Notary in Luxembourg: list, locations, deeds and costs.

How many notaries are there in Luxembourg?

The Grand Duchy has 36 notaries for the entire territory. That figure is not left to the market: it is set by grand-ducal regulation, on the basis of article 13 of the amended law of 9 December 1976 on the organisation of the notarial profession. Each notary is appointed by the Grand Duke, on the advice of the State Prosecutor General and the Chamber of Notaries, and the appointment is published in the Mémorial.

The practical consequence is underestimated. The Luxembourg notarial profession operates under a closed number, which makes it a scarce and non-expandable resource. Offices run at capacity in certain periods, particularly at year end and ahead of tax deadlines. On a formation or acquisition file, the signing date is booked, not decided at the last minute. It is the first calendar constraint we lock down when we build a file.

Is a Luxembourg notaire the same as a notary public?

No, and the difference matters before you travel. In common-law countries, a notary public mainly witnesses signatures and administers oaths. A Luxembourg notaire is a public officer holding a state-limited office, who drafts and authenticates deeds carrying evidentiary and enforceable force, and whose intervention is legally mandatory for a defined list of transactions.

If what you actually need is a signature witnessed, a copy certified or a document legalised for use abroad, that is a separate administrative route and not a notarial deed. Coming to Luxembourg expecting a walk-in notary public service is a common and costly misunderstanding: an appointment with a notaire is booked, prepared and documented in advance.

So where do you actually go? For a signature certified on a private document, the communal administration handles it, and so does a notary, an embassy or a consulate. For a certified true copy of a document issued by a foreign administrative authority, the communal administration. For a document that has to be recognised abroad, an apostille or a legalisation from the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, which is an authentication of an existing document, not a deed. For a transaction that has to be authenticated and enforceable, that, and only that, is a notaire.

The vocabulary trap is worth naming, because it costs travel days. English-language search results mix the two offices freely, and translation tools render notaire as notary public. They are not interchangeable. A Luxembourg notaire holds a state-limited public office with a legally mandatory role in specific transactions; a common-law notary public authenticates no transaction at all. If you are arriving from the UK, Ireland, the United States or a Commonwealth jurisdiction, treat the two words as pointing at different services until you have established which one your file actually needs.

Where to find the official list of notaries in Luxembourg?

The only authoritative list is published by the Chamber of Notaries of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, at notariat.lu. The Chamber sits at 53, boulevard Joseph II, L-1840 Luxembourg, reachable on (+352) 44 70 21. Its directory also lets you identify the office holding the original of an older deed, which matters when you reconstruct the history of a property.

Commercial directories and lists copied onto estate agency websites are frequently out of date: a retirement, a partnership or an appointment can take months to appear. There is also no official ranking of notaries. A "top 10 best notaries" has no basis: the office is regulated, fees are set by scale and competence is national.

How do you choose a notary in Luxembourg?

The official list answers "who", not "which one". Because fees are set by scale and competence is national, neither price nor distance really separates one office from another. What separates them comes down to four parameters, none of which appears in a directory.

Working language. A deed can be received in French, German or Luxembourgish, and some offices work fluently in English. Where a party does not master the language of the deed, the office arranges a translation or an interpreter, which adds time and cost. That question belongs before the date is booked, not on the day of signature.

Availability on your target date. The profession operates under a closed number. In busy periods, the gap between two offices on the same request is measured in weeks. It is the only criterion that genuinely moves the date of your first invoice.

Familiarity with the type of transaction. An office handling residential sales daily does not have the same reflexes as one used to capital operations, share transfers and mergers. On a holding or restructuring file, that familiarity shows in the questions asked upstream, and therefore in the number of rounds.

Ability to organise signature by power of attorney. For a non-resident founder or buyer this is often the blocking point, and offices neither organise it the same way nor within the same timeframes.

We impose no office. We route the file to one whose practice matches the transaction, we confirm its availability before committing you to a schedule, and you remain free to appoint your own notary, in which case we work with them.

Where in Luxembourg do notaries practise?

