Did you realize that when you buy a notary bond from NNA from MERCHANTS BONDING COMPANY, MERCHANT’S BONDING COMPANY puts a lie on you or your house for $15,000? They never removed any of them since I first started!! This is crazy. I would have used a different bonding company had I known. Did you know this was the case??? NNA is pleading ignorance to this.
1 Like
what if I don’t have a house?
I had my E&O through them and, as far as I know I’ve never had a lien on me or my property. What is their legal standing for having lien rights?
2 Likes
Could this be the reason: (from NNA)
The surety’s claim department will investigate the claim as quickly as possible. The surety company will contact you to obtain information about your involvement in the transaction. The surety company will ask for a copy of the Notary journal record for the notarization and other facts to help them determine the basis for the claim. It is important to note that a pending claim does not necessarily mean there will be a financial loss incurred since the claim may not be legitimate or the surety may deny the claim. If, through its investigation, the surety company determines that the claim has merit, the surety company will negotiate a settlement or pay the full amount of the bond. The surety may require you to repay any amount the surety pays to satisfy the claim, including defense costs . For this reason, it is highly recommended that a Notary Public carry Errors and Omissions Insurance for their entire term of office. Errors and omissions insurance will cover payments on your bond due to your honest mistakes and omissions, but will not cover any fraudulent acts you commit.
6 Likes
That I understand - don’t agree but understand - this OP makes it sound like as soon as you purchase their bond they place the lien, and I don’t think they have any legal standing to do that
I think there is more to this story
3 Likes
No lien is placed on your property, not legal. Yes more to that story.
4 Likes
All the more reason why Notaries need to set up a corporate entity, such as an LLC, as it will insulate the Notary from civil liabilities.
5 Likes
Wouldn’t you need to take further steps after creating your LLC for that type of protection though?
1 Like
Establishing an LLC is State dependent. You’d need to speak with an attorney to make sure you have the legal and financial protections you need.
3 Likes
Yes, that is true. It’s something much needed nevertheless, in my opinion.
No that is not true. Make sure someone hasnt placed a case against you. Call the merchant company. I have refi my house twice and there are no liens…
They put a lien on you - that is my information from my lender and it comes across as a BAIL BOND!
1 Like
This has been a nightmare - looks like the title company got bad data.
What I surmise from this thread is that ValHarris is planning some transaction related to her house and in connection with that a title company claims to have found a lien from Merchant’s Bonding Company in the amount of $15,000. The statement that is absent from ValHarris is that she has gone to the appropriate government office and personally searched for any liens on her property since the time she bought it. This whole discussion would be more credible if she did that.
I should do that myself the next time I’m in the town clerk’s office. Because I’m a justice of the peace, I’m in there about 5 times a year, and know how to use the search computer, and can find my way around in the vault.
A refi will require title insurance. They do the search. I wouid call the title company to get the history and a copy of all documents. Purchases with a mortgage also require title insurance, so lien should have been filed after purchase.
I never heard that before…but following up to make sure. I purchased them through the NNA and never had any issues.
I went online to my Vermont town clerk’s office and checked the land records for my property. There were no records of any kind after I purchased the property. In the past I purchased E & O from Merchant’s Bonding through Notary Rotary.
You need to find out the circumstances of your lien. The title company will provide a copy of the filing if you ask them. The implication that a lien was filed because you were insured for e an o is patently stupid
1 Like
I got the issue resolved - Merchants Bonding still had ALL our bonds in the books undeleted. They deleted the old notary bonds leaving the two current ones. The Escrow Company on a title search saw those as BAIL BONDS, not state required notary bonds. Lucky for me, I kept scans of all past notary bonds and the numbers of the title search bail bonds were the same serial numbers as the Merchant Bonding notary bonds. Of course, that took about 5 weeks to resolve. It was NOT Merchant Bonding’s fault, it was the software used for the title search by the title company. The escrow agent left for vacation BEFORE this was resolved so it fell into the hands of an underling who had to start from scratch. It would have been nice for that escrow officer to let me know he was LEAVING for 4 weeks. Also, he NEVER returned any Phone calls until I called the president of the company! How do we have such a flaky society? Who will pay me for the hours and hours it took everyone to resolve this fiasco?
3 Likes
First, I am glad you got the matter straightened out. 2. Ok, so I’m not gonna clean out old files…thank you. 3. Something somewhere has gone rogue. Recorder’s office OR Software issue. Wonder if AI was in the mix. As others have said it didn’t happen to them, maybe the glitch is at the recorders office. OR the glitch is in the software as it can’t tell the difference between 2 kinds of Bonds. OR…AI wasn’t told there’s a difference.
1 Like