Really good discussion, but Iâm seeing some chatter here that appears to border on UPL. A notaryâs statutory duty is identity verification, willingness, and witnessing the signature (the core duties, with some state-specific variations). A loan signing agentâs duties include collecting signatures as they point out the printed facts, notarize and return the package. LSAâs can say âwhatâ but only attorneys can say âwhyâ. Telling a title company that they need to redraw documents is instructing them on their own contractual/legal process, which isnât a LSAâs call to make. The decision of whether to redraw, use a Compliance Agreement, get a Signature Affidavit, or handle it some other way belongs to the title company and lender, because theyâre the ones who own the contract and the liability for its accuracy.
We can and should flag a discrepancy to them, but itâs their call how to resolve it. Telling them how to fix their own documents crosses a line that isnât ours to cross, IMHO. You can decline to notarize when you canât satisfy your own ID verification duty as a notary, but you donât get to prescribe the remedy, even as a LSA. Californiaâs disclaimer box on both acknowledgments and jurats:
âA notary public or other officer completing this certificate verifies only the identity of the individual who signed the document to which this certificate is attached, and not the truthfulness, accuracy, or validity of that document.â
For the newbie reading this: POAs have to be submitted and approved during loan processing - a POA presented outside that approved chain isnât a discrepancy for the notary to have to weigh, itâs simply not authorized in the document package to begin with. Hereâs where the LSA can deflect without conflict by informing the person that LSA isnât rejecting the POA, it just has to be approved by the TC first - this keeps it accurate and shuts down any pushback from someone trying to weasel their way into the signing.
When dealing with misspelled names or wrong suffixes: If all the other identifiers match - SSN, birthdate, property address, etc. and the signer confirms itâs them - thatâs the same âID governs, totality of the evidenceâ standard we already landed on with Jane/Jan. So a loan signing can be completed if everything else lines up - a suffix mismatch alone isnât a redraw trigger any more than a misspelled first name is. Decline a signing when you genuinely canât satisfy your own notarial duty. Donât decline - or worse, start advising on the fix - just because something looks off at first glance on paper.