Real-Life Examples of Translation Pitfalls At Netherlands Notaries

Example 1

An expat hires a Dutch notary to complete the purchase of his new home. The notary’s services include documents and meetings in English. The notary doesn’t inform the expat that the documents and meetings will be translated by an external translator chosen by the notary. The expat agrees to the notary’s services not knowing who will translate nor that the translation services come at a hefty price. Although quoted as a single invoice item, the price for the English language service consists of the translator’s fees plus the notary’s cut of the translator’s fees, plus taxes. When the expat finds out how much he has to pay for the translations and that he could have gotten much it significantly much cheaper, he is informed that his contract with the notary doesn’t allow him to opt out, plus he already received some documents in English. The expat is not amused. When he finds out the translation and interpretation services are below par, he is very disappointed, to say the least.

Example 2

A non-Dutch company engages a Dutch attorney for legal matters. The attorney’s services include translation of Dutch documents. The attorney does not inform the company how he will have the documents translated, whether by a machine free of charge or by a professional and competent translator. The company agrees to the services not knowing who the translator is nor that the services come at a hefty price on top of the attorney’s fees, plus the attorney’s cut of the translation fees. When the company receives the translated documents, it can’t tell whether the translation is correct because it doesn’t speak Dutch, but it can certainly tell it’s a translation because it’s hard to follow. To solve the quality problem, the company ends up paying another competent translator of its own choosing to make a proper translation.

Translation Problems Harming You And Your Finances

These are just two real-life examples of many. They show two interrelated translation problems in the Netherlands. The first is the problem of the non-translation service provider turned intermediary who superimposes himself on the unassuming client who needs a translator. That is, the client needs a translator but the non-translation service provider forces the client to engage a certain translator selected by the service provider, not the client. The word “forces” is appropriate here because the client has virtually no option. Although the client agrees in advance to e.g. the notary’s services in English, he doesn’t even know he has to pay for an external translator nor who that translator is even. However, as soon as the expat receives a document in English, the notary has performed his part of the “translation contract” because the expat is already in possession of the translation. The expat’s problem is that he can’t verify the quality of the translation because he doesn’t even know who made it and he doesn’t speak the original language. Here, the expat is relying on the notary, but the notary is not a translator to guarantee or control translation quality. Why is it a problem when a non-translation service provider turned intermediary superimposes himself on a client who needs a translator? Because, although he is not a translator, he forces the client to pay for certain translation services, because he doesn’t allow the client to choose, and also because the client may thus be forced to pay for poor quality work. These are just three reasons but we’re sure you can come up with many more.

This brings us to the second problem: hefty translation fees. Let’s be clear, the intermediary is not going to do anything for free. He may charge his own fees for finding the translator, either through a direct fee or indirectly by factoring the translator’s fee in his own fee. When you’re not allowed to decide who’s going to perform the work, you lose control over the price you’ll have to pay. What’s worse is that the intermediary choosing for the client but is not himself a translator to guarantee or control translation quality. That is, since neither the expat nor intermediary guarantee or control translation quality, the expat might as well decide for himself who’s going to translate for him, since after all, he’s the one who is paying for the translations. You can save much money and headaches by simply choosing your own translator. This allows you to have more control over the service, price and quality. Think about it.

Thank you very much for visiting. Thank you for your donations, for believing in Plus Ultra and for sharing this with anyone who may find this useful. Because of you, we can continue to help the community at large with free multilingual support and in language, law and tourism and create valuable related content, such as articles and videos. Again, we appreciate your support and hope to see you soon again.

© Plus Ultra Publishing & Legal Translations. All rights reserved.