The bank account listed below is a trust account within the meaning of Article 25 of the Notaries Act and is held in the name of Van Putten Van Apeldoorn Notarissen. Van Putten Van Apeldoorn Notarissen is a business name of the private limited company VPVA Notarissen B.V., based in Ede.
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Rabobank Vallei en Rijn |
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Please provide your file number with any payments.
Please be aware that the name on the account used to transfer the amount to one of our trust accounts must be the same as the name and address on your completion statement or invoice. If the amount is not transferred by you or the applicable company, but by a different person or company, we are obliged to generate a statement of client funds origin. This statement must be signed before the deed can be executed. The fee for generating this statement is € 65.- incl. VAT. If it is a commercial real estate transaction the fee for this statement is € 150.- plus VAT.
Interest
No interest is paid on any funds you deposit into our trust account.
Negative interest
In order to stimulate the European economy the European Central Bank has steadily been reducing the main interest rates (for example the Euribor) over the past few years. This has made it cheaper for companies and individuals to borrow money, for example for purchasing a home at low mortgage rates.
The reverse side of this coin is that savers now receive little or no interest on their savings, as the banks themselves are dealing with a negative interest rate on funds they deposit with the European Central Bank. This means that a bank is actually paying interest on its savings balance with the European Central Bank. Dutch banks are already charging this interest on to large companies and institutions.
A number of major banks have recently announced that private savers may also be facing negative interest rates, but have indicated that (for now) this will not apply to savings balances under a certain amount per person.
Notary firms deal with (savings) funds of individuals, companies and institutions as well. If a home is purchased the purchase agreement usually stipulates that the buyer must pay 10% of the purchase price into the notary’s trust account within a certain number of weeks as a deposit. The buyer can also choose to have an approved financial institution issue a bank guarantee for the amount in question. This deposit or bank guarantee is intended both as a security and as compensation for the seller in the event the buyer fails to meet his obligations. This may occur, for example, if the buyer decides not to sign the transfer of ownership of the home before the civil-law notary
Negative interest on the deposit
What are the consequences for you now that the banks are starting to charge negative interest on deposits as well? It means that the amount deposited into the notary’s trust account is worth a little less each day. It follows that the buyer would then have to deposit an additional amount for interest into the notary’s trust account on a daily basis, which would not be very practical.
The civil-law notary will charge the negative interest on to the client. This means that if the deposit is paid out or offset against the purchase price the negative interest will be deducted from the total amount. We charge this negative interest on to the seller. The deposit is intended as both a security and as compensation for the seller if the buyer fails to meet his obligations. If the seller claims payment of the deposit the negative interest will be deducted from the amount the seller receives. In such an instance the seller has a claim against the buyer for the amount of the negative interest, which the seller must recover directly from the buyer. We cannot assist you with this any further. VPVA Notarissen advises its clients that if a buyer is required to pay a 10% deposit on the purchase price it may, in some cases, be preferable to have an approved financial institution issue a bank guarantee for the amount in question.
The above also applies if the civil-law notary is holding estate funds or deposit monies in trust for you.
Negative interest in the event of delays
If the transfer of ownership must be postponed for whatever reason, this will have negative consequences. For example, the longer the buyer refuses to cooperate, the lower the amount will be that the seller receives from the notary’s trust account in compensation. Any mortgage funds the lender deposits into the notary’s trust account for the buyer are also reduced as a result of negative interest if the transfer of ownership needs to be postponed. In such a case the buyer would have to deposit additional interest.
Charging on of negative interest and costs
Since 1 April 2020 VPVA Notarissen has been required to pay the bank interest on any funds it holds in trust for you (negative interest). This cost will be passed on to you as follows:
Option 1*: the funds held in trust for you are in our account for no more than 5 days and the total amount of the transaction does not exceed
€ 250,000.-. The negative interest is not charged on.
Option 2*: the funds held in trust for you are in our account for more than 5 days or the total amount of the transaction exceeds € 250,000.-. The negative interest is charged on, including the negative interest for the first 5 days.
*For both options a fee of € 25.- including VAT will be charged to the individual parties for the financial settlement. This fee covers the first five payments we, as civil-law notaries, must make in respect of a transaction (e.g. payments to the seller, the buyer, the real estate agent, mortgage lender or mortgage broker). Any required transfer tax payments are free of charge. If more than five separate payments must be made we charge a fee of € 9.50 incl. VAT per payment to the applicable party.
As a notary firm we are bound by a large number of rules relating to the payment of funds. Find out more under ‘Professional rules’.