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In our last article, Gustavo Centeno Biglia, expert in Corporate Law and Mergers and Acquisitions, discusses the Electronic System of Public Records (“SERP”), a tool implemented by Provisional Presidential Decree, at the end of December, in order to modernize and simplify the procedures for the public recording of legal acts and businesses. Check out our text in full and learn about the effects brought by the Provisional Presidential Decree.

In the last days of December, amid the holidays, Provisional Presidential Decree No. 1085/2021 was passed, creating the Electronic System of Public Records (“SERP”). The purpose of this statue was to simplify and modernize the procedures for the public recording of legal acts and businesses, such as real estate development operations, contracts, articles of organization, bylaws or shareholders agreements etc.

Among the measures brought upon by the Provisional Decree, we can highlight the provision for the connection of all notary offices at the national level, as well as the obligation to execute the acts by electronic means. Although this was brought by the Provisional Decree, the determination of this type of procedure was already provided for by law, but was still waiting for the specific regulation to pass so it could be duly enforced.

SERP will enable users to remotely use notary services for the reception, storage and sending of certificates, titles and documents. It will also serve to collect the signatures by means of the “gov.br”, which will do without the need for digital certification in the signatures.

With this implementation, it will be possible for the acts annotated and registered in the notary offices to be viewed electronically, and the information and documents will be able to be shared among notaries, public authorities and users. Despite its provisions, the regulation of the system will be defined at a later date and will be the responsibility of the National Administration of Justice of the National Council of Justice.

The system will also allow the use of electronic statements with structured data, thus waiving the need to submit the original version of the document so the annotations and registrations could be recorded, which makes the registration of acts and businesses in notary offices a more expedited and practical affair. Nevertheless, it is important to say that not all documents may be consolidated into statements; it is up to the National Council of Justice to indicate which documents and information may follow this standard.

Another benefit of using SERP is that the times to perform notary services will be shortened. Relevant examples include the change in the period that real estate electronic certificates, which are now to be provided within four (4) working days and also the reduction from thirty (30) to five (5) working days for the registration of the real estate sale deeds without suspensive conditions.

The rules introduced by the Provisional Decree result in changes to several laws, such as the Public Records Law (Law No. 6,015/1973), the Real Estate Development Law (Law No. 4,591/1964), the Allotment Law (Law No. 6,766/1979), the Notaries and Registrars Law (Law No. 8,935/1994), the Civil Code (Law No. 10,406/2002), the “Minha Casa, Minha Vida” Program Law (Law No. 11,977/2009), the Reurb Law (Law No. 13,365/2017), the Civil Construction Industry Incentives Law (Law No. 4,864/1965) and the Law that regulates the registrations in real estate registries (Law No. 13,097/2015).

The Provisional Decree is in effect as of its publication, but has a term of sixty (60) days, renewable for the same time. If it is not converted into Law by the National Congress within that term, the rule will lose its effectiveness. The hope that the issue will not be trampled by other matters of interest to the government exists because of the possibility of locking the congressional agenda if the Provisional Decree is not submitted to a vote within a forty-five (45) days from its publication.

In view of this, we are hopeful that the issue will be prioritized in the National Congress so that we may finally have a more modern and agile public registration system, thus collaborating with the improvement in the business environment in Brazil and, therefore, positively impacting the country’s position in the general classification of the World Bank’s “Doing Business” report.

By Gustavo D. Centeno Biglia