California Notaries are reporting being asked to notarize documents with outdated certificates that lack the Notary certificate wording requirements that went into effect on January 1, according to an NNA online survey conducted last week.
California Notary Survey Results
Since the beginning of the year, all California acknowledgments, jurats and proofs of execution are required to include a consumer notice. Of the more than 700 survey respondents, 51 percent said they have been asked to notarize documents using certificates without the mandated notice.
Of those, 87 percent said they were able to resolve the issue by attaching a loose notarial certificate with the new wording to the document. NNA members can download updated CA Notary certificates for free when they sign into their online account.
The change has raised many questions from businesses as well as concerns from Notaries around the country that work with documents sent between California and other states.
More than 85 percent of survey participants said “few” or “none” of their signers knew about the new certificate wording. While signers are not expected to know Notary law, this result underscores the need for California Notaries to pay close attention to the certificates that accompany documents.
Consequences Of Using Old CA Notary Certificates
Notaries who use the old certificate forms are out of compliance with the new law. Documents notarized without the consumer notice are liable to be rejected by the receiving party, particularly California county recorders who handle the enormous number of land record documents, such as deeds, deeds of trust, and related real property records filed in their offices.
Businesses Unaware Of Notary Certificate Changes
Many Notaries deal with documents prepared either by their employer or other companies. Mobile Notaries and Notary signing agents commonly handled documents prepared by centralized business operations. Survey participants reported that many firms are still unaware of the new wording:
- Thirty-three percent said “not many” companies knew of the consumer notice requirement while another 26 percent said “none” of the companies they work with knew about the change. However, 30 percent said that “most” of the companies they work with knew about the wording change.
- Sixty percent of the surveyed Notaries who work in offices said their employer knew about the new certificate law.
David Thun is an Associate Editor at the National Notary Association.
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