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Notary Public, England & Wales
FAST & AGILE – 7 DAYS PER WEEK – SAME DAY SERVICE
NOTARIZATION OF US DOCUMENTS
NOTARIZATION/NOTARISATION OF DOCUMENTS FOR USE IN US AND ALL OTHER COUNTRIES
INDIVIDUALS & CORPORATE
SPEEDY APOSTILLE SERVICE
ONLINE ELECTRONIC NOTARISATION
+ E-APOSTILLE
NB: AS OF 2 JANUARY 2024, THE FCDO HAS CHANGED ITS APOSTILLE SERVICE. PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR DETAILS.
Having to obtain a notarisation (or, as the Yanks have it, a notarization), especially when time is of the essence, can be an aggravating and stressful endeavour. I can hopefully help take the aggro and stress out of the equation for you.
I provide a mobile Notary service whereby I travel to you via motorcycle anywhere in London convenient for you. I can also meet with you outside of London although in this case I have to tack on round-trip transportation costs from London and a travel charge.
I’m a Yank-Brit, a dual US and UK citizen, comprising, of course, the best attributes of both countries and cultures.
And just a linguistic heads-up: Winston Churchill once remarked that the US and the UK are “two countries divided by a common language”. The Yanks spell notarization with a “z” whereas the Brits spell notarisation with an “s”. Go figure.
Also – a quick note to explain the difference between a US Notary and a UK Notary: a US Notary Public is simply an individual aged 18 years or older who has taken a brief multiple choice test and pays approximately $15 per year to use a stamp to confirm people’s signatures on documents – whereas a Notary Public in England & Wales is actually a qualified lawyer, a member of the third and oldest branch of the legal profession, sitting alongside solicitors (I myself am also a solicitor) and barristers. There are only approximately 750 Notaries Public in all of England & Wales, and we are regulated by the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury which has been regulating the profession since the 1500s – yes, the time of King Henry VIII. A Notary Public in England & Wales is an international Notary, professionally trained and licensed to notarise documents for use in all countries of the world – we can also acknowledge and confirm people’s signatures on documents but, as qualified lawyers, we can do a whole lot more than that.
Some further info regarding my mobile Notary service is set out below – if any additional info would be helpful, just give me a shout.
As a Notary Public in England & Wales, I am regulated through the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Fees
I charge £100 for a notarisation which includes the cost of traveling to the client in London (anywhere within London Zone 2), and, if more than one notarisation is required, I charge £60 for each additional notarisation. For areas of London beyond Zone 2, I add a surcharge of £20.
If Apostilles (issued by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office) are required for the documents to be notarised, as I’m registered with the FCDO, I can also obtain the Apostilles for you.
In October 2023 the UK Government made the rather bizarre decision to permanently close the FCDO’s London Same Day Apostille Service office on 29 December 2023 (despite the fact that this office made an annual profit of approx £7 million per year for the UK Government). For this Same Day Apostille option – which is now no longer available – the FCDO used to charge a fee (payable directly to the FCDO) of £75 per Apostille.
As of 2 January 2024, the FCDO will only issue Apostilles via their head office located in Milton Keynes, approx 60 miles from London – and there are 2 options:
(1) An expedited “Next Day” Apostille service which is only accessible to businesses registered with the FCDO that have been specifically approved by the FCDO to access the service. My Notary Public practice – dotted line global – is one of the only registered businesses that has been approved by the FCDO to access and utilize this expedited service. This option would work as follows: I would meet with you and notarise the documents and I would then submit the notarised documents – on the following business day – at the FCDO’s Milton Keynes office – whereupon the FCDO would advise me to return to their Milton Keynes office on the following business day and collect the Apostilled documents – which I would then do and, thereafter, either deliver the notarised and Apostilled documents to you in London – or, alternatively, ship the documents via FedEx or DHL elsewhere (in which case I would tack on a shipping fee).
For this expedited service, the FCDO charges a fee of £40 per Apostille (payable directly to the FCDO) and I charge an additional fee of £200 to submit the notarised documents to the FCDO, collect the Apostilled documents from the FCDO on the following business day, and deliver the notarised and Apostilled documents to you in London.
(2) A postal Apostille service – this option is less expensive but it takes approx 15 days to receive the Apostilles. This option would work as follows: I would meet with you and notarise the documents and then the documents would be sent via overnight post to the FCDO’s Milton Keynes office and the FCDO would then post the Apostilled documents back to you in approx 15 days. For this option, the FCDO charges a fee of £45 per Apostille. You could either handle this option yourself via the FCDO’s website – and I could show you how to do so at the time we meet – or, alternatively, I could handle this option for you – in which case I would charge an additional fee of £50 – plus Next Day Delivery postage fees to and from the FCDO of approx £15 – plus a shipping fee in the event you wanted me to send the notarised and Apostilled documents elsewhere.
The FCDO has recently launched an electronic e-Apostille service (provided in tandem with an electronic notarisation platform recently launched by the Notaries Society in conjunction with DocuSign) for which the FCDO charges a fee of £35 per Apostille. I can provide this new online electronic notarisation procedure, however, it’s critical to check beforehand with the party requesting the notarisation to ensure that he/she/it will accept an electronic notarisation and an e-Apostille – as many individuals and entities are not yet agreeing to do so – insisting instead on actual wet signatures on actual hard copy paper.
I do not charge VAT – and the FCDO does not charge VAT for the Apostilles.
In the event that additional services are required (e.g., the drafting of documents, research, translating), additional charges would apply and they would be calculated using my hourly rate of £300 as a reference point.
Printing, scanning, posting and shipping (if required) would also incur additional fees.
Insurance
As required by the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury (which has been regulating the profession since the 1500s), I maintain Professional Indemnity Insurance cover with a liability cap of £1 million.
Complaints Procedure
My notarial practice is regulated through the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury:
The Faculty Office of the
Archbishop of Canterbury
1 The Sanctuary
Westminster
London
SW1P 3JT
020 7222 5381
faculty.office@1thesanctuary.com
If you are dissatisfied about the service you have received please do not hesitate to contact me.
If I am unable to resolve the matter you may then complain to the Notaries Society, of which I am a member, who have a Complaints Procedure which is approved by the Faculty Office. This procedure is free to use and is designed to provide a swift resolution to any dispute.
If you wish to avail yourself of this option, please submit your complaint in writing to:
The Secretary of The Notaries Society
PO Box 1023
Ipswich
IP1 9XB
01908 803527
secretary@thenotariessociety.org.uk
If you have any difficulty in making a complaint in writing please do not hesitate to contact the Notaries Society and/or the Faculty Office for assistance.
If, after having your complaint considered under the Notaries Society Approved Complaints Procedure, you are unhappy with the result, you may at the end of that procedure, or after a period of 8 weeks from the date you first notified me that you were dissatisfied, make your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman:
Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6806
Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ
0300 555 0333
enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
www.legalombudsman.org.uk
If you elect to make a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, you must refer your matter to the Legal Ombudsman within one year from the act/omission or within one year from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.