As far as documents being nullified/voided, what comes up all the time in court cases is when a mortgagor goes bankrupt. The federal bankruptcy trustee will try to have the mortgage voided so when the property is auctioned off, it will be distributed to all the creditors, not just the bank that holds the mortgage. All the bankruptcy trustee has to do is show the mortgage wasn't recorded, or shouldn't have been recorded.
In most states, if the notarization is fatally flawed, the mortgage shouldn't have been recorded, so the bankruptcy trustee can avoid the mortgage. The bank has to share the proceeds of the auction with all the other creditors. The bank might be inclined to go after the notary between what the bank actually received and what they would have received if they got all the proceeds of the auction.
Some reasons notarizations have been considered fatally flawed are the notary forgetting to fill in the signer's name, and the notary forgetting to write in the notary's title ("notary public"). Usually it's good enough if the notary's title appears on the notary's seal, but not all states require seals.
Massachusetts acknowledgements have been found to be fatally flawed because, although they indicated that the signer acknowledged signing the document, the certificate does not say if the signer acknowledged signing the document voluntarily, with words such as "free act and deed". |
