Tennessee has established an “open-ended” fee schedule for the state’s Notaries — leaving it to their discretion to establish a reasonable fee — under a new law taking effect October 1. The same law also clarified that Notaries are required to maintain a journal of notarial acts.
House Bill 2387 replaces the current fee schedule — which ranged from 25 cents to $1.50 per act depending on the type of notarization — with a provision stating that Notaries may charge a “reasonable fee” for their services.
[Update: 7-23-15] House Bill 888, effective as of April 6, 2015, permits either the Notary or the Notary’s employer to charge the fee. The new law also amends the state’s journal-keeping requirement. The new law requires a Notary to record notarial acts in a journal only if the Notary or Notary’s employer charges a fee.
HB 888 also stipulates that the record of notarizations can be kept either in a “well-bound book” or in electronic form.
A number of states this year have raised the fees that may be charged for notarial acts. Tennessee joins South Carolina, Minnesota, Maryland and West Virginia in raising the fees Notaries may charge.
The text of the bill is available here.
David Thun is the Assistant Managing Editor with the National Notary Association.