Occupational safety for notaries
A notary's office is both a workplace and a meeting point for the parties. On notarisation days there are often more people in the building than there are employees on the payroll, and the deed collection grows year after year. Escape routes, first aid and the archive therefore carry more weight than in an ordinary office. Since 2022, the electronic deed archive has also added a new workstation.
- Notaries
Notarisation appointments and visitors at a notary's office
A notarisation often brings in several parties at once who do not know the building. The matter is frequently an inheritance, the consequences of a divorce or the sale of a company: appointments where the mood can turn quickly.
In Berlin, Bremen, Hesse, Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and the Westphalian parts of North Rhine-Westphalia, notaries hold their office alongside their practice as lawyers. Where the law firm and the notary's office share rooms and staff, and the employees work for the same employer, occupational safety treats them as one business: one risk assessment covering both activities and one headcount for every threshold. Elsewhere in Germany, full-time notaries run offices dedicated solely to notarial work.
Since 1 July 2022, every newly executed deed has also been kept electronically, in the electronic deed collection of the electronic deed archive run by the Federal Chamber of Notaries. For this, the paper original is scanned. The result is a workstation that older risk assessments do not include: the scanning station, where deeds are fed in by the stack, checked and filed again. It is both a screen workstation and a filing surface, and it needs enough space beside the device to keep stacks off the floor.
Notaries: responsible bodies, economic sector and thresholds
| Item | Notary's office |
|---|---|
| Accident insurance institution | VBG, under the advisory and information services position of its risk tariff |
| Economic sector | WZ 69.1 legal activities, within it 69.10.3 notaries (lawyer-notaries: 69.10.1 law firms with a notary's office) |
| Support group under DGUV Regulation 2 | III: above 20 employees (Annex 2) 0.5 hours of basic support per employee and year, shared between specialist and occupational physician, at least 20 per cent each. Company-specific support comes on top |
| From the first employee | Risk assessment, safety training, first-aid organisation, appointment of an occupational safety specialist and an occupational physician |
| Up to 20 employees | Annex 1 of DGUV Regulation 2 with no fixed support hours |
| Above 20 employees | Occupational safety committee meeting once per calendar quarter (section 11 ASiG) |
| Up to 50 employees | Unternehmermodell permitted as an alternative. More than 50: standard support |
| Retention periods for records from 2022 | Paper deed collection 30 years, electronic deed collection 100 years (section 50 NotAktVV) |
The headcount covers employees, not the parties to a notarisation: notary clerks, office staff and trainees. For the width of escape routes, by contrast, everyone in the building on a full appointment day counts. Part-time staff count proportionally towards the threshold of 20: up to 20 hours a week as 0.5, up to 30 hours as 0.75.
What a notary's risk assessment has to cover
- Escape routes for people unfamiliar with the building. The number of people present at the same time follows the appointments, not the payroll. Escape route widths, signing and the number of first aiders are based on the worst case.
- The deed archive. Deeds are subject to long statutory retention periods. The paper holding grows permanently and rarely shrinks. Shelf stability and fire safety in the archive are therefore permanent topics.
- Notarisations away from the office. Notarisations in hospital, in a care home or at someone's flat are field work, with unfamiliar premises and commuting accident risk. That belongs in the assessment as its own point.
- Tense conversations. Inheritance disputes and separations are negotiated in the notary's office. Handling them, and a way to call for help if needed, belong in the assessment of mental stress.
For the waiting area, it is worth checking the appointment diary. Seating is sized for the busiest appointment day, and extra chairs must not narrow the corridor that serves as the escape route.
Common shortcomings found on a walkthrough of a notary's office
The archive and the waiting area are what stand out. In the archive, volumes of deeds sit above head height, the shelving is rarely inspected on record, and the aisle serves as interim storage. In the waiting area, seating and escape route width do not match the actual number of people on appointment days. First-aid supplies are usually sized for employees only.
Safety training at a notary's office and for off-site appointments
Two points come on top of the office standard. First, dealing with the public: who directs visitors in an emergency, where the assembly point is, who the first aiders are. Second, appointments away from the office: conduct in unfamiliar premises, lone working, the reporting route after an accident while out. For the archive, lifting and the use of step aids are added.
For notarisations in care homes and hospitals, the facility's house rules apply, including its hygiene rules. Staff who go there should know these rules in advance and know whom to contact on site.
Related
- External occupational safety specialist: What the specialist covers at a notary's office and how the hours are calculated.
- Occupational safety for law firms and lawyers: For lawyer-notaries, the law firm side of the same business.
- Escape and rescue plan: office duty?: Including evacuation drills when visitors unfamiliar with the building are present on appointment days.
- Fire safety in the office: the duties at a glance: Extinguishers and fire wardens, including for the deed archive.
- First-aider calculator for businesses: The minimum number of first aiders for your workforce.
- Occupational safety for real estate and property management: The other side of many notarisations, also with appointments away from the office.
Legal basis
- DGUV Regulation 2 (occupational physicians and safety specialists)
- Occupational Safety Act (ASiG)
- DGUV Regulation 1 (principles of prevention)
Frequently asked questions
Does the VBG also cover notaries?
Yes. The VBG's risk tariff lists notaries under advisory and information services, together with lawyers and tax consultancies. What is binding for your office is the membership notice.
Do the parties to a notarisation count towards the number of first aiders?
No. The minimum is based on the insured persons present (section 26 DGUV Regulation 1), meaning your employees: one first aider for 2 to 20, above that 5 per cent in administrative businesses. The risk assessment may require more if many visitors are regularly in the building on appointment days.
Does the electronic deed archive make the paper archive redundant?
No. For deeds from 2022 onwards, the paper deed collection still has to be kept for 30 years (section 50 NotAktVV), even though the electronic version is kept for 100 years in addition. The volumes from before 2022 come on top. Shelving, step aids and fire safety in the archive will therefore come up at every walkthrough for decades.
Other business types
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