Laws of the Guangdong Province

Regulations of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone on Notarization

(Originally adopted at the thirty-third meeting of the second Standing Committee of Shenzhen Municipal People' s Congress on June 30,1999, as revised in accordance with the Decision on Revision of Regulation of Shenzhen Economic Zone on Notarization of the eleventh meeting of the third Standing Committee of Shenzhen Municipal People' s Congress on October 17,2001.)

Chapter ¢ñ General  Provisions

Article 1 In order to normalize notarial acts, to prevent and reduce disputes, and protect the state interests and lawful rights and interests of citizens, legal persons and other organizations, these regulations are formulated in accordance with the provisions of national laws and regulations concerned and the actual circumstances of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (hereinafter referred to as "Special Zone" ).

Article 2 "Notarization" in these regulations means the acts that the notary office proves the truth and legality of legal acts, matters and documents according to law.

Article 3 "Notary office" means the special certification institution that uniformly exercises the national certification rights according to law.

Article 4 The notary office shall keep secrets of the parties when dealing with notarization affairs.

The notary shall implement the operation in accordance with the facts, national laws and practicing disciplines.

Article 5 The judicial administrative organ of Shenzhen Municipal People' s Government (hereinafter referred to as "municipal judicial administrative organ" ) takes charge of the notarial work of Special Zone.

The judicial administrative organ of each district takes charge of the notarial work in the district.

The notarial association is a social organization that is registered and established according to law and assists the municipal judicial administrative organ to administrate the notarial trade.

The municipal judicial administrative organ guides and supervises the work of the notarial association.

Chapter ¢ò Notary Agency and Notary

Article 6 The notary is the legal professional that specially deals with the notarial affairs.

The notary shall have passed the national examination and obtained the practicing qualification according to relevant national provisions.

Article 7 The notary office is the working place where the notary practices.

There is no relation of administrative subordination among notary offices.

Article 8 The director, whose post shall be notary, assumes overall responsibility for the work of notary office.

Article 9 The notary office shall carry out independent accountability.

The notary office shall set up career developing fund and compensation fund.

Article 10 The establishment of the municipal notarial association, and the election, appointment and removal of director or permanent director shall conform to the constitution of notarial association.

The notary office and notary shall join in the municipal notarial association and pay membership fees according to the constitution of the municipal notarial association.

Article 11 The municipal notarial association shall protect the notary' s lawful rights and interests, organize the business training and communication, and assist the municipal judicial administrative organ to implement direction and supervision over the notary' s operation.

The notarial association shall assist the municipal judicial administrative organ to implement annual examination, registration and punishment over the notary.

Chapter ¢ó Jurisdiction of Notarization

Article 12 The notarial affairs shall be within the jurisdiction of the notary office in this city if the party' s domicile or the place of judicial facts locates in this city.

The notarial affairs may be within the jurisdiction of the notary office in this city if the party' s habitual residence locates in this city, although his domicile is outside.

Article 13 The civil notarial affairs involving the personal relation of the party shall be within the jurisdiction of the municipal notary office or the notary office of the district where the party' s domicile locates.

The notarization of realty in this city shall be within the jurisdiction of the municipal notary office or the notary office of the district where the realty locates, except that the realty is involved in the will, certificate of entrustment, letter of donation or letter of declaration made out of this city.

Article 14 The notarization of domestic adoption that the domicile of the adoptive parent locates in the city shall be within the jurisdiction of the municipal notary office or the notary office of the district where the domicile of adoptive parent locates.

The notarization of adoption concerning foreigners shall be within the jurisdiction of the notary office designated by the national judicial administrative organ if the adoptee' s domicile locates in this city.

Article 15 The identical notarial affairs shall be dealt with by the same notary office.

The party may selectively apply to one notary office for the notarial affairs if more than two notary offices have rights to deal with, and the notarial affairs shall be dealt with by the notary office that accepts it first.

Article 16 The notary offices shall resolve the jurisdictional dispute through consultation. If the dispute can' t be resolved through consultation, their common superior judicial administrative organ shall designate the jurisdiction.

Charter ¢ô Notarial Business and Effect of Notarization

Article 17 The notary office shall conduct the notarization with the party' s application.

Article 18 The following legal acts shall be notarized:

(1) donation and inheritance of realty;

(2) inheritance and donation of registered valuable securities;

(3) transfer of property rights and stock right of an enterprise, unless approved or conformed by the governmental administrative department of state-owed assets;

(4) invitation and submission of bids of key project invested by the government;

(5) other conditions that have to be notarized, as prescribed by laws and regulations.

Article 19 The notary office may conduct drawing business of currency, articles or valuable securities for the parties.

