Posted by No/ta/ry/2u on 8/16/11 9:27pm
Msg #393887

Will not stamped

My mother passed away a few months ago and I found her will, an attorney prepared the will all looked ok except the notary did not stamp it. There two witnessess and the notary did sign it but no stamp. The will was prepared back in Sept 09. I called the attorney and told him he said that he fired the notary due to things like this but he did have her number, he called her she said if she could find the stamp that she would stamp the will. I called my probate attorney and they said the no stampling they could handle but that the notary will have to bring in her book. My attorney said as long as there were two witnessess and the notary signed. NOW I called the other attorney back and he said not to hold my breath on the notary calling, but she can't stamp it now anyway. AND she will have to be brought into court because she may not even have her book.

BUT wait thats not all.

My stepbrother had my stepfather to sign a deed over to him on some property that my parents had bought together, I just found that out by research and went and got a copy of the deed. My stepfather is 97 years old and mind not that good, plus he has no current ID his TDL is over 25 years old, no birth certificate NOTHING for ID but a notary signed the deed and no witnesses.

When it rains it pours

Any ideas?

Reply by SouthernOK on 8/16/11 9:44pm
Msg #393888

Ask your lawyer...we don't give legal advice, sorry n/m

Reply by No/ta/ry/2u on 8/16/11 9:47pm
Msg #393890

Re: Ask your lawyer...we don't give legal advice, sorry

I am not asking for legal advice I was venting just alittle upset of a notary being incompetent and causing a family stress

Reply by Marian_in_CA on 8/16/11 10:02pm
Msg #393892

No advice obviously, but I share in the frustration.

My husband is trying to sell his father's old land and Hurricane Ike destroyed trailer after dealing with two years of issues... the place needs to be bulldozed and is only worth the land value.

Got a call yesterday that when the buyer went out to inspect the property, there were squatters there claiming that they've lived there (with the utilities turned on) for the last 7 months and they had been PAYING RENT to the people across the street! They "fixed the place up" even to make it somehow habitable... and I'm baffled as to how.

Reply by A S Johnson on 8/17/11 10:07am
Msg #393920

I will not comment on the will, only to say this points out, in Texas even attorneys or Probate Courts don't agree on what a will is, how a will is preparaed and or the langague in it. The reason my rule, unless a Texas attorney has drawned the will up, I do NOT Noterize it.
In Texas the transfer of real property needs to be done by a Real Estate attorney. If the transfer is not done within Texas rules, it can come back to bite you BIG years ater it is done.

Reply by Art_PA on 8/17/11 4:48pm
Msg #393992

In PA the attorney sign an affidavit that he observed the testator and witnesses sign in his presence. You should check with your Register of Wills to ask what procedure to follow. They have a procedure for everything that can happen.

Reply by BrendaTx on 8/17/11 8:22pm
Msg #394023

Re: Will not stamped - Questions:


1) What is the estate worth? If it is not worth much, then you've lost little no matter what happened or happens.

2) When you say "probate attorney" is he a PROBATE attorney? Frankly, it does not sound like it to me. He sounds very unsure of himself. If not, you probably should find one that is board certified in estate & probate law if you have a lot at stake.

3)As to the notary not stamping:

-Witnesses, where are they? They, in my uneducated opinion, may be able to prove up the will with no problem. When the will is admitted to probate, the judge will be able to flush out whether or not there will be opposition to the will's contents.

-I once was involved in probating an unsigned copy of a will. Don't give up. I really don't think that this problem is that big of a deal at this point.

-Will was prepared by the attorney and in his office he let it go without the will being properly stamped? Did mom pay him to do her will? In my opinion, he and the notary are both on the hook, but he is more than the notary. He knows that!

- She had a bond. Use it. Contact the Sos and ask them where to file your complaint against the bond (assuming you may have losses). He hopes it will go away. He's not going to help you find the notary...the notary may or may not have done this.

As to the deed, I predict that a good probate attorney can fix that for you, too.

Good luck. I don't think it is as grim as it looks if you can get an attorney involved.