Good for each other

Third Tuesday of September. The briefcase opens again. The Minister of Finance arrives at the House of Representatives and presents the Budget Memorandum and the National Budget. What follows is a day full of figures, plans, and policy intentions. Important for the Netherlands. But at least as important: what do all those plans mean for you? For your wallet, your business, your family?

Come to the inheritance law information meeting hosted by MAES civil-law notaries on Tuesday, January 20, 2026. You'll receive free tips & tricks to help keep your assets (such as home equity) within the family and prevent them from disappearing unnecessarily into the national treasury. Register now! Participation is on a first-come, first-served basis. It's full. Beware. There are "fake notaries" operating in the region. They are commercially driven salespeople, like door-to-door salespeople, who cleverly try to foist useless wills and other products on often vulnerable consumers in rented rooms and at people's homes. Stay away from them. Such individuals, often not always honest, are unskilled, not subject to disciplinary law, and not subject to the strict professional and behavioral rules that apply to (real) notaries.

Our notary has worked in the notarial field for over 30 years. Together, our entire staff has several centuries of notarial experience. (Candidate) civil-law notaries are subject to disciplinary law. They must be able to justify their actions before the "Chamber for the Notary." This disciplinary court issues a ruling, in short, on whether a civil-law notary acted in accordance with the rules that apply to their profession ("as befits a civil-law notary"). In over 30 years, our civil-law notary has never had to answer to a disciplinary court. No disciplinary complaint has ever been filed against him. We have a complaints procedure. Such a complaint can, for example, concern the amount of the invoice. If a complainant cannot reach an agreement with the civil-law notary, they can submit the (non-disciplinary) complaint to the Notary Disputes Committee. This has only happened four times in the past 33 years at our civil-law notary. In all four of those cases, the Disputes Committee deemed the complaint unfounded. In the fourth and final case, the Disputes Committee issued a decision on August 22, 2025, and the ruling was sent to the complainant and the civil-law notary on October 17, 2025. Some complainants – unhindered by any knowledge – attach more value to their own judgment than to that of the Disputes Committee, the disciplinary judge or the civil court and often vent their anger, sometimes under a fake profile, by way of a review on Google. Read below about the Disputes Committee's decision and how we handle such unfair reviews.