The party, who conducted a drawing of currency, articles or valuable securities that he shall pay in the notary office, shall be considered to have performed the obligation.

Article 20 The notary office may take interim measures of protection of evidence for the parties.

Article 21 For the document of creditor' s rights that has been notarized and accords with the following conditions, if the debtor doesn' t perform the duty, the notary office may endow it the effect of compulsory execution according to the creditor' s application:

(1) The contents of payments are the currency, articles or valuable securities;

(2) The relationship of credit and obligation is clear, and the parties have no doubt on what the document of creditor' s rights described;

(3) The debtor explicitly expresses in the document of creditor' s rights that he will voluntarily accept the compulsory execution when he does not perform the obligation.

For a document of creditor' s right endowed the effort of compulsory execution, the creditor may apply to the competent court for compulsory execution according to relevant provisions in civil procedure law. The court applied to shall enforce the document.

If the people' s court finds definite errors in the document of creditor' s rights endowed the effect of compulsory execution, it shall make an order not to allow the execution, and serve the order on both parties as well as the notary office.

Article 22 The notarial certificate has the certification effect in law, and shall be the basis that the people' s court, arbitral institution or administrative organ ascertains a fact, unless the relevant party submits the adverse proof to overthrow it.

The notarial certificate can' t be altered or rescinded unless in accordance with the legal procedure.

Article 23 When performing the duty, the notary shall take the practicing certificate of notary of the People' s Republic of China printed by the judicial administrative organ of State Department.

The notary has a right to hold the effective certificate to investigate and collect the evidence from relevant unit and individual.

Chapter ¢õ  Procedure of Notarization

Article 24 The citizens, legal persons or other organizations shall apply to or entrust an agent to apply to the notary office for a notarization.

The notarial affairs concerning entrustment, announcement, donation, will, legacy-support agreement, adoption, acknowledgement of offspring, survival or others closely involving the person shall not be entrusted to an agent. If the party does have difficulty to be present in the notary office, the notary may go to the party' s locality to handle the notarial affairs.

Article 25 The notary office shall accept the following applications:

(1) The applicant has the interests with the affair;

(2) This affair is in the range of notary business;

(3) This affair is within the jurisdiction of the notary office.

Article 26 The notary shall withdraw under following conditions when handling the notarial affairs:

(1) He is the party or the party' s near relative in the notarial affair;

(2) He has the interests with the notarial affair;

(3) He has other relationship with the party that may have effect on handling the notarial affair correctly.

The provisions of the preceding paragraph shall be applicable to the assistant notary, interpreter and appraiser.

Article 27 The party or his agent may make an application to the notary office in writing or verbally for a withdrawal before signing for the notarial document.

The withdrawal of director of notary office shall be decided by the judicial administrative organ of the same level. The withdrawal of other notaries shall be decided by the director of notary office.

Article 28 After accepting the application of notarization, the notary office shall examine the indentification and civil capacity of the parties, and shall examine the authenticity and legality of the facts and evidences.

If the evidences and documents are not complete or are doubtful, the notary office shall demand the applicant to supplement or clarify them. If the applicant has difficulty in adducing evidences, the notary office may be entrusted by the party to investigate and collect them.

Article 29 When handling natarial affairs, the notary office has the right to investigate the archives, documents and asserts involving the notarial affairs, and inspect the material evidence or scene. The units and individuals concerned shall provide help.

Article 30 For the natarial affairs that have clear facts, enough evidences and accord with the provisions of law, the notary office shall make a notary certificate within 5 working days upon the date accepting the application.

For notarial affairs that need to make an investigation for a check, the period of making a certificate can be extended to 10 working days.

For difficult and complicated notarial affairs, the time limit of making a certificate can be extended appropriately with the approval of director of notary office, but shall not exceed 30 working days at the longest.

The delaying period caused by force majeure, other accidents or the applicant' s adding the evidences is not included in the time limit prescribed in the preceding paragraph.

Article 31 The notary office shall refuse to issue the notary certificate to false or illegal notarial affairs, and shall notify the party in writing within 5 working days.

If the party provides the false documents, the notary office shall have the right to refuse the application and shall report it to the judicial administrative organ, which shall notify the other notary offices in this city. The other notary offices shall not accept the notified application.

Article 32 The notary certificate shall be made according to prescribed format.

The words of testimonial shall be explicit and concrete.

Article 33 The notary certificate shall be drawn from the notary office by the party or his agent. If they have difficulty in doing so, the notary certificate can be dispatched by the notary office.

