We recently reported two key changes to the legalisation services offered by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (“FCO”).  These changes have implications for most notary clients seeking an Apostille. Often clients and foreign lawyers refer to this as Apostillisation.  Many of our London notary clients asked for further advice and guidance regarding the FCO’s postal application service.  This article sets out the implications for notary public clients using the FCO’s legalisation office in Milton Keynes to obtain an Apostille.

FCO postal service

The FCO has indicated that approximately 60% of customers already submit their applications for legalisation via post. For these customers the new legalisation procedure is intended to provide benefits as the target turn around time for “straight forward applications” is planned to be 24 hours rather than the previous 48 hours.  However the experience of a number of our notary clients is that this reduced service time for obtaining Apostilles has not been consistently maintained since introduction at the beginning of April 2011.

FCO Public Counter

As approximately 30% of customers travelled in person to submit their applications via the Legalisation public counter these customers have had this service removed from them.  The alternative for these customers is to use a legalisation agent such as M D Pryke Notary Public LLP.  Registered legalisation agents still have a business counter service available to them so that documents can be delivered, legalised and collected within the same day.

FCO Premium Service

This service remains unaffected.  This service is only open to registered businesses. Therefore individuals looking to take advantage of this efficient service should engage the services of a legalisation agent such as London Notary Public Matthew Pryke.

Apostille Fees

In addition to increasing the legalisation fees the FCO are also encouraging on-line payments as a more convenient and cost-effective method.  Notary clients applying to the Milton Keynes office will still be able to pay by bankers’ draft, postal order and business cheques.  However if the amounts are incorrect or a document within a batch of documents are not entirely correct then the whole matter will be rejected by the FCO and returned to the client.

Given the changes which have been introduced by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office many more notary clients are taking advantage of the cost effective legalisation services offered by London notaries.  The ability for Notary Public practices to provide certainty regarding timings and cost is not only appealing to most clients but absolutely essential.

For further details of the legalisation and notarial services offered by London Notary Public practice M D Pryke Notary Public LLP or for further information on how to get documents legalised please refer to the website at www.mdpryke-notary.com.

Notary London firm, MD Pryke Notary Public LLP would like to pass on details of the Christmas and New Year opening hours for the Legalisation offices in Milton Keynes and Central London.

The Foreign and Commonwealth office advise that both Legalisation offices will operate as usual, up to and including Thursday 23 December 2010.

Milton Keynes – Norfolk House:

24 December: 09.30 to 14.00

27 December: Closed

28 December: Closed

29 December: Closed

30 December: 09.30 to 15.30

31 December: 09.30 to 14.00

03 December: Closed

04 December: 09.30 to 15.30

We are further advised that every Notary in London with documents to legalise on behalf of their clients must submit these documents by 15.00 on Thursday 23 December, in order that they can be legalised by Christmas.

Any Notary in London that wishes to have documents legalised before New Year must submit them prior to 15.00 on 30 December.

A Notary in London who wishes to legalise business documents on behalf of their clients must, as ever, submit them to the Centre Point offices in London.

The opening hours for the Centre point offices are as follows:

24 December: 09.00 to 14.00

27 December: Closed

28 December: Closed

29 December: Closed

30 December: 09.00 to 15.30

31 December: 09.00 to 14.00

03 December: Closed

04 December: 09.00 to 15.30

Notaries in London wishing to work around the FCO’s holiday hours are advised that on Christmas Eve they will accept documents received in the morning postal delivery and collect and return those taken in on 23 December.

For further information on the Notary information displayed here, please contact the Foreign and Commonwealth Office directly, or MD Pryke Notary Public LLP on 0207 636 4422.

Free deed poll name change is a term commonly typed into Internet search engines. Sadly however, many sites that profess to offer a free Deed Poll download subsequently charge for the service once you examine the small print on their websites.

At MD Pryke Notary Public LLP members of the public often contact us to enquire whether our free deed poll service is genuinely available at no charge and whether they have to be in the London area in order to take advantage of our offer.

To clarify our position we can categorically state that our Deed Poll document is provided completely free of charge to the public.  There’s no catch to worry about, just a genuinely gratis deed poll name change document for UK citizens, which is available free to download and is totally legally binding.

Simply download the name change document at http://www.mdpryke-notary.com/2010/08/changing-name-by-deed-poll and fill it in using the easily understood directions.

