Your Trusted Partner for Professional Notary Services
Notarization is a fraud-deterrent process that helps to ensure that a document is authentic and legitimate or that a person’s signature is genuine, after verifying the person’s identity. LC Notary provides efficient and reliable notary services to our entire Langley community.
Efficient & Effective Notary Public Services
At some point in your life you will need to visit a notary and notarize some legal documents. Our team at Lilian Cazacu Notary Corp. can provide a smooth and quick process by having your documents notarized in no time.
Notarizations & Other documents
According to section 18 of the Notaries Act, besides preparing Wills and transferring real estate property, the duties and powers of a Notary Public include many other services, including:
Drawing affidavits, affirmations or statutory declarations that may or are required to be administered, sworn, affirmed or made by the law of British Columbia, another province of Canada, or another country; Administering oaths; and Performing other duties authorized by an Act.
In other words, “notarizations” could take many forms, such as attesting to the validity of your signature as proof of your swearing/affirming on Statutory Declarations or Affidavits, providing certified true copies of original documents, authentications of international documents, or preparing letters of invitations for foreign travel or child travel consent.
When not sure what type of document you've got and whether it requires to be "notarized" or not, pleaes give us a call or send us a copy of the document, so we can help you decide what needs to be done.
Affidavits
Affidavits are legal documents containing statements of facts that are confirmed by the oath or affirmation of their author taken before a person having the authority to administer such oath or affirmation (i.e. Notary Public or Commissioner for Taking Affidavits).
Affidavits are used in various circumstances:
- To present evidence in certain types of proceedings in the course of civil litigation;
- To determine the issue of assessment of damages or of the value of goods in a civil lawsuit;
- To present written evidence to the court when a court’s decision is appealed;
- To give evidence when Trustees, executors, administrators, and receivers, are submitting their accounts for review to officers of the court;
- To prove that court documents have been properly served on a party to a civil lawsuit;
- For other matters when an oath or affirmation must be applied in a foreign jurisdiction and a Statutory Declaration cannot be used.
Statutory Declarations
Although, in principle, Statutory declarations and Affidavits are very similar, the Statutory declarations are “creatures of statute law” as to their content and format requirements and have the same legal force and effect as if sworn under oath or affirmation.
Authentications of International Documents
When a Notary attests documents for use in a foreign jurisdiction, the signature and office of the Notary must be verified or “authenticated” before the document will be accepted for use in a foreign country. In other words, to “authenticate” means to establish as genuine or to make authoritative or valid.
The internationally accepted way of providing a guarantee regarding the authenticity of a document is called “apostille.”. The origin of the word apostille refers to “words were written afterward” or "explanatory notes written in the margin". Under the Hague Convention, apostille refers to a special certificate added to the end of the document making it immediately authenticated and ready for use in the other country that signed the Convention.
Since Canada is not party to the Hague Convention, the “apostille” does not apply. However, we have developed our own internationally accepted process often known as the “chain authentication,”, which is a lineup of officials that in turn verify the document before it can be recognized by another country. If you want to find out more about this “chain authentication,” please give us a call.
Award-Winning Notary Public Services For Your Entire Family
Why Some Documents Need To Be Notarized
People refer to notarizations for all types of legal documents that require a notary seal. These documents may be relating to a private matter or related to the Provincial Government of British Columbia, the federal government of Canada, or even an international matter.
Above all, the process ensures that a document is real, that the signature is valid, and that the signer has been identified and is acting with their own will and intention.
When looking for a notary public, you need to ensure that they are qualified and experienced. Lilian Cazacu has years of experience behind him plus a strong, passionate and driven team that consistently strives to help their communities, specifically with their notarization needs.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to notarize a document?
There were various types of “notarizations”, starting with certifying copies of original documents and reviewing/preparing complex Affidavits, etc. Therefore, we have a value-based pricing, depending on the amount of time required to review your documents, on the amount of pages that need to be notarized, and on the amount of possible liability related to signing/notarizing that specific document. Our starting pricing for a simple notarization is $60, but depending on the above-mentioned criteria (e.g. possible liability, time-required, number of pages, etc.) the price could go up accordingly.
What kind of documents cannot be notarized?
There are documents that don’t have to be notarized (such as Letters, Notices, Statements, home-made Wills or other estate planning documents, etc.) and there are documents that are requiring providing specific legal advice and therefore, cannot be just “notarized” (for example, Promissory Notes, and various family-related Agreements, such as Separation Agreement, Co-habitation Agreement, etc.).
If you just need a witness, then you don’t need to notarize the document, but just have a regular person who can act as a witness it for you. So, it is very beneficial if you have a notary public near you, it saves your time alot.
What kind of documents do you notarize?
When documents have a blurb on the bottom-left corner (called “jurat”), which says something like “Declared before a Commissioner of Oaths, etc.”, then most likely we can notarize that document. If you’re unsure, you can either call the person who prepared the document or send us the document so we can review it and advise you accordingly.Here are some of the documents that we can notarize:
- Statutory Declarations
- Affidavits
- Authorizations for minors to travel outside of Canada
- Certified true copies
- Passport applications
- Insurance Loss Declarations
- International Documents
- Invitation letters for foreign visitors to Canada
- Wills Notice Searches
- Authentications
- Rights of way, easements and covenants
What is the process for notarizing a document?
Depending on the type of notarization, after we verify your identity (as per the list of identity documents mentioned above), we review the document with you and then if the document can be notarized, we’ll ask you if you’re signing this document out of your free-will and not under undue influence. After you sign the document, we will fill-out the “jurat” intended for us, as proof that you have declared/sworn that statement in front of us.
For any international documents, the procedure may include special types of seals needed to be applied on the documents, plus the requirement to send them through a “cycle of authentications” to be legalized and supra-legalized by various government agencies and Consulates.
What do I need to bring to my appointment?
Beside bring the documents to be notarized, you would need to present at least two pieces of identification. Normally, at least one of them should be a “ picture ID” and the secondary piece of identification could be any other government-issued ID or a signed credit card. (e.g. birth certificate, SIN card, Medical Service Card, passport, BC ID, credit card, etc.)
Two Notary Office Locations (Langley & Aldergrove)
In order to serve you better, beside the main office in Langley (Willoughby area), we also have a 2nd office in Aldergrove, which is open "by appointment only" and can accomodate clients even after working hours.
Langley Notary Office:
(9am to 5pm & after 5pm by appointment only)
Aldergrove Notary Office:
(by appointment only)
Aldergrove, BC V4W 2Z7
Relentless Pursuit Of Providing Excellent Notary Services In Langley area
Lilian Cazacu has been providing high-quality notary public services to the Langley community and continues to dedicate his time to helping and educating Langley residents on various non-contentious legal matters.