-ordered partition of co-owned land, allocating defined portions of the partitioned land to each co-owner; working with licensed surveyors to ensure the deed accurately describes the surveyed plots; filing the partition deed with the Land Registry to effect separate title registration
• Deeds of gift and donation — attestation of deeds of gift (where a donor transfers property without consideration — as a gift — to a donee); common in family property transfers (parent to child); deeds of gift of land require the same notarial attestation as deeds of sale; ensuring that the gift is not made under undue influence and that the donor has capacity to give
• Lease and hire-purchase agreements — notarial attestation of long-term lease agreements (leases of land for more than one year are required to be in notarial form under the Prevention of Frauds Ordinance); commercial lease agreements for business premises; hire-purchase agreements (attestation for certain moveable property transactions)
• Corporate notarial instruments — notarial certification of corporate resolutions; powers of attorney for corporate entities; notarial certification of documents for international use (particularly for Sri Lanka companies operating internationally or dealing with foreign counterparts who require notarial certification under their domestic law; notarial apostille certificates for international use under the Hague Apostille Convention)
• Land Registry coordination — lodging registered instruments at the Land Registry; managing the Land Registry registration process for clients; dealing with Land Registry queries and requisitions on lodged documents; the Land Registry interface is a major operational function of Sri Lanka conveyancing practice; knowledge of Land Registry procedures (registration fees; duplicate certificate of title (DCT) issues; encumbrance searches; mortgage registration) is essential for effective notarial practice
• Title investigation — reviewing the chain of title for property being transferred; conducting searches at the Land Registry (encumbrance search — identifying mortgages; charges; caveats; leases; other encumbrances that affect the title); reviewing the full history of title (from the earliest deed on record through successive transfers to the present vendor); identifying title defects that must be addressed before a safe transfer can be completed; title investigation is the most legally demanding aspect of conveyancing practice
• Notarial protocol maintenance — the Notary must maintain a Protocol (register) of all instruments attested; the Protocol entries are the permanent record of every notarial act; Protocols are preserved for many decades and serve as the primary archive of property and personal legal history; the discipline of Protocol maintenance is a legal obligation; Notaries who fail to maintain their Protocols correctly risk disciplinary action and the undermining of the evidentiary value of their attestations