As discussed in a response to a client’s questions which can be viewed at http://www.mdpryke-notary.com/2010/09/deed-poll-name-change-storm-on-x-factor it is essential that you follow the steps as described and that you sign the deed poll in front of a witness.

A Notary Public or solicitor is not required, but it must be witnessed by a third party in order that your free name change by deed poll process becomes legally binding and recongnised in any court in England and Wales.

For further details on our free deed poll service please contact MD Pryke Notary Public LLP on 0207 636 4422, or through the usual channels.

Notary Public London Guides usually focus on complex topics such as: power of attorney, the legalisation process, apostilles, or changing a name by Deed Poll.  Our aim is to break down a complex process or piece of legislation into easily understood sections, providing our readers with a broad overview upon which to make an informed decision.

MD Pryke Notary Public LLP, was recently approached by a US citizen visiting the UK, enquiring whether we offered a London mobile notary service, who then requested we meet him in Manchester.  Unfortunately, we were not able to fulfil his request but as mobile notary service is a term commonly typed into search engines, we thought that it may be useful to explore what distance a member of the public can expect a Notary Public in London to travel in order to meet clients.

As discussed in previous Notary Public London Guides, MD Pryke Notary Public LLP is based in the City of Westminster, and we will travel to our clients’ homes or business addresses in Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster, Hammersmith and Fulham, Camden, Islington, Wandsworth, Lambeth and Southwark.

London is such a densely populated city that any reputable London Notary will most likely offer a mobile service in order to process a notarial matter.  Notary fees vary widely however so please remember that an additional cost may be incurred if a client requests a mobile notary service.

For further details on Notary fees or any of the issues covered in this guide, please contact MD Pryke Notary Public LLP on 0207 636 4422.

Notary Public in London Guides, recently published two articles on money laundering regulations.  The first article described the process whereby criminals re-introduce the proceeds of their crime back into the fiscal system, the second Notary Public London Guide laid out an overview of the 2002 Proceeds of Crime Act and how it affects Notaries Public.

In this second article we advised fellow notaries in London and across England and Wales to contact the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) should they have suspicions regarding the integrity of any notarial transaction.

The feedback we received from fellow Notaries Public in London was that many Notaries are unsure of the correct procedure for contacting SOCA.

A Notary should contact SOCA the very moment they suspect a transaction may be unlawful and it is strongly advised that a suspicious Notary should make a report via the SOCA website at www.soca.gov.uk .  In urgent cases a Notary may contact them by telephone or fax but we are advised that a duty officer may not be trained to give legal advice.

SOCA contact details are:

Telephone – 020 7238 8282
Fax – 020 7238 8286

If SOCA are alerted prior to a Notarial transaction taking place, the Notary is not permitted to act unless they have not had a response from SOCA in 8 working days.  After this period consent can be assumed and the transaction may proceed.

If SOCA contact the Notary in question within this 8 day timeframe then the transaction may not be completed for a further 31 days.

For further information please contact MD Pryke Notary Public LLP.

This Notary Public London Guide is the second article in a series about money laundering.  The first article dealt with the various stages of the financial process whereby criminals reintroduce the proceeds of their crime back into the monetary system.

This Notary Public London Guide tackles some aspects of the ‘Proceeds of Crime Act’ of 2002 and the implications for Notaries Public in England and Wales.

The act established three principle areas of money laundering, namely:

• Arrangements
• Acquisition
• Concealing

Any Notary Public in London (or elsewhere) must disclose any suspicions to the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) as soon as these concerns become apparent. Furthermore, the transaction will not be able to proceed until SOCA has given its consent.

A Notary Public must be aware that under the terms of the 2002 Act mentioned previously, the law applies to the passive possession of criminally acquired property and proceeds, and there are rather draconian measures awaiting those who fail to comply with the current regulations.

A Notary in breach of one of the principle offences mentioned above, risks a maximum punishment of a 14 year prison sentence and a large fine.  Any Public Notary who commits a ‘failure to disclose’ offence, or is found guilty either of ‘tipping off’ a criminal or behaving in a manner that might be construed as obstructing an investigation, faces a maximum jail term of 5 years and the possibility of a fine.

As ever, this Notary Public in London guide is intended to be a broad overview of an extremely complex piece of legislation.  Should you have any concerns about money laundering, MD Pryke Notary Public LLP strongly advise you to contact the Serious Organised Crime Agency.

