Notary chambers – new legal form of economic entity

The Federal law №12-FL as of 07.02.2017 was amended the Chapter One of the Civil Code of RF in part of introduction of a special legal form for the Federal Notary Chamber and notary chambers of the RF subjects. The amendments have come into force since February 7, 2017.

Before adoption of these amendments notary chambers were classified by legal form as non-profit organizations, such as associations and unions.

Activity of notary chambers as legal entities is regulated with the Fundamentals of the legislation of the Russian Federation on the notariate, assembling a set of features and differences by the legal status. Notaries and notary chambers are not subsidiary responsible by their liabilities. Versus associations or unions with sole management body, notaries’ philosophy is based upon self-ruling and collegiateness, i.e. the general meeting of members, president and management council control a notary chamber.

At the same time, according to the Federal law №7-FL as of 12.01.1996 “On non-profit organizations”, members of association or union are subsidiary responsible by their liabilities, the amount of which should be provided in the constituent documents.

Under the adopted Federal law, notary chambers, including the Federal Notary Chamber, are out of associations and unions to resolve the contradictions.

According to the adopted amendments, notary chambers are non-profit corporate organizations. Legal state, procedure of establishment and activity are regulated with the legislation on the notariate.

The Federal law also specified a number of definitions: notary chamber is determined as non-profit organization – professional union with compulsory membership; and notary chamber of the RF subject is a professional union with compulsory membership of practicing notaries. The Federal Notary Chamber is their professional union and is based on compulsory membership too.

Currently the documents of notary chambers are bringing to conformity with the adopted amendments.

The Federal Notary Chamber unifies 84 notary chambers of the RF subjects.

According to the Information and Analytical system Globas-i^® 65 notary chambers and over 5800 notaries engaged in private practice are officially registered in Russia.