Notary firm Van Halteren Notaries in Brussels: legal expertise and personal guidance through the milestones of your life and your business

Privacy Policy

Who is the data controller and who is the Data Protection Officer?

Van Halteren Notarissen processes personal data in the course of its activities.

Van Halteren Notarissen, whose registered office is at de Lignestraat 13, 1000 Brussels, Belgium, and whose company registration number is 0542.505.756, acts as the data controller for the processing of personal data carried out by the practice (hereinafter referred to as the “notarial practice”). The data controller is the natural or legal person who determines the purposes and means of processing personal data.

The notarial practice takes privacy protection seriously. We undertake to protect your personal data with particular care and to process it transparently, in strict compliance with privacy legislation, particularly Regulation (EU) 2016/679, the General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”), and the Code of Conduct of the National Chamber of Notaries dated 28 January 2021, which specifies certain conditions for the application of the GDPR to notaries (the “Code of Conduct”).

In accordance with the GDPR and the Code of Conduct, the notarial practice has appointed Privanot vzw as its Data Protection Officer (DPO). The DPO can be contacted by email at info@privanot.be or by post at Privanot vzw, Bergstraat 30, 1000 Brussels, Belgium.

This Privacy Policy explains how we handle the personal data we hold. It addresses the following questions:

  • Who is the data controller and who is the Data Protection Officer?
  • Why do we process your personal data?
  • What is the legal basis for processing your personal data?
  • What personal data does the notarial practice process?
  • Where do we obtain your personal data?
  • With whom may we share your personal data?
  • Who are the notarial practice’s data processors?
  • Is your personal data transferred outside the European Economic Area (EEA)?
  • How long do we retain your personal data?
  • How do we ensure the security and confidentiality of your personal data?
  • What are your rights?

Please note that information on the processing of employees’ personal data for human resources purposes is set out in the notarial practice’s employment regulations. Information on the processing of external workers’ personal data for personnel-related purposes is provided in specific documents, such as service agreements or general policy documents.

Why do we process your personal data?

Purposes – The notarial practice collects and processes personal data primarily to ensure the legal certainty of transactions authenticated by the notary and to manage the matters entrusted to the notary.

We also process personal data for other important purposes, including:

  • Managing the notarial practice’s files, including processing carried out before and after the execution of a notarial deed, such as the searches and checks required to execute a deed, and any other processing necessary for the notary to fulfil their duties as a public official and the tasks entrusted to them by members of the public;
  • Administering and following up clients’ files, including invoicing and accounting;
  • Carrying out checks and verifications required under anti-money laundering (AML) legislation;
  • Improving website navigation through the use of cookies;

What is the legal basis for processing your personal data?

Lawfulness – In most cases, the notary’s processing of personal data is lawful because it is necessary to comply with a legal obligation to which the notary is subject or to perform a task carried out in the public interest and entrusted to the notary.

The notarial practice processes personal data pursuant to legislation including, but not limited to:

  • The Law of 25 Ventôse, Year XI, on the Office of Notary;
  • The Law of 18 September 2017 on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing and on Restricting the Use of Cash.

Processing may also be based on the data subject’s consent, for example where non-essential cookies are used on the notarial practice’s website.

What personal data does the notarial practice process?

Depending on the services you use, the notarial practice may process the following categories of personal data:

  • Identification details (surname, first name, marital status, Belgian National Register number, place and date of birth, etc.);
  • Contact details (address, telephone number, etc.);
  • Economic and financial information;
  • Information concerning legal capacity;
  • Employment and professional information;
  • Information relating to deeds executed at the notarial practice;
  • Information concerning your family, social, tax or other circumstances which the notary is required to obtain from official sources and public authorities;

Where do we obtain your personal data?

As a public official, the notary must collect and use your personal data in order to carry out their duties.

Personal data is obtained from:

  • You or your legal representative;
  • Official data sources governed by specific legislation, such as the Belgian National Register, the Crossroads Bank for Social Security, the Central Register of Successions and the Central Register of Cohabitation and Marriage Contracts, among others;
  • Public authorities authorised to provide notaries with information in connection with their public-interest duties;

With whom may we share your personal data?

Depending on the circumstances of the processing, the personal data held by the notarial practice may be disclosed to third parties (“recipients”), in particular:

  • Legally authorised partners, such as federal public services and notarial institutions, for the storage of copies of deeds and their metadata as part of electronic registration, and for recording your details in the notarial profession’s central registers (e.g. the Central Register of Marriage Contracts, the Central Register of Powers of Attorney and the Central Register of Declarations);
  • The Royal Federation of Belgian Notaries (non-profit association), in relation to property data included in a notarial database used to generate statistics and help notaries assess property values when performing their duties;
  • The Provincial Chamber of Notaries involved in your matter and/or the National Chamber of Notaries (for example, in connection with their accounting oversight responsibilities or the prevention and combating of money laundering);
  • Other notaries involved in your matter (for example, in connection with a property sale deed);
  • The State Archives, for the preservation of files, original notarial deeds and wills;
  • Banks involved in your matter;
  • The chartered accountant or tax adviser responsible for the notarial practice’s accounts;
  • Processors supporting the management and continuity of the notarial practice, such as software providers used to prepare deeds.

