Posted by ReneeK_MI on 9/6/06 6:26am
Msg #143795
previous notary's "a/k/a" and the aftermath ...
Scenario: Mom & Dad own a house. Son is put on title. Son and Wife take posession (move in), Dad passes away.
Son does a refi. QT deed accompanies that mortgage, vesting title to the effect of "Son and Mom, as survivors of estate of Dad"
Mom = (made up names of course) "Mary Little Lamb"
Wife = "Molly Mary Lamb" (middle name matches first name of Mom)
Notary who closed this refi - gets to closing, has docs for "Son" and "Mary Little Lamb" (mom)
The people present are Son and "Molly Mary Lamb" (WIFE)
Son tells notary "they screwed up my wife's name!"
Notary changes docs, vesting on mtg, acks to read:
"Son" and "Mary Little Lamb, a/k/a Molly Mary Lamb"
Don't ask me how this all got recorded, but it did. I go to close current refi - have docs reading "Mary Little Lamb, a/k/a Molly Mary Lamb" and I have before me Son, and Wife. Of course, Wife can't provide ID confirming she is "Mary Little Lamb" because she ISN'T "Mary Little Lamb". I ask, purely conversationally, how this a/k/a came to exist - and Son says "Dad died and X mtg co put my wife's name that way, so notary just did the a/k/a."
I said "Hmmm ... sorry for your loss of your dad - is "Mary Little Lamb" your mom's name, then?"
"YEAP! They just keep putting my mom's name instead of my wife's name, and we have to do this a/k/a stuff and my wife has to sign my mom's name!"
Now - if you were able to follow this, then I don't have to explain anything further, you'll clearly see how INCREDIBLY INSANE this situation is. How in the WORLD that last loan ever funded & recorded is beyond me. WHY would anyone throw on an a/k/a when there's absolutely no sense of logic in joining those two identities?
We, as notaries, notarize the signatures of those we have identified. The docs I had in hand, had "Mary Little Lamb" as the first name, followed with "a/k/a" and then "Molly Mary Lamb". In MY decision-making process, the FIRST name is the person I identify, and anything following is IMHO considered BY ME to be as a 'capacity'. I will identify whomever I am able to clearly, legally identify - and no more, no less. Even had this not been his mother's name, I would NOT have been able to allow Wife to sign w/ any varient of a name that I could not identify her with on any doc that I was notarizing.
Title wanted me to have her sign "a/k/a" but I refused. Initially, Son said name was just a mistake, and didn't volunteer it was his mother's name. I offered to revise notarized docs to read: "Molly Mary Lamb, who took title as Mary Little Lamb", but the signature would be ONLY "Molly Mary Lamb". Period. Title was good with that, so was I. THEN it dawns on me and I ask if it was his mother's name. Well, shame on me - sometimes I am so diligent on figuring out how to get something done and covering all my OWN bases that I lose the bigger picture. I didn't even ask if Mom is deceased - the whole thing is too big a mess for me, as a Notary and as an NSA to even imply some sort of fix.
This will be re-closing, and it will be coming back to me I am happy to say. Please don't do as I did - initially, I was just all about 'helping' figure things out. When nothing makes any kind of sense - there's probably a few very good reasons.
|
Reply by ReneeK_MI on 9/6/06 1:19pm
Msg #143864
Hey there, Mia =)
Is Mom aware of the refi, you ask - my point exactly! I'm not even sure Mom is alive, and I might be able to make a good guess if I were to meet her ... it's DEFINITELY not my job. My suspicion is that Mom is deceased, and that Death Cert was never recorded - so (my assumptions are really piling up here now) previous notary either was bullied into doing the a/k/a, or was someone who thought they knew a neat trick.
I suspect the place where a lot of this a/k/a stuff comes from is the L.O., in concert sometimes w/ title ... since it's YOUR neck they're stretching across the block. Ignorance, as they say, is no excuse for not following the law. The law says "Identify ..." and inserting "a/k/a" does not in itself an Identification make.
If you are not 100% absolutely certain about what you're doing or about to do - do NOT let yourself become intimidated into doing it.
|
