Since the beginning of 2017 certain amendments have been introduced into the legislation on notaries of the Republic of Armenia, giving notaries a number of new functions. Of particular interest is a novelty that enables enforcement of a certain type of contracts without bringing the case to court by a notary’s writ of execution.

For instance, Article 82.1 of the Law of the Republic of Armenia “On Notaries” says that the notary shall issue an enforcement inscription concerning a transaction certified by him in order to fulfill the creditor’s request of collecting money or property (thing) from the debtor, transferring a document or transferring property rights.

If any of the parties to the transaction fails to fulfill their obligations the notary gives an enforcement order within 3 days and according to the RA Law “On Enforcement of Judicial Acts” the enforcement order is a document of execution.

However, it should be taken into consideration that the following conditions are necessary for the notary to issue the writ of execution:

• the presented documents confirm the indisputable obligation of the debtor towards the creditor
• Absence of a counter obligation on the part of the creditor
• the inscription of execution is permitted only if the parties have executed a notarized agreement whereby the parties have agreed on the execution of the obligations concerning the payment of money, transfer of property (documents) or transfer of the ownership right under the inscription of execution
• by agreement of the parties the debtor’s obligations shall be performed through notarial acts or execution of notarial actions
• The creditor shall provide the notary with the proof of proper notification of the debtor about the application for issuance of an enforcement inscription to collect the debt or fulfill the unfulfilled obligation.

And in terms of each unfulfilled obligation shall be issued a separate sheet of the Executive inscription. The creditor shall be provided with one sample sheet to be sent to the Judicial Acts Compulsory Enforcement Service under the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia.

Another interesting innovation is the delegation of powers to notaries to establish facts of legal significance. The notary has the right to certify those facts, on which the emergence, change or termination of personal or property rights of citizens or legal entities depends.

Previously in Armenia, as well as in the majority of other jurisdictions, such authority was reserved exclusively to the courts of general jurisdiction, where such issues were solved by special proceedings. Among the legally significant facts notaries could only confirm only some facts connected to the acceptance and execution of the inheritance, for example, the factual acceptance of the inheritance by the law. Nowadays, the powers of Armenian notaries to confirm legal facts have been significantly expanded.

These facts are defined by law as:

• the fact that the persons are related to each other
• The fact that the person is dependent on another person
• The fact of registration of births, adoptions, marriages, divorces and deaths
• fact of acceptance of inheritance and establishment of the place of its opening
• fact of ownership of title documents, except for passports and military documents
• the fact of ownership of property
• the fact of giving by the citizen of the oral statement

At the same time this list is not exhaustive.

For the establishment of the fact having legal importance, the notary shall be provided with the application.

The notarial act on determining the fact of legal importance is the basis for the registration of the rights arising from the fact or for the registration of the fact by the relevant bodies of the Republic of Armenia. It is important to note that the notarial act adopted as a result of establishing a fact may be used only for the purposes indicated in the notarial act itself.

As with the establishment of a fact in the procedure of special proceedings in the courts of general jurisdiction of the Republic of Armenia, the application to the notary shall indicate the purpose for which the fact shall be established. Together with the application the evidence shall be presented proving the inability of the applicant to present the duly executed documents or the impossibility of recovery of the lost documents.

The notarial act on establishment of legally significant fact shall be accepted only in case if 1) the documents submitted to the notary for establishment of legally significant fact are sufficient for its establishment, 2) legally significant facts subject to establishment arise from the data available in the documents submitted to the notary, 3) there are no discrepancies with requirements of substantive law regulations, 4) the applicant exhausted all means of acquisition or restoration of documents confirming legally significant fact, 5) as well as legal and accounting information shall be provided.

If the requirements mentioned in the two preceding paragraphs are not complied with, the notary shall refuse to establish a legally significant fact.

Regarding the deposit of oral statements, from now on it must be done in the presence of at least 2 witnesses who confirm with their signatures their presence when giving the statement. A citizen’s statement shall be accompanied by an oath (oath) signed by the citizen on the truth of the statement being made with a note that the applicant is aware of the criminal responsibility for making a false statement.