Notarial offices are spread across the country's cantons, with the exception of Vianden. You will therefore find a notary in Luxembourg City, but also in Esch-sur-Alzette, Diekirch, Grevenmacher, Mersch, Remich, Echternach, Capellen, Clervaux, Redange and Wiltz. Density follows demography: the capital and the south hold most of the offices.

The point almost nobody states plainly: notaries exercise their functions across the entire national territory. Choosing an office near you is a convenience, not a legal requirement. A notary in Diekirch can perfectly well receive the sale deed for a flat in Bonnevoie, or incorporate a company whose registered office is in Kirchberg.

The criteria that actually matter lie elsewhere: working language (French, German, English, Luxembourgish), availability on your target date, and familiarity with the type of transaction. An office used to residential property files does not have the same reflexes as one handling capital operations and share transfers daily. For a non-resident client, signature by power of attorney or remotely is a first-call question, and offices do not all organise it the same way.

What is the notary's role in Luxembourg?

The notary authenticates the deed, verifies the parties' identity and capacity, informs them of the scope of their commitment, keeps the original and completes the formalities that follow: registration, publication, filing. That intervention gives the deed evidentiary force and enforceable force.

Both terms have concrete content. Evidentiary force means the content of the deed and its date are enforceable against third parties without having to be proved. Enforceable force means a debt recorded in the deed can be enforced without first obtaining a judgment. That is precisely what separates an authentic deed from a contract signed between the parties, and why the legislator imposes it where the financial stakes are heaviest.

One nuance worth absorbing before the appointment: the notary is an impartial public officer, owing a duty of advice to all parties. He or she is not the adviser of any one of them. It is not the notary's role to optimise your position in the negotiation, nor to arbitrate your tax structure or holding arrangement. Those questions are settled upstream, and that is where we intervene.

When is a notarial deed mandatory in Luxembourg?

For incorporation, a notarial deed is mandatory for capital companies: SARL, SA, European company (SE) and partnership limited by shares (SCA). By contrast, the general partnership (SENC), the limited partnership (SCS), cooperative companies and civil companies may be formed by private deed, with no notary involved. The SARL-S is likewise formed by private deed.

One clarification that recurs constantly and that many pages copy across incorrectly: a SOPARFI is not a legal form. It is a financial participation company tax regime applied to an ordinary capital company, most often an SA, a SARL or an SCA. The notarial requirement therefore does not follow from the SOPARFI character, but from the underlying corporate form. Framing the question that way avoids a sequencing error that is common in holding projects.

Beyond incorporation, a notarial deed is required for certain statutory amendments, capital increases and reductions, mergers and demergers, and for property sales and the creation of mortgages. We prepare the entire file upstream, identity documents, proof of funds, draft articles, beneficial owners, so that the notary appointment happens in a single session with no back-and-forth.

Can you sign a notarial deed remotely or by power of attorney?

This is the first question every non-resident founder or buyer asks, and it weighs on the calendar more than the choice of corporate form. In practice, the party who cannot travel is represented before the notary by an attorney acting under a power of attorney. The office states the form it accepts and the exact wording of the mandate: this is not a document you improvise the day before.

The trap sits one step higher up. A power of attorney signed abroad generally has to be authenticated in the country of signature, then apostilled or legalised before it is presented in Luxembourg. That chain takes days, sometimes weeks depending on the country, and it runs entirely outside the Luxembourg office's control. A file that slips by three weeks almost always slips there, not at the notary.

As for signature by videoconference or by qualified electronic signature, arrangements vary from one office to another. Confirm it explicitly before booking the date; never assume it.

We treat that chain as the critical path: identifying the signatories, settling the draft power of attorney with the office, sequencing authentication and apostille in the country of origin, checking identity documents and evidence of source of funds. That is file preparation and coordination. We do not draft the deed and we represent no one before the notary.

How much does a notary cost in Luxembourg?

The question is almost always framed wrongly, and the answer is expensive for those who get it wrong. On a property purchase, what is commonly called "notary fees" consists overwhelmingly of taxes collected by the notary on behalf of the State, not of the notary's remuneration. Registration duty is 6 % and transcription duty is 1 %, so 7 % of the price, to which communal surcharges may be added. The notary's own fees are set by scale and account for a markedly smaller share of the total.

