Sending loose certificates is illegal!
People who work at Title companies are notorious for breaking the law in so many ways. Here are some common types of fraud that happen at Title companies daily:
(1) Many will deliberately and shamelessly forge initials when the borrower forgets to initial. I’m not sure how bad of a crime this is, but I recommend against any type of forgery — no matter what!
(2) Most will unstaple documents that have been stapled which makes the completed certificate which is attached (a legal requirement), no longer attached (illegal) and hence a loose certificate (gulp). I have had multiple Title companies complain to me that they didn’t like the industrial staples I used since they were so hard to unstaple. They don’t have a legal right to unstaple those notarized documents because the certificate must stay attached. Part of the problem with unattaching certificates, is that they could get reattached to some OTHER document creating confusion, havoc, and hence having a document notarized without having it presented to a notary public and going through the procedure and journal entry.
(3) Many will ask a notary to send them a loose certificate if a document needs to be notarized again for some reason. Sometimes the seal was smudgy, or perhaps they needed to replace the document and get a new certificate for the new document with a new date. If you are a “loose notary” who has a loose interpretation of notary law in your state, you might be breaking the law!
It all starts out with a pad of loose certificates!
You start out with our pad of loose acknowledgment certificates and jurat certificates. Any serious notary will have this type of pad on hand as if their life depends on it. Sure, the certificates are loose now, but that is okay, since they haven’t been filled out or stamped yet! When you notarize a signature(s) on a document(s), you have the signer(s) signer the instrument, and then you have them sign your official journal of notarial acts. Then, you fill out the certificate wording embedded in the document, or if that boiler plate wording isn’t there, you can add a certificate form which has the identical, or hopefully very similar boiler plate wording. You fill out the form, cross you s’s, and dot your t’s, etc. The minute you sign the certificate, and affix your official notary seal, then you may NOT let that certificate out of your site until it is ATTACHED to the corresponding document. It is illegal to unattach a certificate from a document, and very unkosher to unattach the staple for a notarized multipage document. What are your intentions? Are you going to swap pages after the fact? I can smell fraud a mile away!
What should you the notary do when asked to send a loose certificate?
It’s easy. Someone at a Title company says they need a new Jurat certificate for the Affidavit of Domicile you notarized for them a week ago otherwise their loan won’t go through (pressure technique). They want you to mail the loose certificate to them! Tell them:
“No problem, just send me the document and the original certificate — I’ll shred the old certificate and add a new one… You can not have two certificates for the same document. The signer already signed the journal for this particular transaction and doesn’t need to sign it again for a certificate which is to be dated the same date they signed the journal.”
And they will say:
“Oh, come on, why does this have to be so difficult. That takes extra time and money. Why can’t you just (break the law) and send us what we want (and risk your commission and risk being sent to jail or being fined perhaps more than $1000) for our convenience?”
And then you should say:
“If you need notaries to routinely break the law for your pleasure, you should ask your notaries some pre-screening questions. Ask them if they are willing to break the law on a whim (your whim) and risk their commission and perhaps some jail time for your convenience. Ask them if they mind risking going to jail to save you from having to wait an additional 24 hours for a loose certificate… if they say ‘sure’, then they are the notary for you!”
My concluding advice
Don’t break the law for these rascals. They are not worth it. You probably won’t get in trouble, but as a notary public, your position in society is to preserve integrity, and to safeguard transactions by making sure that the signer really signed the corresponding document in question. If certificates get switched on documents due to fraud, or because you didn’t identify the document carefully enough on the certificate, then you are a liability to society and shouldn’t be a notary public.
As a notary, you should be very sensitive to the fact that if you are notarizing multiple documents for a particular signer, those documents could get mixed up, and the signer could pull a fast one and reattach notary certificates from a document you really did notarize, to another similarly named document that you did not notarize.
Multi-page documents can be taken apart and pages switched. Title companies ROUTINELY take apart documents as a matter of standard procedure, and if you don’t emboss every page of everything you notarize, it would be easy for someone to replace page 5 with another similar looking page 5. Assume that people are dishonest and shady, so that you can protect the virtue and integrity of your work. Document everything to a tee, and don’t give in to pressure to do illegal notary acts even if it means losing a client. You don’t want that client anyway in the long run — trust me!
