Posted by sisgnerbill on 7/25/11 1:35pm
Msg #391131

Consider this pricing

It seems ironic that as one of the last lines of defense against fraud or manipulation of critical documents, Notaries are being treated as the ugly stepchild in the process. It will be interesting to see or read the stories as we start getting called into court for our signing actions. As the Real Estate / Mortgage market turns even uglier attorneys will be looking for every scapegoat they can find for their clients. You new Notaries and ones that think “I can make a quick buck by lowering my fees” need to read AND understand the documents that you are notarizing. You are on the hook!!! and by State Statute the fines can be significant. Aside from this the lender who may lose the most will take every action possible to recover their loss and the Notary gets to be part of this process as well. There is a reason that most all states now require bonding, insurance, background screening, and some training prior to testing. Signing companies hire scheduling and management types who have no clue as to what a Notary does or the responsibilities. None of them, or very few, are Notary Publics. Yet they seem to want to dictate your worth. Please take away from this that if there is trouble your $40 or $50 signing company has no responsibility to you… or for you.

Reply by Stephanie Santiago on 7/25/11 1:53pm
Msg #391139

Re: Consider this pricing...Bill....Bill....Bill....

You new Notaries and ones that think “I can make a quick buck by lowering my fees” need to read AND understand the documents that you are notarizing.

need to read AND understand the documents that you are notarizing.:
WE ARE NOT REQUIRED/RESPONSIBLE TO READ OR UNDERSTAND THE DOCUMENTS, just the TITLE of the document - for our Journal entries.
CALIFORNIA NOTARY LAW:
We are to require signer's presence, identify signer, make sure the signer is willing and aware, and to give an oath when required.
Detect and Deter Fraud. We do not need to read the document.
California Notary Law does not require that we understand the document we are notarizing, much less read it.
We are to skim all documents for blanks though.
It sounds like you have been burnt - I hope not.

Reply by sisgnerbill on 7/25/11 7:30pm
Msg #391179

Consider this pricing correction

OK let me clarify a couple of miss understandings on my post. You are all correct that you are to acknowledge who the signer is and that is all. Being held accountable for proper ID of a signer is true. But where the issue COULD ARISE is if you don’t know enough to look into the documents to be sure that it is the correct signer. I have had Jr., Sr. IIIs, etc. where it was listed incorrectly. Many foreign signers both South of USA and Pacific Rim, the names will be totally different between husband and wife with relation to the surname placement. I have never been “burned” but I have been the “burner” three times on fraudulent lending transactions in the last 4 years. Two of these were inter-family where the names were the same.
Detect and Deter Fraud is one of our duties as Notary Publics, upon stamping the document you are saying that this document belongs to this signer that you just witnessed (acknowledged).
What’s it worth, to save a lender lots of money, your time in court, or the endless phone interviews.. $45.00 out of $250.00 ???,, yea that’s it.

Reply by JanetK_CA on 7/26/11 1:07am
Msg #391213

Re: Consider this pricing correction

"but I have been the “burner” three times on fraudulent lending transactions in the last 4 years. Two of these were inter-family where the names were the same. "

Without getting into names or being too specific, you could probably do a great deal of good by providing us all a bit more information about these situations for the rest of us to use as examples of why our scrutiny of ID is so important.

Reply by Stephanie Santiago on 7/25/11 1:59pm
Msg #391141

Regardless of the fee, as long as a Notary Public, commissioned in California, follow California notary Law, no one can blame them for any wrongdoing.
Signing Agents must follow instructions from Lender, Title Company or Signing Services, but they are a Notary Public first and must follow Notary Law of their state.
Period.

Reply by Marian_in_CA on 7/25/11 4:54pm
Msg #391160

"You new Notaries and ones that think “I can make a quick buck by lowering my fees” need to read AND understand the documents that you are notarizing."


Uhmm.... no, that's not at all true. In CA (and I see that's where you are) it's very clear that we are NOT responsible for the content of the documents.

Lets' take our ability to notarize signatures on a document in a foreign language. We are not expected to deal with the document at all, just be able to identify the general nature of it.

What signing companies don't realize is that (in CA) we can charge up to $10 per signature notarized. I don't know about you all, but on a typical re-fi for a couple, that's 16-20 signatures. So the notary fees alone are at least $160.00.