In other European countries such as Denmark and Estonia, many official matters can be conveniently dealt with digitally from the comfort of your own sofa. In Germany, we are still miles away from this, but progress is being made – for example, at the notary's office.
The federal government has passed a law introducing electronic notarization. In the future, documents can be created electronically at the notary's office. Until now, public notarization has been largely paper-based.
The current Notarisation Act only provided for the electronic creation of documents in specific cases. Since 2022, notarial deeds have already been stored in the electronic document archive, for which the paper documents are scanned after they have been drawn up. Electronic file management in notary offices will also completely replace paper files in the future.
From 2026, electronic files will be mandatory in courts. The government draft takes up this development and creates the legal basis for notaries and other document authorities (e.g., probate courts) to be able to draw up original electronic documents in person in future.
At the beginning of July 2025, the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection published a draft bill on the digitization of the execution of real estate contracts. This marks another milestone in the eNoVA (Electronic Notary Administration Exchange) digitization project.
Real estate transactions can now be handled digitally instead of by mail. Until now, communication between notary offices, courts, and authorities after the notarization of a real estate purchase agreement was mainly done by mail. In the future, the exchange will be digital— ely faster, more efficient, and with the same high level of security.
"The implementation of eNoVA will eliminate millions of postal items as well as multiple data collection and scanning processes," says Dr. Markus Sikora, President of the Federal Chamber of Notaries.
Photo: © NoName_13, Pixabay