Who processes personal data on behalf of the notarial practice?

A data processor is a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body that processes personal data on behalf of the notarial practice.

The notarial practice uses, among others, the following categories of data processors:

  • Hardware suppliers;
  • Software providers, including providers of file management and accounting systems;
  • Backup service providers;
  • Secure paper document destruction providers;
  • Consultants or external staff;

Is your personal data transferred outside the European Economic Area (EEA)?

As a rule, your personal data is not transferred outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”).

If your personal data is nevertheless transferred to a country outside the EEA which the European Commission considers not to provide an adequate level of protection, the notarial practice will take all necessary steps to protect it by putting additional safeguards in place (for example, by entering into standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission or adopting binding corporate rules).

How long do we retain your personal data?

Under the principle of storage limitation, personal data may only be retained for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes described above, taking account of applicable legislation and the limitation periods for rights in rem and personal claims. The retention periods below correspond to those recorded in the notarial practice’s register of processing activities.

Retention periods vary depending on the type of document:

  • Client records are retained until the client chooses to change notary and may be kept for the client’s lifetime to enable the provision of advice (in accordance with Article 9 of the Law on the Office of Notary);
  • Files are retained for 30 years after closure for evidential purposes (in accordance with Article 3.27 of the Belgian Civil Code);
  • Original notarial deeds are retained for 50 to 75 years after execution and are then transferred to the State Archives (in accordance with Article 62 of the Law on the Office of Notary);
  • Accounting books are retained for 10 years after the end of the financial year (in accordance with Article 33 of the Law on the Office of Notary);
  • Bank statements are retained for 10 years after the end of the relevant financial year (in accordance with Article 33 of the Law on the Office of Notary);
  • Personal data processed under AML legislation is deleted after the 10-year retention period (in accordance with Articles 60 and 62(1) of the AML Law);
  • Personal data processed for website management is retained for as long as necessary to achieve the intended purpose;

How do we ensure the security and confidentiality of your personal data?

The notarial practice implements appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure a level of security appropriate to the risk, and applies the personal data security measures set out in the National Chamber of Notaries’ Code of Conduct of 28 January 2021.

These measures are designed to prevent the destruction, loss, falsification or alteration of personal data, unauthorised access to or improper disclosure of collected personal data to third parties, and any other unauthorised processing.

In particular, the notarial practice ensures that:

  • Access to premises containing data storage media is restricted to authorised persons;
  • The server environment is adequately secured;
  • Personal data is stored and destroyed securely;
  • Staff and processors access only the data needed for their tasks, using secure methods;
  • A personal data breach reporting procedure is available to members of the notarial practice;
  • A policy on data subjects’ rights is available to members of the notarial practice;
  • An information security policy is available to members of the notarial practice;
  • A GDPR awareness policy is available to members of the notarial practice;
  • Technical safeguards, including firewalls, antivirus software and regular security updates, are in place.

These measures are regularly checked and reviewed by the DPO referred to above as part of periodic assessments.

The notarial practice has entered into data processing agreements with the processors it uses, in accordance with Article 28 of the GDPR and Article 2 of the National Chamber of Notaries’ Code of Conduct of 28 January 2021.

What are your rights?

Under the GDPR, as a data subject whose personal data is processed by the notarial practice, you have a number of rights concerning your personal data, insofar as exercising them does not conflict with the legal obligations binding on the notarial practice.

Subject to certain conditions, you have the following rights:

  • Right to information: You have the right to know, among other things, which personal data the notarial practice processes about you, why it is processed and how long it is retained;
  • Right of access: You have the right to access and obtain the personal data that the notarial practice holds and processes about you;
  • Right to rectification: You have the right to have inaccurate or incomplete personal data corrected;
  • Right to erasure: You have the right to request the deletion of personal data processed by the notarial practice;
  • Right to restriction of processing: You have the right to request that the processing of your personal data be restricted, for example if you contest its accuracy;
  • Right to data portability: You have the right to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and to transfer it to a third party;
  • Right to object: You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data by the notarial practice.

You can exercise your rights directly with the notarial practice by emailing info@vanhalteren.be or writing to Van Halteren Notarissen, de Lignestraat 13, 1000 Brussels, Belgium. You can also contact the Data Protection Officer at info@privanot.be.

If you believe that your rights under the GDPR have not been respected, you may lodge a complaint with the Belgian Data Protection Authority (Persstraat 35, 1000 Brussels, Belgium, or via www.gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit.be).

Reproduction of this Privacy Policy, in whole or in part, is prohibited without the prior express consent of the DPO.