Fiper, Fein, notarial act, transparency act, Cirbe… Applying for your mortgage means signing and submitting more paperwork than you probably have in mind, and it's easy for many of these documents to sound as familiar to you as the Elvish language or Klingon.
One of these papers is the notarial act or transparency act, and its importance is greater than you think. As you may have guessed, it has to do with the role of the notary in the signing of the mortgage. We will reveal what you need to know about it.
What is the notarial deed of the mortgage
Notarial deeds are public deed documents that “have as their content the verification of facts or the notary's perception of them, provided that by their nature they cannot be classified as acts and contracts, as well as their judgments and qualifications.”
In other words, it is a document with which the notary certifies that as a buyer you have understood the mortgage and all its terms.
What is the purpose of the notarial act?
The notarial act or transparency act is mandatory as established by the Mortgage Law of 2019. Its objective is to protect your interests as a client and guarantee the transparency of the entire process.
As part of the process to apply for a mortgage, you will have to visit the notary at least twice. These visits will allow the notary to verify that you have received all the documents with the mortgage information and, even more importantly, that you understand them.
The notary will certify that you know the terms of the loan, that you know what they mean and that you understand the risks of the operation. Among other things, what fees and interest the loan has or what happens if you stop paying the mortgage.
This is what the mortgage notarial act consists of and that is its function: for a notary to certify that the financial institution has sent you all the mortgage documentation and that you have read it and understand it.
This documentation includes the European Standardised Information Sheet (ESIS), the Standardised Warning Sheet (SWS) or the mortgage amortisation table.
Without the signed notarial act, you will not be able to sign the mortgage. That is where the importance of this document comes in.
When is the notarial act signed?
This document must be signed at least one day before the date of the mortgage deed. However, it is more common to sign it before, even during the first mandatory visit to the notary.
This first visit is for the notary to advise you on the mortgage and should be at least 10 days before signing the contract. It is normal to take advantage of it to also sign this transparency act.
How much does the notarial act cost?
This document is free of charge for you as a client, as provided for in Article 15 of the Mortgage Law.
And as always, you can even choose the notary who will be in charge of the mortgage and also of this deed. The choice of the notary is yours and no one can impose theirs on you.
How can the notary know that you understand the mortgage?
The notary's role begins by certifying that you have received all the information you need. From there, he can ask you directly if you have any questions or read the mortgage with you to make sure you understand all the concepts.
Afterwards, and regardless of how the meeting went, you will have to fill out a test that the notary will give you. This test and its result will tell the notary whether you understand the mortgage or not and depending on how it went, he will sign or not the notarial deed of the mortgage.
Beyond the notary and the notarial act, you should be able to ask the entity that offers you the mortgage to be able to explain the loan to you in a clear and transparent manner. At Hipotecas.com we are able to do this and to accompany you throughout the entire process, from when you see the house until you sign the mortgage and finish paying it off.