CHANGES OF THE PROVISIONS ON PUBLIC NOTARIES AND THE NATIONAL REGISTER OF WILLS

A bill on the amendment of the Public Notaries Act and certain judicial acts is currently under administrative discussions.

A new rule of the bill is that not only a Hungarian citizen may be become a public notary, a junior public notary or a member of a public notary office, but the citizens of any member states of the European Union or the European Economic Area. The bill would introduce the exam of the public notaries, the detailed rules of which will be included in a ministerial decree. In addition, the bill specifies the new provisions of the deposit of wills at public notaries and expressly indicates that the public notary is liable for the custody of wills.

As to the preparation of the authentication proceeding, the bill contains that the public notary requests for information about a possible will of the testator from the National Register of Wills as well as about a possible marriage contract of the testator from the Register of Marriage and Partnership Contracts.

According to the bill, at the time of deposit of a will in the Archives of the Hungarian Bar Association, the testator shall be informed on the process of his personal data in accordance with the Information Act. Furthermore, in case of adopting the bill, until 31 December 2017 the Hungarian Bar Association shall transfer the data of the wills deposited in the Archives of the Hungarian Bar Association to the Hungarian Chamber of Notaries Public keeping the National Register of Wills.