Posted by PatriciaAR on 8/1/12 9:09am
Msg #428936

Client signing

I had a very wierd thing happen during a signing. The husband told me his wife was sleeping and that he would walk each document to their bedroom to have her sign them. I explained to him that she would need to be present and sign docs in front of me. He got up in a huff and stomped off to get her. I honestly thought she really wasn't even in the home. Has this happened to anyone else before?

Reply by Shoshana/AZ on 8/1/12 9:18am
Msg #428937

This kind of thing happened to a friend of mine years ago. Husband said wife was sick and could not come to the table. My friend said ok, I'll come back when she is feeling better.

How could wife sign if she was "sleeping"? This is probably more common than we know. Most likely husband was trying to commit fraud. This type of thing used to happen when there was equity in the home. Husband or wife would pull out the equity and then run away with lover and a ton of money.

Good for you for preventing a possible fraudulent act.

Reply by Patricia Ochsner on 8/1/12 9:26am
Msg #428938

What's strange is he finally relented and went to get her. She strolls to the dining room grumpy. She didn't say one word to me. I also requested both D.L's and scanned them. I was taking NO chances. :-)

Reply by Gina/VA on 8/1/12 9:34am
Msg #428940

Good for you!

Reply by 101livescan on 8/1/12 10:19am
Msg #428948

Unbelievable. Yes, I have had this happen. Finally the wife drags her ass out of bed and shows up at noon in pink rollers, flannels and dog slippers. She has an attitude you can't believe. We abandon the signing because of "procedural snags". I get to go again. This time she's dressed, it's early evening. They are one hour late.

Inconsiderate, wealthy Montecito snobs. She runs a PM company and is highly unethical, labor board issues filed by her employees. Good grief. Why me God???

Reply by GOLDGIRL/CA on 8/1/12 10:30am
Msg #428952

Yes, this happened to me once. Husband said wife was sick in bed with the flu and that he would take the docs into her to sign. Hmmm, I thought, what's wrong with this picture? I said no go but we could resked when she was feeling better. Finally, she dragged herself to the signing table looking like, well, like she had the flu.

Obviously, some people will use this tactic to commit some sort of fraud, but I think most people have no idea we're there to "witness" signatures ... i.e. watch them sign, in the case of loan docs, and think it's OK if someone signs behind closed doors.

Reply by Frances Kany on 8/1/12 11:37am
Msg #428966

I actually had a signing once with an elderly man and his wife. She was bedridden. So I went in to meet her but after that we just sat at the table and he took all the dower docs for her to sign since she was not on the loan. I had asked her a couple of questions so I could assess if she was coherent and knew what she was signing. He had already made a copy of his and her ID.

Went off without a hitch. But I would be cautious also if the wife or husband would not come to the signing table. In fact when I call to confirm with borrower I make a point of telling them that BOTH of them will need to come since Mississippi is a martial state and requires both spouses.

Reply by JanetK_CA on 8/2/12 1:22am
Msg #429068

I hope you personally watched her sign any docs that needed notarizing... (Like DOT/Mortgage?)

Reply by Bob_Chicago on 8/1/12 12:13pm
Msg #428970

Way back when, on the old NASA board as I recall,

someone reported an incident of imaginative fraud.
Notary shows up at house. A young man tells notary that signer is bedridden .
Notary goes into a dimly lit room, and sees individual in bed.
Checks ID and proceeds with signing, which involved a substantial "cash out"
Several months later, lender , who has never received a payment, notifies borrower of a default.
Borrower advises lender that he knows nothing about a mortgage loan and at the time of signing, he was in England for an extended trip. He produces evidence to that effect.
Turns out that his nephew had a key to the house, gained access to the uncle's info, did the app process , somehow cashed the check and had a grand old time , along with his buddy, with the $$
This might be more difficult with today's lending climate, but you never know. Like we don't have enough stuff to worry about .

Reply by CentralNY on 8/1/12 12:54pm
Msg #428976

Re: Way back when, on the old NASA board as I recall,

the movie about he wealthy upper east side lady who a son and his mom must have forged her id and when the notary came the mom was bedridden pretending to be the old lady deeding the NYC property to them. they ended up killing the old lady. maybe no picture id then, but i think she did disguise herself to look like old lady. i hurt my foot and i am bored.

Reply by Frances Kany on 8/1/12 2:48pm
Msg #428995

Re: Way back when, on the old NASA board as I recall,

OMG I am going to get paranoid with all these horror stories!!! LOL

Reply by jojo_MN on 8/1/12 8:03pm
Msg #429027

Around five years ago I went to a closing and a lady answered the door and said she would be signing for her husband. I said he needed to be present since she doesn't have a Power of Attorney. She said "the other notaries let her sign his name in the past". I again refused. She then said that her husband was downstairs sick in bed and she wanted to take the documents down to her husband to sign and then bring them back up to me. I said he needs to get up here right now to sign these documents or the loan is not going to happen. She then went downstairs and got him to come up. He was not ill at all. He sat down at the table and asked what is going on. I told him that I had the mortgage documents to sign for the refinance. He was totally bewildered. He thought they only owed $35,000 on the house. This loan was for over $165,000. Apparently the wife had refinanced a few times in the previous years and the notaries just let her sign his name. The husband was furious and said to his wife "You will never touch the checkbook again". His knuckles were white. I felt very uneasy and told him we didn't sign the papers if he felt uncomfortable. He said "No, this needs to be cleared up right now." The air was thick.

I actually was worried that he might become violent after I left and was very close to calling the police. Didn't, but did watch the papers for reports for a few weeks. Had I been thinking, I would have pulled their mortgage at the courthouse to see who the notary was. I didn't know at the time that you could do it.