Notaries

Notarial practice and the KNB audit: ready for inspection

13 February 2026 · 8 min read · DeSnipperaar

A notarial office faces a unique archival challenge. The original deed is formally kept for a century and then transferred to the National Archives. But around that deed gathers a whole ecosystem of drafts, scratch versions, correspondence, files and Wwft documents, each with its own retention period and its own destruction regime. The Royal Dutch Association of Civil-law Notaries (KNB) and the Bureau Financieel Toezicht (BFT) supervise the profession, and their audits look at the practice around both retention and disposal. This article helps you be ready.

Audience: civil-law notaries, candidate notaries, office managers and legal administrators.

The deed: 100 years and then on to the National Archives

The Notarial Act (Wna) art. 7 and following prescribes that deeds are kept for 100 years in the notarial archive. After that term they go to the National Archive Service. During those 100 years a deed may not be destroyed, not even at the request of the interested party. It is therefore important to sharply distinguish the "file" from the "deed". The former can go, the latter cannot.

The file around the deed

A file relating to a deed typically contains:

• Intake and engagement confirmation
• Correspondence with client and counterparty
• Draft versions of the deed (often in PDF and Word)
• Scratch notes and annotations
• Wwft client due diligence (ID, UBO, risk assessment)
• Financial settlement and invoices
• Documents from the Chamber of Commerce, BRP, Land Registry
• Powers of attorney and signature statements

These documents are not subject to the 100-year term. They fall under shorter periods that differ per type.

Retention periods per document type

• Deed: 100 years (Wna).
• Draft versions: recommendation 10 years, then destroy. No statutory obligation.
• Scratch notes: as short as possible, recommendation no more than 1 year after the deed is executed.
• Wwft client due diligence: 5 years after the end of the relationship (Wwft art. 33). See Wwft 5 years.
• Tax documents: 7 years (AWR art. 52).
• Third-party funds administration: 7 years (BFT rules).
• Professional liability documents: until the end of civil limitation (up to 20 years for hidden defects).

Keeping things too long is now just as punishable as keeping them too short. The GDPR makes retention without a basis a separate violation.

Drafts and scratch versions: the underrated risk

Most offices have no explicit policy for drafts. Yet a draft contains the same personal data as the final deed, sometimes plus quirks that never made it into the final version. Recommendation: destroy drafts after 10 years via DIN 66399 P-5. The deed itself stays intact.

More on this in our article destroying scratch versions and intakes. Scratch notes are even riskier. They contain unfiltered observations by the notary about the client, financial position, family situation. Advice: destroy in the office shredder immediately after the deed is executed, or keep for a maximum of 1 year as a reflection or learning point.

The KNB and BFT inspection

A KNB inspection looks at general office organisation, file management and confidentiality. BFT looks primarily at the financial side (third-party funds, Wwft). What comes up in archive management?

1. Are retention periods explicitly recorded in the office manual?
2. Is the term applied per file type, or is the policy "keep everything for ages"?
3. Are destructions documented with a certificate?
4. How is the confidentiality chain arranged for external destruction?
5. Is there a processor agreement with the destruction party?
6. Is the digital part (DMS, email archive) cleaned up in the same way?

Inspectors often ask, by way of sample, about a file that should have been destroyed under the retention rules. Being able to produce a certificate is the fastest route to a positive assessment.

Wwft documents: clean up separately

Wwft client due diligence documents may go after 5 years. In practice they sit interwoven within the file. Tip: at the opening of every file, create a separate Wwft tab, both physically and digitally. That makes later separation easy. After 5 years you can remove and destroy the tab without touching the rest of the file.

Digital archives and the DMS

Modern offices work with ENNU, Diginotar successors or a general DMS. The digital deed is now the norm (electronic authentic deed via the central digital repository). That does not change the retention period, but it does change the destruction method. For digital files:

• Removal from DMS with audit trail
• Removal from email archive
• Purge of backups on tape or in the cloud
• Physical destruction of phased-out backup media and HDDs (see cleaning up LTO tapes)

Takeover and practice handover

When a notarial office is taken over, deeds (the 100-year repository) go to the successor or to the central repository. Files are assessed case by case: hand over, archive or destroy. Many takeovers come with a large destruction round, because for the new principal it is undesirable to drag along old files that have no further professional use.

Key documents and signature cards

Often forgotten: old client signature cards, copies of passports and driving licences used for identification. These carry the same 5-year term as Wwft documents. Destruction via P-5 is standard, and copies of ID deserve extra care because they enable identity fraud if leaked.

Processor agreement specific to notarial practice

Refer explicitly to Wna art. 22 (the notary's duty of confidentiality), not only to GDPR. Ask the external destruction party for an agreement that includes:

• Staff screened with a Certificate of Good Conduct (VOG)
• Destruction on the spot
• Certificate delivered per job
• Direct duty to report any irregularities
• Audit right is secured

See our complete checklist for processor agreements.

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Preparing for an audit or your annual clean-up? Call us or request a quote via desnipperaar.nl. We know notarial practice and have a standard processor agreement ready that refers to Wna art. 22.