The party or his agent shall sign or affix their seals to the proof of service. If the notary certificate is dispatched by making service via mail, the date upon receiving the certificate marked out on the proof of service shall be the dispatching date.

Article 34 The notary certificate shall take effect as of the date upon approved by the approving authority. The date of making the notary certificate shall be the approved date.

Article 35 The notary office shall revoke any false or illegal notary certificate issued by it. The judicial administrative organ has the right to revoke any false or illegal certificate issued by notary offices under its administrations.

Article 36 The notary office shall stop conducting the notarization, if one of the following conditions:

(1) The party withdraws the application before the notary certificate takes effect;

(2) Conducting the notarization can' t go on or has been meaningless because the party died or the legal person, other organization ended.

Article 37 The party or interested party, who disagrees with not accepting the application, refusing to notarize and revoking or refusing to revoke the notary certificate, may complain to the competent judicial administrative organ within 15 days. The judicial administrative organ may make the administrative decision according to provisions of these regulations.

The party or interested party, who is not satisfied with the administrative decision made by the judicial administrative organ, may apply for reconsideration to the superior judicial administrative organ or the administrative appeal authority of Shenzhen Municipal People' s Government, or appeal to the people' s court.

Article 38 The notary office shall collect service charges for handling notarial affairs according to the standard prescribed by relevant national departments.

Article 39 The notary office may reduce or exempt the charges, if one of the following conditions:

(1) handling the notarial affairs involving the pension for the disabled or for the family of the deceased, relief fund and label insurance money;

(2) handling the notarial affairs involving the public interests;

(3) other special conditions needing reduce or exempt charges.

Chapter ¢ö Legal Responsibility

Article 40 If the notary office commits any one of the following acts, the municipal judicial administrative organ shall serve a warning, and the notary office shall be confiscated thelegal income and concurrently imposed a fine of 3 to 5 times of illegal gains in case it gains:

(1) violating the provisions of these regulations involving the jurisdiction to handle notarial affairs;

(2) arbitrarily raising or reducing the standard of notarial charges to handle notarial affairs;

(3) violating the time limit prescribed in these regulations to handle natarial affairs with a delay;

(4) misappropriating the deposited money or object;

(5) refusing to establish the development fund and compensation fund of natarial cause.

Article 41 If the notary commits any one of the following acts, the municipal and district judicial administrative organ shall circulate a notice of criticism and serve a warning. In case of gross violation, the provincial judicial administrative organ shall impose a punishment of stopping implementing business for more than three months and less than one year or delaying registering for one year according to procedure:

(1) refusing to conduct a notarization;

(2) disclosing secrets of the party;

(3) issuing a wrong notarization because of delinquency, and causing no grave consequences.

Article 42 If the notary commits any one of the following acts, the municipal and district judicial administrative organ shall report to the provincial judicial administrative organ according to procedure, which shall impose a punishment of stopping implementing operation for more than three months and less than one year or delaying registering for one year. In case of gross violation, the provincial judicial administrative organ shall impose a punishment of revoking the practicing license of notary and canceling the qualification of notary, and the illegal gains shall be confiscated in case the notary gains. In case he commits a crime, he shall be removed to the judicial authority and be prosecuted for criminal responsibility:

(1) seeking illegal interests in advantage of his position of handling notarial affairs;

(2) conspiring the applicant to provide false evidences and conceal the true facts;

(3) violating provisions to conduct a notarization and causing grave consequence;

(4) taking the place of notary office to issue the notarial certificate secretly;

(5) embezzling and misappropriating money, goods or property stored in notary office;

(6) giving advice for the applicant to evade the law;

(7) conspiring other notaries to handle illegal notarial affairs.

Article 43 The notary office, which causes losses to citizens, legal persons or other organizations because of issuing the mistake notarial certificate or improperly handling notarial affairs, shall give a compensation pursuant to law. The measures of compensation shall be formulated by the judicial administrative organ.

Having paid compensation, the notary office may recover part or all of the damages from the erring notary.

Article 44 The notary office has the right to detain the false certification materials that the party provides for the notary office to obtain the notarization by fraud.

The party, who causes losses to citizens, legal persons or other organizations because of providing the false proving materials to obtain the notarization by fraud, shall be liable for compensation according to law. Having paid the compensation, the notary office has the right to recover the damages from the party.

Article 45 Having made the decision of administrative penalty according to these regulations, the judicial administrative organ shall issue the written decision of the administrative penalty. If not satisfied with the decision of penalty, the citizen, legal person or other organization may apply for reconsideration or appeal to the people' s court according to law.

Chapter ¢÷ Supplementary Provisions

Article 46 These regulations shall go into effect as of September 1, 1999.