Notary public

Thousands of legal cases will soon be handled outside of courtrooms and be resolved by lawyers and some by notaries, according to a Justice Ministry bill aiming to decongest Greece's judicial system.

The ministry views unburdening the courts as essential as a World Bank study ranks Greece 146th worldwide in delays in administering justice.

Greek notaries ended their abstention from duties on Monday, following a decision of their extraordinary general assembly approving the use of a digital property transfer system set up by the government on January 1.

The digital transfer of property platform went into operation on Monday through the gov.gr portal for all citizens and notaries public who wish to avoid lengthy in-person registration times.

Once data is entered, the system will send the approved transfer or a justified rejection within a working day, instead of several-month delays, e-Governance ministers said.

The notaries of Athens and Thessaloniki are threatening to block the real estate market after announcing strike action beginning on November 20 in response to the way in which the digitization of notarial acts is proceeding.

The online property registry will become fully operational on November 1, allowing notaries public, buyers and sellers to complete transactions more quickly, without involving municipalities, tax offices or other state agencies in collecting the necessary paperwork.

There are some 17,000 properties which are currently available for sale, but with serious irregularities, even though they carry certificates of engineers confirming the opposite. They undermine the smooth functioning of the housing market and compress further the already low supply of real estate.

The increase of the tax-free threshold for parental concessions and donations to 800,000 euros each and for property transfers, many of which are carried out in cash, have activated the monitoring mechanism of the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE), which will root out violations of tax legislation.

The Electronic Real Estate File will be piloted in the next few days, leading to much quicker property transfers, while the online system will be fully operational from November 1.

At last, the government and the tax authorities are trying to cut the red tape concerning property transactions, by immediately implementing a new digital system that notaries can use to obtain the necessary supporting documents, which currently exceed 17.

The Greek government has opted for a mass statute of limitations for relatively minor offenses in order to deal with the backlog burdening criminal courts, which remain closed since March due to the lockdown that was implemented to contain the coronavirus pandemic.