You might also like:
10 tight points on loose certificates
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=15449
Signing agent best practices
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=4315
Notary Certificates, Notary Wording & Notary Verbiage
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=1834
Make your own certificate forms
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=1759
Don’t put the Fedex in the drop box!
Please, no drop boxes!
I know a lot of you use drop boxes (Fedex, UPS, etc) to drop your document packages. And before you say it, I know some of you have no other options that are close to you. In this case your options are limited. You are forgiven. Maybe you have had issues with drop boxes or maybe you haven’t. But, regardless, it is something to consider, if at all possible please don’t drop your packages in drop boxes. Because, if you have bad luck and the documents get lost; and you have no documentation; It can cause you a great amount of grief, stress and aggravation; and in the end it could cost you a valuable client.
Loan package with a hefty cashier’s check thrown in a drop box
To give you an example, here is one story of several that has been shared with me. I had an Oregon notary just the other day call in to 123notary. From her tone she was obviously very upset. It seems she had completed a signing successfully and had dropped her documents on a Friday in one of those infamous drop boxes of Fedex. It was now Tuesday, and she got that dreaded call: the title company still hadn’t received the package. I thought to myself, this is going to be bad. When this Oregon notary public and title went to track the package, there was no tracking information available. To make matters even worse there was a substantial amount in a cashier’s check also in the missing package. The assignment that had been given to the Notary in Oregon was for the paperwork that was to be used to purchase the property. So, now everyone is upset and confused as to what to do.
Get your tracking — people!
Now in my mind, I’m thinking why in the world would you drop a set of documents in a drop box, especially with a large amount in a cashiers check. This to me this is a disaster waiting to happen. The first thing I let our Oregon notary friend know is that unless absolutely necessary, you should always hand your packages to a driver and ask him to scan them or take them to hub or staffed service center, have them scan them and get a receipt. This way YOU are off the hook. Which brings me to another point…
Hand fill the shipping labels
PLEASE remember when you are required to hand fill out the shipping labels with the client; title-escrow etc account numbers you should always list the person that you are shipping to as the recipient and as the shipper. Do NOT use your information at all. This will serve two purposes. One-if the envelope is lost, it will not come to you it will just automatically go to the company that hired you. Two- if the company has not paid their bill you will not get charged for the service. Currently I have about 3 notaries battling with Fedex on this matter (cause they put their name as the shipper)and they are in collection status with them. Be careful! This can cause you a great deal of trouble with UPS, Fedex etc. and worst of all it will effect your credit if you cant straighten it out. You will have to pay it if you cant prove to their satisfaction that, you were hired by a 3rd party.
Now I understand that some of you may not be near a hub or have a location that you can go into to get a scan or receipt near by. But for those of you that do. It is better to safe then sorry. Always try to get a receipt or have driver scan your packages for you. This will protect you. For me, I need to know where my documents are at ALL times.
Now, unfortunately as of today I haven’t heard back form the notary in this situation so I cant give up an up to date but I am confident if those documents didn’t turn up everything would have to be redone…and all I can say is what a mess. If and when I hear from her I will let you know….Just remember: No drop boxes if you can help it…
Thank for reading and be safe…until next time!
PS — Jeremy did a signing ten years ago that was put in a drop box. The documents were missing for a week. The signing company eventually called Fedex — and you will never guess where the documents were. They were still down there at the bottom of the drop box, and getting very cold by this point! The driver who was assigned that drop box had quit and his replacement wasn’t given good instructions as to which drop boxes to pick up from every day!
Tweets:
(1) You could lose a client if you put a FedEx in a drop box on the off chance it never gets picked up.
(2) Sooner or later, the FedEx you put in a drop box won’t get picked up. Be safe & take it to a hub!
(3) If you put a FedEx containing a cashier’s check in a drop box, that is a recipe for disaster!
(4) Once I put a FedEx in the drop box that never got delivered. FedEx found it a week later still in the box!
You might also like:
Should you send the Fedex right away?
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=16166
What tasks can you do which are worth $1000 per minute?
Compilation of Notary stories on the blog categorized
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=21898
Comparing journal entries to Fedex signatures
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=19375