Notaries Public have to be aware of the current money laundering regulations and conduct their business accordingly.  Money laundering is something of a hot topic in law circles at the moment so MD Pryke Notary Public LLP has produced a series of articles designed to provide both Notaries and their clients with a broad understanding of the issues involved.

So, let’s tackle the definition of money laundering.  When the criminal receives the proceeds of crime they must search for a way to legitimise their windfall.  They do this by placing their money back into the financial system in order to disguise its origins and to appear as if it were the proceeds of a legitimate financial transaction.

This initial ‘placement’ of monies is often the easiest stage to detect that a crime has taken place so a Notary Public will take steps to ensure that they receive the correct level of identification before they can properly act.  If they suspect the motives of a client who, for example, wishes only to deal in cash without providing a reason for so doing, a Notary Public in London (or elsewhere, for that matter) is obliged to report their suspicions to the relevant authorities.  The procedure for this and the relevant contact details of the organisations involved will be published in future Notary Public London Guides.

The next stage in the money laundering process is often called layering, which is where a criminal will try to pass the money through a bewildering array of transactions designed to obscure its origins.

The final stage of which a Notary Public must be aware is the process of integration, whereby the criminal attempts to reintroduce the proceeds of his crime back into circulation, most often through a property transaction or by establishing a trading company.

For further details of money laundering regulations and how they affect a Notary Public in London, please contact Matthew Pryke through the usual channels or by calling 0207 636 4422.

Notary Public London Guides recently published an article detailing how to become a Notary Public in the UK.  This article stated some of the areas of study along with details of the examination process to become a fully qualified UK Notary Public.

As any Notary Public in London will tell you, once qualified it is still necessary to obtain a yearly practising certificate from the Faculty Office (the regulatory body for Notaries Public) in order to conduct notarial business.  As ever, the rules of the Faculty Office are stringent and each Notary Public is required to submit information on a variety of topics, confirming, amongst other matters, that:

• They act independently from any Law firm
• The Notary holds the minimum amount of indemnity insurance, currently set at £750,000
• The Notary is aware of current money laundering regulations and will run their practice accordingly
• They hold a current practicing certificate as a Solicitor

Once the Faculty office is satisfied that the petitioning Notary meets their criteria, they issue a yearly practicing certificate which currently costs £350.

For further details of how to qualify as a Notary Public, contact Matthew on 02076364422.

The recent Supreme Court ruling in favour of German heiress Katrin Radmacher has significant ramifications for family law in the UK.  The judges upheld a pre-nuptial contract signed in Germany with her French husband, which reduced his divorce settlement by 80%.

Notary Public in London, Matthew Pryke, advises that, while many commentators feel that this effectively introduces pre-nuptial contracts into English law, those who hold shared assets abroad should always consult a Notary Public to ensure that the relevant paperwork is correct.

For example, should a married couple live in London but also own a property in Spain, they should visit a Notary Public in London to ensure that if one of the couple die, the Spanish courts would still observe their will.

London NotaryPublic, Matthew says, ‘It’s always advisable to consult a Notary Public when dealing with any situation where a shared asset is registered in a foreign country.  The rules can be quite complex, but a Notary will be able to advise on the best course of action.’

For further information on notarising documents relating to shared assets in a foreign country, contact Notary Public in London Matthew Pryke, on 0207 6364422, or via the contact form on his website.

The Notary Public London Guide has previously mentioned the Deed Poll name change controversy on the ITV show, X Factor, when Simon Cowell refused to call a contestant by the name ‘Storm’.

We pointed out that not only is a name change by Deed Poll completely legal, and that Simon Cowell was incorrect to refuse to call the singer by his new name, but also what an easy process changing a name could be.  So we were delighted to learn this week that in a follow up show to the X Factor, Simon Cowell signed a Deed Poll name change document himself.

After ascertaining that he could hold the contract himself, Cowell signed the forms to declare that he would officially be called ‘Lightening’, albeit for a 24 hour period.

It’s only a pity that ITV didn’t approach MD Pryke Notary Public LLP for our free Deed Poll name change document, but we’re delighted that it highlights just how easy the process can be.

In fact, if one takes a strict legal view, you needn’t fill out any documentation if you decide to be known by a new name, the purpose of a Deed Poll is to provide an official form with which to notify various agencies of your new moniker, such as Credit companies and passport services.

To change a name using our free legal name change service simply follow the links on this page or call MD Pryke Notary Public LLP on 0207 6364422 for more details.