Now, you can sign on the dotted line... electronically

At present some 2,000 notaires’ offices are equipped with video-conferencing equipment to make it possible for someone in Nice to sign to buy a house in Lille without the need to be there in person – but long-distance dealing is set to become increasingly available throughout the country over the coming months.

The president of the digital and technology commission for the Conseil Supérieur du Notariat, Maître Jean-Michel Boisset, from Bretteville l’Orgueilleuse, Calvados, told Connexion the aim is to make transactions more transparent.

Electronic signing is available for all kinds of acts, whether it be a divorce or a property purchase. “The advantage when we use an electronic signature, and a computer screen to see the document, is everyone sees the relevant pages at the same time and it is easier to follow, rather than each person searching through pages of a paper document to find the right clause.

“We then need two signatures which are made on a tablet, rather than having to sign each page. The facility to sign at the same time with each party seeing what is happening in different offices will also make life considerably easier for clients.

“It is also possible, and I have already done this in my office, for a client in London who has given procuration for a signing in a notaire’s office in France, to watch the procedure and comment, if he wishes, from his lawyer’s office in the UK.”

In future, cross-country signings may be possible, but this is still a long way off, as the main issue in using technology is security and legislation, and involves lengthy negotiations.

Within France all digital acts are stored in a central data bank, MICEN, which has two buildings in Aix-en-Provence and a back-up in Paris, which Maître Boisset says is run using the highest security procedures. These documents will be stored digitally for 75 years before being archived.

Maître Boisset says when you sign a document at a notaire’s office you will be sent a copy by email, which you can download, but that at present you should still be given a paper copy of the act at a later date when it has been fully authorised. He believes there will always be some need for paper in lawyers’ offices.

In March 2017 France’s notaires set up a central website, notaviz.notaires.fr which carries up-to-date information (French only). This includes the processes required in legal services including buying and selling, renting, inheritance, divorcing and adopting so you already have information when you go to see your notaire and can understand and get more out of your meeting.

Notaires de France are also developing their own ‘blockchain’ which is a way of securing data, as each added block is resistant to data modification.

This would allow a document to be circulated electronically between different parties, for example a bank, a notaire and a client in the knowledge it has not been tampered with.

Maître Boisset says the notaire will never be replaced by technology: “Notaires continue to question how they will work with artificial intelligence and are convinced that the human relationship with a notaire should remain central to all transactions, but that technology will give more transparency and speed.”