Posted by Michelle/AL on 10/19/08 9:03am
Msg #267713
Out of State Notarizations
I am being asked to do more and more notarizations (non-loan) for people who reside in other states but are in Alabama for business or pleasure. In fact I had one on Friday. The documents are going back to a California state government office. I notarized the forms according to Alabama law/standards, but I couldn't help but wondering if there will be a problem at the other end. All I know about California notary Laws comes from this board. It's evident that your laws/requirements are very different from Alabama's.
I know that as an Alabama notary I'm required to know adhere to my state's requirements. But as a service to my customers, I would like to make sure that they don't get back to their home state and find that their visit to me was in vain and they have get the document re-notarized.
Has this come up as an issue or concern for any of you in the past? Is this something only my SOS department can answer?
Thank you.
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Reply by MikeC/NY on 10/19/08 9:50am
Msg #267719
There have been discussions about this before. Under the Full Faith and Credit clause of the US Constitution, each state honors the laws of the others. Even though CA has strict notary laws, for instance, they cannot dictate how a document intended for use in CA is to be notarized when it's signed in another state.
That doesn't mean that some knucklehead in the County Clerk's office won't raise the issue, but I doubt that any court would consider an out-of-state notarization invalid.
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Reply by MW/VA on 10/19/08 10:09am
Msg #267722
You are required to follow the notary laws of the state in which you are commissioned.
I know it may seem confusing when we do transactions that are in many states. Where the documents are drawn is not the issue, only where I am doing the notarization.
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Reply by Linda_H/FL on 10/19/08 10:45am
Msg #267724
You follow the laws of your state as far as your notarization is concerned - if the document is to be recorded, and you wish to extend additional customer service to your signers, you may want to be sure the witness requirements have been satisfied so the document will be accepted for recording. However, it's really up to your signers to know that ahead of time and let YOU know. And, as has been stated, no matter what you do, that's not to say some recorder isn't going to reject it "just because..."...
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Reply by Michelle/AL on 10/19/08 1:04pm
Msg #267738
Thank you for your comments. n/m
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Reply by CaliNotary on 10/19/08 2:52pm
Msg #267750
"But as a service to my customers, I would like to make sure that they don't get back to their home state and find that their visit to me was in vain and they have get the document re-notarized."
This is the type of time wasting "customer service" that notaries are using to voluntarily drive down their profit margin. Do the job you were hired to do, let the people at the other end worry about the legal ramifications from what they hired you to do.
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Reply by MW/VA on 10/19/08 9:00pm
Msg #267766
In my experience, if there are problems with recording it's usually due to sloppy work--shrinking docs, stamping over wording, missing stamp, etc. It's the tc's job to handle recording worries, not you. If you do you job correctly there should be no issues.
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