For the purchase of a main residence, the "Bëllegen Akt" tax credit is set against those duties. Its amount has been fixed at 40,000 EUR per acquirer since the law of 3 July 2025. It is subject to conditions of personal occupation, and the benefit is repayable with interest if those conditions are not met. It does not apply on the same terms to a rental investment or a professional property. We size the full envelope before the offer: see our page on property acquisition in Luxembourg.

For a company formation, the order of magnitude is entirely different. The cost combines notarial fees and fixed duties, with no proportionality to the price of an asset. It is an identifiable and budgetable line from the outset, which we build into the overall costing of company formation alongside registry fees and first-year costs.

What deadlines apply after the deed is signed?

The deed must be registered with the Registration Duties Authority within 15 days of signature. For a company, the constitutive deed must then be filed electronically with the Trade and Companies Register within one month of signature, for publication in RESA, either on filing or within the following fifteen days, at the parties' choice.

That sequence has an operational consequence many founders discover too late. The company exists from the deed onwards, but until publication has taken place, enforceability against third parties remains incomplete and part of the downstream process stays blocked. Final bank account opening, VAT registration and social security affiliation follow this sequence, not the signature date.

This is why we build the schedule backwards, starting from the date on which you need to be able to invoice or collect, rather than the date on which you would like to sign. A two-week slip at the notary mechanically moves the first invoice.

How do you legalise or apostille a Luxembourg notarial deed?

A Luxembourg deed intended for a foreign authority is almost never accepted as it stands: it has to carry an international authentication. Where the destination country is party to the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961, the route is the apostille. Otherwise it is legalisation, in a chain, including a step through the destination country's diplomatic representation.

In Luxembourg the competent authority is the Passport, Visa and Legalisation Office of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. It handles documents emanating from an authority or an official under state jurisdiction, administrative documents, notarial deeds, and official declarations affixed to a private deed: registration mentions, certain-date visas and signature certifications.

Since 7 May 2026, for electronic documents submitted via MyGuichet.lu, the legalisation or apostille is issued in electronic form. The document bearing the e-apostille is delivered in the messages section of your personal eSpace on MyGuichet.lu. Electronic submission requires authentication via LuxTrust, the Luxembourg eID or an eIDAS means from another member state.

Two clarifications that save round trips. Certification of a signature on a private document is obtained from the communal administration, and also from a notary, an embassy or a consulate. A certified true copy of a document issued by a foreign administrative authority is obtained from the communal administrations.

The most frequent practical case in our files: a Luxembourg company has to open an account abroad or register a subsidiary, and the foreign bank or register demands the articles, an RCS extract and sometimes the constitutive deed, apostilled and translated. We assemble the full document set, in the right order, and dovetail it with opening the bank account.

Non-bankruptcy certificate: what is it and how to obtain it?

The non-bankruptcy certificate attests that a person or a company is not in a state of bankruptcy. It is frequently required to bid for a public tender, open an account, obtain a business licence or contract with a demanding counterparty.

It is obtained from the competent registers and courts, notably through the RCS or the district court registry. Contrary to a widespread confusion, the document is not issued by the notary. We obtain it on your behalf as part of managing your corporate file, together with the other documents usually requested at the same moment: RCS extract, coordinated articles, extract from the register of beneficial owners.

When do you need a notary, and how do we intervene?

Two situations concentrate most of the need: forming a capital company, and acquiring property. In both, the notarial deed is only one step in the middle of a chain, and it is rarely the step that derails a file. What derails a file is a missing document, a beneficial owner incorrectly identified, incomplete proof of source of funds, or a bank that was not warned.

That is exactly where our role sits. We prepare the file, gather and check the documents, book the appointment, attend the session and move straight on to the formalities that follow: RCS filing, register of beneficial owners, VAT registration, account opening, accounting set-up. We do not draft the deed and we authenticate nothing: that is the notary's exclusive function. You keep a single point of contact who orchestrates the whole sequence and stays in place after signature, when the accounting and tax life of the structure begins.

For holding structures, the choice of form is settled before the appointment is booked: see SOPARFI and real estate structuring.