Structured notary service for Saba and Statia

The Daily Herald writes that from January 2015, there will once again be structural legal notary services on Saba and St. Eustatius. The services became irregular almost two years ago, following the retirement of Notary Steeman, who serviced both islands for more than 25 years.

The Ministry of Safety and Justice recently reached an agreement with three St. Maarten-based notary firms to be able to provide the islands with regular service. Notary Marlene Mingo has agreed to service Saba, while Notary Meredith Boekhoudt will provide services to St. Eustatius. A third notary, Faride Tjon Ajong, will provide back- up service for both islands in the event either Mingo or Boekhoudt are unable to do so.
Starting January 9, 2015, both notaries will commence servicing Saba and St. Eustatius on alternate Fridays, two times per month. The schedule for the first three months will be advertised in the local press and will also be distributed island-wide.
Customers are able to make appointments by calling the firm in advance. Once the notary is on the island, they will meet with clients at the RCN building, where Kingdom Representative Gilbert Isabella has made his office available for this purpose. The RCN front office will not make appointments. Clients are required to do so themselves.

Notary Meredith Boekhoudt obtained her Master’s degree in law with specialisation in Notarial Law from University of Leiden in the Netherlands in 1996. She started as a candidate-notary in the Netherlands, where she worked for 5 years. Afterwards she worked for 4 years as a candidate-nota- ry on St. Maarten and was appointed Civil Law Notary in August 2006. “I have had the possibility to vacation on Statia once, and myself and my colleague, candidate-notary Luz-Marie Tuitt have visited Statia for work a total of five times in the last year,” said Boekhoudt

In 1999, Notary Marlene Mingo majored in Fiscal Law at Catholic University in Tilburg, and in 2006 returned to the Netherlands to specialise in Notarial Law at University of Nijmegen. In 2013, she was officially nominated as a Civil Law Notary on St. Maarten. “I am very proud to be the first local woman Civil Notary on St. Maarten. I have been coming to Saba for the past year and find this island to be truly the Unspoiled Queen. I will do my utmost to provide the best possible service to the people of Saba,” she said.

According to Liaison Officer for the Ministry of Safety and Justice Leo Tigges, “this arrangement will make it once again possible for Saba and St. Eustatius to have civil law notaries visit them on a structural basis for consultations in preparation for the signing of deeds on St. Maarten. With the Ministry of Justice on St. Maarten an agreement was reached that the Na- tional Ordinance regarding the notarial profession will be changed and which will clarify that the notaries of St. Maarten are also competent to draw up deeds on Saba and Statia.”

The scope of the work of the Civil Law notaries will include real estate, family law and corporate law. In detail this involves the preparation and execution of deeds of transfers in ownership, mortgages, issuance of long lease, last wills, co-habitation agreements, loan agreements, marital contracts, deeds of division of properties or estates, declaration of in- heritance or executorship, deeds of establishment of NVs, BVs, foundations, associations, share transfers, amendment of the articles of incorporation, mergers and dissolution of entities.