Drafting and publishing of notarial deeds to which the Government or any corporate body established by law is a party;

When the Notarial Acts are collected they are stored in the Archive in the best possible way. Full attention is paid to maintenance of these volumes. The Main Notarial Archive is proceeding with a holistic plan so that in the coming years the volumes will be given a disinfestation treatment and the concept will be introduced that the volumes will be visited as much as possible online and not physically.

Important Notice

*Mandate Type:

• General – Revocation of all general power of attorneys entered into between persons.
• Special (All) – Revocation of​ all special power of attorneys between people with regards to immovable property only.
• Special (Specific) – Revocation of one or more special power of attorneys between people regards immovable property only.
• General and Special (G&S) – Revocation of all general powers of attorney and special powers of attorney.

What is the difference between a general and special power of attorney (POA)?

A general power of attorney gives broad authorizations to the mandatory. The mandatory may be able to make medical decisions, legal choices, or financial or business decisions. A special power of attorney limits what choices the mandatory can make. For instance the mandator can simply give authorization to sell a particular property. This special power of attorney must be related to the transfer of immovable property only – hereinafter referred to as ‘Specific’. In this case one will need to provide a copy of the special power of attorney being terminated. You can therefore have several different special POAs, with different specific authorisations and also with different mandatories for each. One can therefore terminate all special power of attorneys with regards to immovable property – hereinafter referred to as ‘Specific –All’.

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​Use the list below to check whether a particular notary’s wills and/or inter vivos for a specific year have been submitted to the Notarial Archives.

To order and purchase a deed or will please click here. You will receive a SMS and email containing the reference of your order. Your order will be printed by the front office staff, where it is indexed, that is volume’s location is found from an internal database. The volume is then retrieved from the archives and passed to the back-end section, where the deed ordered is found with the provided details. It is vital that the provided details include the Notary’s name, date of contract or will ordered, and any additional information such as name and surname of contracting parties, testators, or the address of the property. Once deed or will is located the volume is passed on to the scanning section together with the order. The whole contract or will is scanned using modern overhead scanners bought specially to reduce wear and tear on the volumes found within the archives. Once scanned, the volume is returned to its original place while the order is passed to the cataloguing section. This section takes care to prepare the scan to be uploaded online. This process requires the cataloguer to crop the pages if necessary, split the contract into different parts (i.e. into Contract, Attachments, Plans and Tax Documents). Once ready, the information of the contract or will is inputted in the system and the document is uploaded to notarialacts.gov.mt, where it will be available within a few hours.

You will then be informed via SMS and email that your order is ready.

Fees

The fees for services provided by the Notarial Archives section are as follows:

• Legal photocopies: €1.20 per page
• Informal photocopies: €0.70 per page
• Inspections of a notarial act: €0.60 per act
• Photocopies requested by researchers: €0.10 per page (on provision of the authorisation required by law)

The customer is served on time with simplified processes. The Government Notary’s Office has been proactive in this sector by simplifying the process of ordering contracts through an online system, which process has reduced by 80% people who used to come physically to the Archive .

The Government Notary’s Office promotes the Notarial Archives with active participation for the promotion of the Notarial Archives with other entities in this sector including the National Archives of Malta.

The process of digitizing the Notarial acts started in 2019, and the idea is that the Main Notarial Archive will have all the Acts online.

The Government Notary Office is committed to engaging professionally trained people in the paper restoration sector in order to restore the old notarial volumes and also the repair or rebinding of other volumes as required by from time to time;

The Chief Notary to Government acts by law as Notary Conservator for those Notaries who have been missing, or who have renounced the warrant, or have been prevented from practicing the Notarial profession.

Every year the Government Notary Office updates the list of notaries in Malta and Gozo, which list is published in the Government Gazette List of Notaries and Conservators, which can be seen in the publications of this website;

The Office of the Government Notary takes care of the preparation and organization of the examination of the warrants of a notary which takes place every year and the subsequent procedures that lead to the granting of the warrants. The Principal Government Notary is also a member of the Board of Examiners. The Notarial Warrant Exam is held in March of every year in terms of the Notarial Profession and Notarial Archives Act (Chapter 55 of the Laws of Malta). It consists of two written papers and an oral examination which is held within two months from the date of the last written examination. Each application to sit for the notarial warrant examination must include:

1. A copy of the Identity Card;
2. A copy of the birth certificate;
3. A police conduct certificate;
4. A notarized copy of the Degree of Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) obtained in accordance with the provisions of the Statute, Regulations and Bye-Laws of the University of Malta, or such other qualification at masters level as the Minister may from time to time prescribe (after consultation with the Senate of the University of Malta), or a comparable degree from such other competent authority in accordance with the principles of mutual recognition of qualifications after having read law in Malta or in a Member State in line with Article 6 (c) of Cap. 55;
5. The prospective candidate is required to complete the period of practice before the date of the exam as provided for in Article 6 (d) of Cap. 55 55.

Applications from prospective candidates who wish to sit for this examination, which must consist of a cover letter and the aforementioned documents, must be addressed to the Minister responsible for notarial matters and must be sent to the Principal Government Notary, 2/3. Mikiel Anton Vassalli Street, Valletta VLT 1310, by not later than the 31st January.

In collaboration with the Notarial Council, all Notary Acts on an annual basis are reviewed by a team of reviewers to ensure that all contracts are in compliance with the law and that the contracts have been registered in accordance with the law .

There is a service for people who are doing research for purely historical, literary or scientific purposes. These persons must submit an application for this purpose. When approval is given by a Principal Notary of the Government, and always if other conditions have been observed, the researchers in question will be exempted from the payment of fees that are normally requested in order to be able to see notarial acts. They also enjoy reduced payment rates for photocopying services provided by the Department. Researchers and scholars are given access to a number of volumes by a system of private appointments.

Providing a service to members of the public, including professionals in the legal sector, so that they can inspect any public act from the fifteenth century until now and also the faculty to order copies of these contracts; If you wish to find a deed or will, to view it or to order a copy of it, we will need the following information: the name of the notary, the date of the deed or will, the type of deed (e.g. sale, emphytheus, division, etc) and the parties that appeared on the deed or will. In case of a will, we will need the identity card number of the testator who has died, and where it cannot be verified that the testator has died we will need a copy of a death certificate, The testator / testator, or a person authorized by him or her, can read the will or request a copy of it, as long as the identity card is shown as soon as it is requested or with the presentation of a special power of attorney.

What we expect from you

You may help us provide a better service by:

• providing us with the necessary information as mentioned above when making use of the Archives’ services;
• making sure that you provide us with the information requested promptly and accurately;
• informing us immediately should you have any difficulties with our service to enable us to redress the situation as soon as possible;
• being courteous to members of our staff;
• complying with the rules set out in the Notarial Archives, such as not smoking within premises, refraining from scribbling on any volume and being careful not to damage any documents belonging to the Office.

As soon as the volumes of Notarial Deeds are deposited in the Main Notarial Archive, they are indexed and placed in suitable shelving and in a suitable environment with all the necessary security measures to protect them from damage caused by fire, theft or other circumstances other;