I completed a HELOC closing just before the holidays. The title company is requesting an ALL-PURPOSE ACKNOWLEDGMENT from me because the mortgage is missing a stamp. The paperwork I completed bears my stamp on every page with an acknowledgement. I triple checked the package. I do not understand their request. I have been out of the country for a few weeks and did not see this today. Is this a common practice for title companies?
They try. IF it was a āscanbackā, re-send the scan. If not, ask them for a copy of the mortgage with your signature and the āmissingā stamp. Sometimes theyāre just trying to ācoverā a doc they forgot to include. FWIW: A few coās include 1 or more āattached to nothingā APAās in the pkg. Do NOT complete. Return 'em just the way you got them: NOT completed or stamped.
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Sounds like it was prepared without an acknowledgement attached for the mortgage and they want one for the mortgage. So you download the all purpose acknowledgement for your state and send one. You specify what document it is for so it cannot be attached to anything else.
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@mintonb1 The professional process I utilize mirrors the one Iāve excerpted above. Require proof.
NOTE: Title companies with integrity send a scan of the document that demonstrates the ānotary errorā along with their request for action to be taken.
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No..you never send a blanket APA to anyone. I donāt know of any mortgage template that does not include the ack- as @Arichter said, they try but no..you never complete and send them.
Iām not sure what the procedure is in Indiana, but @mintonb1 if you have a copy of the previously signed one, send it to them. If not, at most I would ask to see MY missed stamp (get copy of mtg from them) and if not stamped, then itās on you to correct if allowed by your laws. Here in FL Iād have to back out to the signers on my dime to re-acknowledge.
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If you forget to provide an acknowledgement on a mortgage that requires an acknowledgment and the Title Company wants it corrected you can send an acknowledgement titled Mortgage and itās corrected. Or I suppose you could re-print the signed mortgage and scan it with that acknowledgment.
itās not a blank acknowledgment that can be attached to anything else. Itās titled specific for the document. The way you are supposed to provide a loose acknowledgment when required to.
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I donāt know how one can forget to provide an ack for a mortgage since the templates already include them. Nonetheless, you shouldnāt just send a blank APA to anyone
This is also a very state-specific issue from a notary perspective. @johnsonps306 maybe WA allows you to do this. Here in FL this is not allowed. No changes to the cert can be made once the doc leaves our hands - the only way to correct it is to get the original doc back and re-visit the signers.
And despite all of the above, you never never provide a blanket APA to anyoneā¦ever.
JME and JMO
P.S. Posts like this lead new notaries down a very slippery slope. Your state notary laws are primary for all of the transactions you accommodate. Please be careful.
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From the Indiana Notary Public Guide 2025 (in particular, 2nd bullet point):
āTo make a correction to the notarial certificate after the notarization:
ā¢Do not allow anyone to change your certificate. It is your responsibility as a notary public to correct errors and omissions on the certificates you complete.
ā¢Never send a completed certificate for someone else to attach. The document should be returned, and you must attach the corrected certificate personally.
ā¢Make corrections on the certificate by either filling in missing information or drawing a line through the incorrect information in ink. Print the correct information with your initials and the date nearby.
ā¢Do not make a correction until you have confirmed it from the entry in your notary journal entry, or the signer can verify the change.
ā¢Record any changes in your notary journal.ā
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First American often leaves the acknowledgment out of the cash disbursement form and it says right on the form a Notary must attach an acknowledgment. HELOCs done through Boeing employee credit union sometimes include an agreement that requires an acknowledgment to be attached and they expect the Notary to attach one so the idea that you are always protected from when you need to attach an acknowledgment because thereās a template is also an extremely misleading statement to new Notaries.
The best advice is always gonna come from a title company not a forum on the Internet.
Well Iāve been down this road before, and not following instructions is not the issue. Mintonb1 states Title says he FORGOT to stamp the deed/mortgage. He triple checked (not scanned) so heās not totally sure he stamped it. Sending a notarized all-purpose Acknowledgment would be the common fix.
@ewing_joe read Yolicueās post above.
I read that Linda, That type of notary error is not rare and does create a conundrum. The fact that the notary physically takes possession of the documents and assumes responsibility for their accuracy seems to create a gray area as to when the notaryās responsibility actually ends. State Legislatures that create the rules do not know or understand our remote Loan Signing activities. You worked in Title, you know the in-house notary has every opportunity to correct notarial errors and does so. Why is that not okay for the remote closers?
@ewing_joe Joe? Are we talking about the same post? Yoli posted the requirements for this situation in the posterās stateā¦.
I donāt quite understand your post
The disbursement form reads āIf signed outside of the US, must be signed in front of a notary and an acknowledgement attachedā people send one anywayā¦
Several companies want it notarized anyway.
Have him send you a copy of the page that was not stamped. For proof.
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It is against the law to provide a blank stamped Acknowledgement or Jurat that is not attached to a document. Those are there incase you need an extra one. I remove them and do not return them with the documents. If they ask for them, you tell them exactly what I said, and it is also in your learning tools when you get your Notary and for your renewals, along with your NSA/CSA if you get that as well.
They will always try and get you to do extra if you donāt watch it.
If you do have to add an extra notarization page, flip the document over that you are attaching it to, along with the Ack/Jurat, and overlap them, and stamp them. This way they belong together and they must match them. This ensures those documents cannot be separated and is an internal control, and fraud prevention. So if you have nothing to attach that page to? Why are you doing it? This is something you have to ask yourself. Now if you are doing a split signing, those documents are extremely important.
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Just title a loose acknowledgement so it goes with a specific document only. If necessary.
I did a package yesterday several of the acknowledgements were in 8 or 9 font so I had to add my own. But they were each titled to the document that was notarized. The unusable acknowledgement was lined through with see following page. I explained to the SS why it was coming back that way. Wasnāt a problem. There are a few out of state title companies that use that tiny font and when advised they rarely fix it so I just do what I do.
There are often loose certificates in the packet and it isnāt always clear if they should be attached to a particular document. I rarely use them unless replacing a certificate with an error. I carry a pack of California Jurats and Acknowledgements with me and those blanks have a place to fill in the type of document it is attached to. It is optional on the certificate, but I feel it protects me and the signer to have those details filled in. If a Title company contacts me regarding a missed seal, I check for a scan, if there is none, I ask them to send me a scan of the document with the missing seal. I do not send out an Ackie without making sure it is really needed.
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I ā100%ā agree to requesting the copy of the alleged unsigned / unstamped APA before I go further. I also agree that many times the lender packages include trailer docs that include additional multiple blank copies of APAās. Only 1 acknowledgment is required for a single deed recording. In loan modifications, there are typically ā2 setsā of complete packages to be executed, to include the ā2 deedsā requiring notarizations (1 for each set). Scan backs files should always be held until you get paid then immediately deleted.