Over 10% of the 793 notary practices in the Netherlands were in financial trouble last year, the Financieele Dagblad says on Friday.

In total, 95 offices failed to meet the standards set down by the sector regulator BFT in the third quarter of 2014, the FD says.

One anonymous spokesman quoted by the paper said over 100 offices did not meet the ‘positive liquidity’ position required by the regulator and were not in a position to pay their short term debts.

Notaries are a type of lawyer who deals with property and family law transactions. The sector had fixed fees until 1999 and since then there has been a price war, hitting profits.