Posted by Mary Arroyo on 6/30/06 4:57pm
Msg #130128

Notary initials on changing state/county

Just contacted by a signing company I did a signing for LAST Thursday, lender says there is a new Federal law requiring notaries to initial when they change a state/county name to the actual state/county where the signing took place. Has anyone heard of this? I did a quick search in notary talk but didn't see anything. Why would the lender wait over a week? If this isn't true, I think the lender is just trying to stretch the fund date to July.

Reply by Mary Arroyo on 6/30/06 5:04pm
Msg #130130

I just called the NNA, and no, it's not a Federal law. Recommended, but not a Federal law.

Reply by DellaCa on 6/30/06 5:31pm
Msg #130137

I have not heard of it as a law,but I do inital anything I make a change to. Just good practice i would think.

Reply by SharonMN on 6/30/06 5:34pm
Msg #130138

Federal law has no jurisdiction over notaries, who are STATE officials.

Reply by Mary Arroyo on 6/30/06 5:52pm
Msg #130140

A good practice, yes, but I've never had a loan be held up for over a week (and not a peep from the lender that whole time) and not fund because of it. It just sounded fishy to me, that's all.

Reply by DellaCa on 6/30/06 6:07pm
Msg #130143

Sorry I misread your right it does not sound like lo is being straight with you,never heard of it being held up because of this.

Reply by Janlee_MI on 6/30/06 6:31pm
Msg #130147

The reason might be they tried to record and the recorder

would not accept it. That could be why it took a week.

Reply by MelissaCT on 6/30/06 11:25pm
Msg #130201

I always initial and date any changes I make.

Call me paranoid, but if a change was made & someone decided to slap my initials on it, they wouldn't necessarily know that I also throw the date in for good measure.

Reply by ruru_CA on 7/1/06 11:10am
Msg #130240

if i do a change i do intial it alway. but it is not a law.

Reply by AngelinaAZ on 6/30/06 7:16pm
Msg #130152

The NNA is not the ultimate expert on Notary Law!

They are a private association and some of the information they give is wrong or not 'state specific'.

Your instructions for a loan signing are Lender Specific... and I bet if you perused those closing instructions with fine toothed comb you'd come up with something regarding initaling changes.

As to your questions... I bet the doc got kicked back which is why it took a week. I haven't heard of any new FEDERAL Law??? but I always initial any changes that I make on a Notary Certificate (and the venue is part of the Certificate). If something is changed in the document (with approval of course) all borrowers initial it, if something is changed in the Notary Cert., I initial it. I bet if you looked close in your CA handbook you'd find something about this.

Reply by GWest on 6/30/06 7:25pm
Msg #130153

I see from your profile you are in LA County. If the property was also in LA County I understand that the recorder is very picky on what is acceptable. I agree it was probably the recorder that declined to record it.

Reply by TitleGalCA on 6/30/06 7:46pm
Msg #130157

Your instincts are right

And the lender is using that as an excuse...who knows for what reason.

Initialling changes is strictly the choice of the notary. The handbook has no comment on it one way or another. Some notaries say it's a good practice, others just make necessary changes without initialling.

The poster who said LA County was picky is right (they are) but not about this. I send documents with certificates initialled or not initialled; and they all get recorded.

One of the first signings I ever did I had the SS tell me to initial my changes in a fax back and then re-fax it. Totally needless, but it made them happy and I wasn't interested in arguing with them.

Reply by BrendaTx on 6/30/06 7:51pm
Msg #130161

Re: Your instincts are right - agree with you TG.

As an FYI - the NNA is not the place to call for getting a reading on important notary matters. The secretary of state is. I understand why people call them, but they are not the absolute source for notary answers.

Reply by AngelinaAZ on 6/30/06 8:09pm
Msg #130166

In AZ it does say it in the handbook...

CA and AZ are similar on so many other issues I guess I figured this would be the same. My bad! I guess I shouldn't ASSume! Here's the AZ wording...

633. If the document has preprinted notarial wording, I’ll be safe in using it. Right?

Not necessarily. You must always read the notarial language (notarial certificate).
Sometimes the document was prepared in another state or jurisdiction using a preprinted
notarial certificate that may not be legal in Arizona. When you sign the document as a Notary,
you are held accountable for every word in the notarial certificate. If any part of the notarial
certificate is incorrect, either cross out the incorrect words with ink or cross out the entire
wording and type in the correct wording. Always INITIAL all changes.

Reply by Mary Arroyo on 6/30/06 8:35pm
Msg #130171

Thank you!

Thank you everyone for your responses, I'm glad I put this question out there. I know the NNA isn't the ultimate authority but quite frankly I didn't know who else to call late in the afternoon on a Friday before a major holiday weekend. I've had papers notarized where the notary didn't initial this type of change and everything was fine, but I guess it's a much bigger deal than I thought so I will much more careful in the future not to overlook it. And no, the lender and property are in Washington state, but I know notaries are supposed to follow their own state's laws regardless.

Reply by BrendaTx on 6/30/06 8:43pm
Msg #130172

Re: Thank you! Mary - I do understand...I just stick

that in there on occasion where appropriate because it's very applicable to Texas.

I have gotten calls from SSs asking me if Texans can do *any* kind of a loan signing because they were told by the organization that Tx was an atty state.

Also, Texans just need to stick to their own NP educational materials which are very simple and which do not have the same requirements for two credible witnesses.

The requirement is being introduced by someone known to the notary. And, there's the little thing about ID...and how you can ID a signer...these are not the stringent and testy measures such as CA has.

While I like to follow Ca's rules because of their completeness, they are not our rules and we have to be mindful of that.

NOTHING against you!

Reply by PJM/MI on 7/1/06 7:58am
Msg #130229

IF you write in the change and the borrower has ALSO signed the doc, the borrower is to initial the changes.. not us. (State of MI).
The borrower (or doc signer) is the one who the doc really belongs to..we are only witnessing the documents.