When is a certified signature enough, and when do we need lawyer authorisation?

You are buying an apartment, transferring a business interest or granting a power of attorney, and encounter a requirement for a “certified signature” or, for company documents since 17 August 2026, “lawyer authorisation”. These are different legal procedures with different effects. An electronic signature replaces some of them.

Signature certification confirms who signed

A notary certifies signature authenticity under Act No. 323/1992 Coll. (the Notarial Code); a municipality or district office does so under Act No. 78/2026 Coll. on the Certification of Documents and Signatures on Documents, effective from 1 September 2026. Certification confirms only that the person signed before the certifying official or acknowledged the signature as their own (Section 58(1) of the Notarial Code; Section 8(1) of Act No. 78/2026 Coll.). The content is not reviewed, as both laws expressly state: notarial signature certification does not certify the truth of the facts stated in the document (Section 58(4)), and an office or municipality does not certify its content, correctness or truth (Section 14(3) of Act No. 78/2026 Coll.). A certified signature therefore protects against a challenge to the signature, not against a bad contract.

Authorisation: the lawyer is responsible for identity and content

Authorisation is governed by Act No. 586/2003 Coll. on the Legal Profession:

Authorisation of a contract means drafting a property transfer contract, a company’s incorporation document, a business interest transfer agreement or a shareholders’ agreement under Section 220w(3) of the Commercial Code; establishing the identities of the parties and their representatives; assessing whether the contract contravenes or circumvents the law or is contrary to good morals; and assessing whether entering into the contract will give rise to circumstances causing damage.

— Section 1a(1) of Act No. 586/2003 Coll. (unofficial English translation)

The lawyer bears responsibility: if they fail to establish the parties’ true identities and do not refuse the service, they cannot escape liability for damage caused by identity misuse (Section 1b(3)). We explain what to bring in documents needed for contract authorisation.

Which procedure is sufficient where

For property transfers, the Cadastral Act (Act No. 162/1995 Coll.) offers a choice:

The transferor’s signature on the contract […] must be certified under separate regulations […] This does not apply if […] the property transfer contract is drawn up as a notarial deed or authorised by a lawyer.

— Section 42(3) of Act No. 162/1995 Coll. (unofficial English translation)

An ordinary sale contract requires the transferor’s certified signature. For an authorised contract, the cadastre does not require certification and decides on registration within 20 rather than 30 days, provided the contract does not conflict with cadastral records (Section 32(1) and (2)). For company documents, there has been no such choice since 17 August 2026: under the Commercial Code (Act No. 513/1991 Coll.), both a memorandum of association and a sole founder’s incorporation deed must take the form of a notarial deed or a document authorised by a lawyer (Section 57(1) and (3)); the same applies to a business interest transfer agreement (Section 115(4)). A transfer with merely certified signatures no longer satisfies the required form.

Authorisation does not replace a power of attorney: a mandate to enter into a memorandum of association requires the principal’s officially certified signature (Section 57(2)), as does a property transferor’s power of attorney (Section 42(3) of the Cadastral Act). A certified signature also remains required for a sole member’s decision on a managing director’s remuneration (Section 132(1) of the Commercial Code).

An electronic signature replaces a signature, not the required form

A qualified electronic signature (QES) is another form of signature. The Civil Code (Act No. 40/1964 Coll.) uses an older term that Act No. 272/2016 Coll. on Trust Services equates with a QES (Section 17(2)):

Certification of signature authenticity is not required for legal acts performed electronically, signed with a guaranteed electronic signature or guaranteed electronic seal and bearing a timestamp.

— Section 40(5) of the Civil Code (unofficial English translation)

For electronic submissions to a public authority, a QES with a qualified electronic timestamp replaces an officially certified signature where the certificate unambiguously identifies the individual (Section 23(1)(b) of Act No. 305/2013 Coll.). A QES replaces the signature and its certification, but not lawyer authorisation or a notarial deed. Those procedures concern who drafted the document and is responsible for it.

How we can help

We authorise company documents through our lawyer contract authorisation service and property contracts through authorisation of property transfer contracts. Where authorisation is unnecessary, we assess the required form through our signature certification service; we certify documents for Czech proceedings directly.

Tell us what legal act you intend and where the document will be used. We assess the required form before drafting it.