Got a new Quality Control email from Mortgage Connect that notaries are NOT to date documents for lenders.
Could result in a re-draw.
I have had wives who date for husbands usually because the husband says date that for me. But I’ve never dated for anyone else.
So they’ll continue to give work to notaries who accept the low offers even when they make rookie mistakes, I guess.
Hope not, but some of their QC reminder emails make me roll my eyes.
I imagine some of the signing agent training from a few of the really good training organizations would teach NSAs not to date for the signer on loan paperwork. But I can’t remember if it was part of the training when I bought that book from that company that most of the signing services require. The last time I took their annual NSA certification test, I can’t remember if there was a question about dating for the signer (that was several years ago).
In my state, there certainly isn’t any law against me dating for a signer, as long as the signer tells me what to write. It would be improper for me to do it without being told, or to tell the signer what date should be filled in. It isn’t something a notary should be expected to know, it’s something an NSA would learn from NSA training or experience.
I was always taught as a notary you write on nothing but the notarization.
Here are the classes I’ve taken that were notary-related, but not related to real estate signings:
Some of the training warned against giving legal advice unless one is a lawyer, but none of them indicated I couldn’t fill in blanks for the signer if the signer told me exactly what to write (except signatures, which has a special section of the law for that situation). Of course there are lots of notaries who aren’t mobile notaries, they’re secretaries. They typically type documents for their boss and fill in everything but the signature. Once it’s signed, they notarize it (if needed).
Notaries should not be writing down any dates next to signature lines for signers. Signers signature could be illegible but instruct them the dates must be.
I was told that Countrywide Mortgage used to have their administrative team fill in all the dates and data required from the borrowers, and found themselves in trouble as a result. I always ask the borrower who has trouble writing that their spouse or other family member fill in the date, address, phone number, etc. because this is a sensitive act because of what happened to Countrywide. I’ve never seen it written anywhere in trainings, but it is something people stay away from.
While it is protocol not to date for a signer, some companies don’t mind. If you are dealing with people who have injury, handicapped or in not the best health, I feel as long as there is no instruction not to date for them, I would do it or allow a family member to date for them. Many of these loans have a Correction Agreement LPOA which covers such problems. Most of them cite that the signer allows others to make corrections on their behalf as long as the corrections are typographical in nature and do not alter the terms of the loan. I have even had a Lender instruct notaries to date for their borrowers if there is an issue with legibility or difficulty in signing.
I have gotten instructions that I can write the dates, but I only remember it on reverse mortgages. I even had one that I had to go back to, 2 hours later, because her hand ached from signing so many signatures.
In Washington State a notary can sign as the signer with their permission and by signing in a very specific way. Found that out when signing with a 99 year old blind woman.
