Resolution on Refusal to Perform a Notarial Act - A Reasoned "No" You Can Appeal, or Use

When a notary must refuse

The Law on Notaries obliges the notary to refuse a notarial act where its performance would be contrary to law; where the act is requested by a person who cannot be identified, lacks legal capacity, or acts without the authority required (a representative without a valid power, a company officer not shown in the register); where the documents presented do not comply with the law - a foreign public document without apostille or legalization, a document with erasures or unspecified corrections, a copy where the original is required, an incomplete or unsigned document; where consents or approvals the law requires are missing - a spouse's consent to a disposal of marital property, a guardianship authority's consent for a minor, a co-owner's waiver; where the act is outside the notary's competence, belongs to another notary (a succession opened elsewhere) or to another authority; where the transaction is a sham, or the notary has reason to believe a party is acting under duress or does not understand the act; and where the notary is disqualified by relationship to a party. The notary may also decline where the requester refuses to pay the fee or to provide information the notary lawfully requires. Refusal is not a matter of discretion or preference: a notary who refuses without a legal ground, or who performs an act despite one, is answerable to the Notary Chamber and the court.

The right to a reasoned written resolution

A person whose act is refused may demand that the notary set out the refusal in writing, and the notary must then issue, within the period the law allows, a resolution stating the act requested, the date, the ground of refusal with reference to the legal provision, and the requester's right to appeal, signed and sealed and entered in the register; the resolution is handed or sent to the requester. The resolution matters for three reasons: it tells the requester precisely what to cure, which an oral explanation at a counter often does not; it opens the road to the court, since the appeal is against the reasoned resolution; and it is itself evidence before other authorities that the act was sought and why it was not done, which can be decisive when a deadline was missed for a reason outside the requester's control - a foreign document that could not be legalized in time, a consent that could not be obtained from an absent spouse - and the requester needs to prove diligence. We ask for the resolution whenever an act is refused for a reason we contest or that a client must document, and we advise clients refused elsewhere to demand one.

Appeal to the court

The refusal, and equally an act performed wrongly, may be challenged before the court at the notary's place of practice within the period the law sets from the resolution, in a proceeding in which the court examines whether the notary's ground was lawful and, if not, orders the act to be performed or the wrongful act annulled; the court may also decide the underlying dispute where the refusal arose from one (a contested authority, a disputed consent). The appeal is a civil proceeding requiring a lawyer, and it is worth bringing where the refusal rests on a mistaken reading of the law or of the documents and the act matters - a registration blocked, a deadline passing, a transaction stalled; it is not worth bringing where the defect is real and curable, which is the usual case. Our legal team assesses the resolution, tells the client whether to cure or to appeal, and, for an appeal, translates the file and works with the client's lawyer.

Using the resolution before other authorities

Beyond the court, the resolution serves as proof. A foreign authority that insists on a Georgian notarial act the notary cannot lawfully perform - a certification of a foreign document's content that Georgian law does not allow, a power of attorney for an act that requires the principal in person - receives the resolution with an apostille and a translation, explaining why the act is not available and what Georgian law offers instead, which resolves many impasses between Georgian notarial practice and foreign expectations. A Georgian authority, an heir or a party who missed a period because the act could not be performed shows the resolution to explain the delay. An insurer, a lender or a counterparty who required a notarial act as a condition sees from the resolution that the condition failed for a legal reason, not for want of trying. Our language teams translate resolutions with the legal provisions rendered exactly and, where the foreign reader will not know the Georgian rule, with a note explaining it.

Curing the defect: what usually happens next

In practice almost every refusal is cured. A foreign document is apostilled or legalized and returned; a spouse's consent is obtained at a consulate or by power of attorney; a representative's power is redrafted to cover the act; a company's extract is updated or its resolution passed; a damaged certificate is re-issued by the issuer; a document is translated and notarized; a succession is redirected to the notary of the place where it opened; and the act is performed within days. We check for the grounds of refusal before every appointment - which is why our clients rarely meet a refusal at all - and where a client comes to us with a refusal from another notary, we read the resolution, obtain or prepare what is missing, and perform the act at our own notary or return the client to the original one with the defect cured.

What to bring, fees and timing

To obtain a resolution, bring your identity document and the documents submitted for the act that was refused, and state the act requested; the notary issues the resolution within the legal period, in practice within days, at Agmashenebeli 117. Fees for the resolution follow the official tariff; a resolution concerning an act sought at our own notary is issued as part of the same matter. To have a resolution from another notary assessed, translated or used abroad, send it on WhatsApp, Telegram or email and we reply within the day with the ground's meaning, the cure or the appeal we recommend, and a quote for the translation and apostille where the resolution goes abroad.

Frequently asked questions

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