Estonia, Legislation, Statistics

Hence the total number of notarial acts fell by approximately 20% in 2008 whereas the decrease in comparison to the year 2006 it reached 40%.

The number of notarised real estate transactions fell the most last year. In 2007, Estonian notaries attested 100,376 transactions for purchase and sale or encumbering of immovables, in the year 2008 the number was only 71,319.

In comparison to the year 2006, the number of transactions concerning real estate has fallen by 40%.

"The greatest fall in the number of real estate transactions occurred in the fourth quarter of 2008 when the number of transactions fell by nearly 3,000 in comparison to the third quarter," said the chairman of the Chamber of Notaries Anne Saaber.

She noted that the abrupt decline in the work burden has brought up the urgency of a number of problems linked to the activities of the notaries" offices which require solutions as soon as possible. "For example, it is impossible to provide high-quality legal services at the fees that have remained around 10-50 kroons for more than 15 years already," she explained.