Regulatory background

• Author: Schmid, Christoph U.; Pinkel, Tobias
• Pages: 9-15

Consum er mar ket stud y on the fun ctio ning of the r eal estate servi ces for consum ers in the EU – Coun try Fiche Th e Net herlan ds

9

1. Regulat ory backgrou nd

1.1 Lev el of regulat ion in the country

Ta ble 1: L eve l o f reg ula tion

Lev el of re gu lat ion

Sou rce of re lev ant

le gisl ation

On going discu ssion on re gu lat ion / de re gul ati on (i f

ap pli cab le) : cu rre nt st ate of aff air s a nd ma in

ar gum ent s in the de bat e

Re al esta te

tr a nsactions 2

Regulat ed

Dutch Civil Code ( BW), Book 3

and 5

The man datory inv olvement of not aries i n t he

con veya ncin g pr ocess is debated 3. I t is arg ued th at th e

pr esent syst em pr otects consum ers t oo l itt le, si nce a

bindi ng sales con tra ct can be concl uded befo re a not ary is

in volv ed. Howe ver, the m and ator y i nvolv emen t of not aries

at the st age of t he conclu sion of t he co ntr act wo uld lead to

add itional cost s. On the o ther side, legal adv ice at least at

th at stat e is arg ued to be n ecessary and th e not ary sy stem

is supp osed to ensur e t he co rrectness of the l and regi ster .

No ta ry syst em ( or

la w ye r/ conv eya nce r

syst em ) 4

De-Reg ulat ed ( part y r egulat ed)

Law of th e Nota ry Office ( Wna)

It is h ighl y co ntr over sial w het her the der egul ation of th e

civil law notary in t he Net herlan ds in 1999 was successf ul

in ter ms of i ncre asing eff icien cy w ithout end angeri ng the

quality . Diff erent stud ies seem to sugg est diffe rent

resul ts5.

Pr ofessio n of est at e

ag e nts

Non-regu lated ( De-Regu lated)

Law on t he de-r egul ation: Wet

van 7 Dece mber 20 00 t ot

aan passi ng v an enkele wet ten

in ver band met de afsch affi ng

On 1 March 20 01, th e legal req uir ement s t o use th e tit le

real estate a gent ( mak elaar) ha ve b een aboli shed. Sin ce

20 01, eve ryone can call him self/ herself makela ar. Th e

2 E.g. lim ita tion s or pro hibit ion s of cert ain t ran sacti ons; spe cific f orm alit y r equ irem ent s et c.

3 I n th e lit era tur e for m andat ory inv olve ment of not arie s in Europ e in gener al, cf. e.g. Schm id/ Pinke l (2 009 ), pp. 150 et seq. wit h fu rth er r efer ences. For stud ies i n th is co ntex t i n th e

Net herl ands , cf . r efere nces in f n. 4.

4 Only in coun tri es wh ere nota ries do no t ex ist or do no t h ave a mo nopol y on conv eyan cing .

5 Stu dies sugg estin g t hat the dere gulat ion was a succ ess e. g. Co mmi ssie Ev aluat ie W et o p he t no tar isamb t ( 200 5).

For stud ies t hat sugg ests tha t t he de regu lati on l ed t o a de crease in q ualit y cf. K uijp ers/ Noai llye/ Vol laard (2 005) ; Nahu is/ Noaill y ( 2005 ).

For discu ssion in t he l iter atu re se e e.g . Plag gema rs ( 201 1), 315 et seq. , wh o is very cri tical abo ut t he refor m and V an de n Ber gh/ Mont angi e (2 006 ), Journ al of Comp arat ive Law and Eco nom ics,

28 9 at 203 et seq. who are also very cri tical .