Posted by eric on 1/18/05 11:56am
Msg #17198

accept forms

We are experienced notaries that closes many many many loans a month. However we have one title company who we contract with for a signing at a specific time but is routinely 1-2hrs late on delivery of docs. We dont want to loose this client, but there lateness causes our schedule to be thrown off.

Has anyone ever delevoped a "acceptance form" which put in stipulations or fees for late docs?

Reply by Bobbi in CT on 1/18/05 12:07pm
Msg #17201

Add'l fee for late Edocs

Never bothered with an acceptance form re additional fee for late documents. I have doubts that it would be collectable. That is, I would probably get a check for fee in original confirmation and then will have to fight for additional amount. Who at signing company is going to spend time monitoring delivery of Edocs "on time" or bother to automatically change confirmation fee if they are late.

Alternative: State the documents must be RECEIVED by you at X (5pm) time and, if not received, what the "late document" charge is. At 4:30pm Call the scheduler. State the documents have not been received and that if the documents are not received by 5pm there is an additional charge of $x; write down the name and direct telephone number of the person you tell this to. No documents at 5pm. Call same person, state you need a new confirmation for $x and that if documents are not received BEFORE 6pm you are no longer available to do the signing that day. ...see what happens. I have always gotten my late document fee by notifying the scheduler of what is going on (many times they are not the company sending the documents and had no idea they weren't sent - or in a few cases, the signing was cancelled and this is the first time the scheduler hears about it). Because I am flexible, I haven't had to use the "no can do" response.

Reply by jlynn on 1/18/05 1:48pm
Msg #17220

This sounds like a good topic, I would like to hear more on it if anyone else has any imput .

Reply by CaliNotary on 1/19/05 2:47am
Msg #17292

My attitude has always been that if I can do it, I can do it, but if I can't, I can't. Meaning that I'll be as flexible as I can be if have have the time open to be flexible. But if I've got other stuff scheduled, I'm not going to throw my whole day or night into disarray because this company couldn't get the documents to me on time.

Sometimes that means rescheduling the appointment after my last appointment of the day, sometimes it means telling them that I just can't do it because I have no room in my schedule to accomadate their getting the docs to me late. And when this happens, they usually have no problem with me rescheduling the appointment for the next day. By then it's usually to late for them to track down another notary anyway.

It's definitely a fine line. A lot of title companies seem to think that we plan our entire day around their one signing and that we should be more than happy to bend over backwards for them because they can't plan properly.

I really don't know if there's a right or wrong answer for this one. All we can do is decide what we are willing to do and what we're not willing to do and stick to it. And understand that there is a real possiblity of losing future business from these companies if we say anything other than "how high" when they say jump. But so far it's worked fine for me and I haven't lost any business (that I know of) from doing things this way.