I have not made it a point to put a couple of these inserts, especially where there is special instructions to settlement agent. I have printed this leaflet and keep them handy and insert them in every loan package, that comes from a signing service. My goal is to have these signing services put out of the business and end notary’s misery. You may copy and correct the below text & use this as your fall back in case your signing service goes belly up.
ATTN: SETTLEMENT/ESCROW/TITLE /LOAN OFFICER
If this closing has been contracted via a signing service
It is the responsibility of the SETTLEMENT/ESCROW/TITLE /LOAN OFFICER to ensure that the notary closing agent gets paid on time. That means upon settlement or upon disbursement of all fees.
Off late many signing services are not paying notaries.
A few have been folding up, or holding payments far beyond after disbursements has been done. Some signing services employ PONZI model of payment, by waiting on payments from future transactions to pay notaries as late as 45 days/60 days and beyond.
Credit terms for notary payment are never allowed & the above mentioned people will be held responsible for non-payment/default and other civil liabilities
Notaries must be paid for work done, irrespective of whether transaction consummates or not. Please ensure that the signing service pay the notaries promptly & that they have the financial stability to do so.
Some signing services continue to thrive on deception. They do this by changing business entity names and restarting this deception. There is currently lack of compliance and checks on signing services.
I am honored to be the closer for this & should you require my services in future.
I only have 1 company (Signing Stream) that pays via the Ponzi scheme and I am not doing anymore of their signings for that reason. Plus they deduct for bogus reasons. I wouldn’t send this leaflet unless I was unsure of payment.
I got myself removed from signingstream.com. Contact a few VP operations of the Titles they work with and have requested them to review this NON PAYMENT / PONZI payment scam. But watch out and learn how to avoid such repeat offenses and how to not get cheated.
I would not send out such a notice to the escrow companies as it may be deemed to be unprofessional. Make sure such a notice to the escrow/title company is not a breach to your contract with the signing agency which could potentially get you in trouble with interfering with a business relationship and perhaps soliciting business directly. I have contemplated sending a notice to the signing agencies itself with my own Signing Agency Common Mistakes to Avoid type of notice and rules of engagement. But I am still working on it.
So not getting paid & cheating notaries nationwide is professional?
A notary is a public official & cannot deny service to anyone who asks for it.
So if you walk into a bank and ask a notary to issue an acknowledgement or jurat… he cannot deny it , even if he is employee of bank.
Any exclusivity of service & denial of service based on it, or compelling a notary to do so under coercion of exclusivity is itself a violation of the law & such agreements if any are in violation itself.
So if you notice, many signing services which by itself are questionable entities operating outside any license don’t include such language.
