Sorry for all the questions, I'm trying to get this done and being pressured a bit to get moving (even though I have not been home for even a week yet) Did any of you guys use any sort of legal service for your closing? Did you use an Aruban service? Or a legal rep local to where you live? I called 2 lawyers I know and both were reluctant.
Thanks in advance for your help and sorry if this too should be a more private matter.
Aruban Law requires that all Aruba real estate transfers are handled by an Aruban Notary. In Aruba (and Holland), a Notary is an Attorney that specializes in real estate law.
I believe there are two firms in Aruba, and you must use one of the two firms.
Actually a Notary in Aruba is simply a party who translates legal documents into acceptable legal form (in Dutch).
For example a person who owns a business in Aruba needs to present a legal paper or contract to another party for whatever reason. They hire a Notary and deliver to the Notary a document that says "exactly what they want the contract to say" and the Notary then will make it read in the correct legal format. It is up to the person who has hired the Notary to approve of the exact wording after the fact. Several people (who I have asked about the Notary process) have told me that quite often the Notary has made mistakes on property addresses and even misspelled names in their contract documents. It is entirely up to the person hiring the Notary to thoroughly read the documents and point out those mistakes (and the document is then rewritten) before they pay the Notary fees. Paying the Notary fee is considered acceptance of what was written by the Notary. The Notary simply prepares documents so they can be in the correct form to become law.
The misconception of the Notary as a litigating Attorney has (in my opinion) been purposely perpetuated to outsiders to make documents seem "more" legal. When in actuality the document is exactly what was written by the party that paid the Notary. This makes the term "approved by the Notary" seem as if the Notary had some type of legal approval of the contract's contents - when, in fact, you can actually make the contract say whatever you want and the Notary will make it into a legally acceptable form for the Aruba legal system - with no changes of the basic terms or contents on any legal grounds.
Lawyer
Posted - 09/09/2011 : 4:13:35 PM
