I accepted a signing that is the seller side of an investor purchase. It came with an odd request. They want me to video the seller reading and signing one of the documents. Has anyone heard of this before? The property came from an intestate estate. I’ve been a real estate agent for 41 years and the documents look hinky to me as buyer seemed to buy it from the courts and then transfer it back to the person the court said inherited it. Of course, I would not tell the signer anything, especially that I am a real estate agent, but has anyone seen this before??
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Keep in mind that I am very conservative. All this extra stuff that we as notaries are requested to perform is, in my opinion, very dangerous. None of it is in our scope of official duties and too risky to take on. Think of it this way:
What if the video should happen to capture something that should not be seen by others?
What if the subject in the video has a change of heart and doesn’t want to be seen in the video after-the-fact? What happens to the notary in that case?
How does the notary know what the video will actually be used for (extortion or unauthorized advertisements, for example)?
What if the content or quality of the video is less than the requestor expects, then what?
What if the video is used against the subject at a later date? Wanna go to court and explain/defend your actions?
Other issues, like pay for your work, transmission of content, timeliness, and on and on.
Use your head, kids. Do your job and ONLY your job.
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@reoqueenbee Yes, the request for video recording during a signing session is certainly an unconventional approach to performing notary services. Nevertheless, if the hiring entity and the individual signing the documents have explicitly consented to this video recording, it appears justifiable to implement a supplementary fee to compensate for this added task and the potential associated liabilities.
May I respectfully assert that it’s not a matter of consent or remuneration. Rather, it’s a simple matter of privacy/protection/propriety. Why take on an activity that falls clearly outside the scope of notarial responsibility as a favor or to comply with someone’s directive and where any of the hazards I’ve mentioned earlier can manifest themselves to the detriment of the notary performing such tasks. Everything to lose and virtually nothing to gain.
A notary shouldn’t feed anyone’s pets, water their flowers, fix a broken anything, move a piece of furniture or do anything else beside what they’ve been assigned to do by the hiring entity. We’re not insured for it and if something/anything goes wrong, every party involved in the transaction, starting with the signing party, can complain, claim, dismiss and even sue.
Nope.
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I have a question on this…I apologize but I always forget where OP is located
Is this legal??? Is your state a one party or two party consent state for recording and filming. I think that’s an important point to determine here. No matter what hiring party tells you that you MUST do, attorney or not, they may be having you break the law by doing this.
P.S. Forgot to add - if it were me, I’d get the signer to sign a form (your own which I believe you CAN draft because it’s your business) consenting to the filming and keep it with your journal - just in case something comes up in the future. I agree there’s something hinky here - testate estates are tough enough when there are multiple heirs - intestate estates can get very nasty and contentious.
JMO
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In colorado. We are a one party consent state. I think you may be right. I intended to ask her on the video, if she was ok with it. I will have to the I no of wording for a paper one. Since this is an investor purchase of an estate property, the purchasers may have had issues in the past requiring this as a solution. In colorado, as long as a real estate agent is not involved, you can have the purchase agreement on an envelope.
Thank You for Sharing, Bobby-CA!
Why do we have to take unnecessary risks?
Considering the nature of the requests being discussed in this thread, I would like to respectfully request a moment of your attention. The situation at hand seems to be similar to performing In-Person Notarization (IPEN), only it’s a traditional in person notarization. This would be a good question for the State Notary Department to see if it would violate any state statutes.
My opinion? I have no problem with someone videotaping me. I would have a problem if that video showed up on the Internet behind a paywall.
For myself, I just wouldn’t do that kind of signing.
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Fairly warned Ye be, says I.
I guess I’m conservative too, but the idea of being asked to video gives me the ick. No thanks.
I would agree. Don’t do anything outside of the scope of the duties that you were hired to do. Nothing good can come of it for you, but bad things are definitely possible.
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It was part of what I was hired to do. It was not in the original offering, but once I accepted, then it was in the instructions. Like the ones telling you to dress well, behave and photograph both sides if the ID. I never take videos and rarely even use the camera on my phone. I did do the video, but for some reason, it cut off part of it. They got what they got. Evidently, I have found out, it is not uncommon with this kind of transaction. It was a home where the owner died intestate some time ago. Turned out, the investor was the one who did the research to find a relative. They did not even know the woman who passed as she was some distant 3rd or 4th cousin. That kind of gift would be pretty good. The house was condemned, but there was significant value in the property. I didn’t ask, but it’s a big deal area for tear downs and building leggo houses and duplexes. The buyer investor furnished a family tree.
Yes, the request for video recording during a signing session is certainly an unconventional approach to performing notary services. Nevertheless, if the hiring entity and the individual signing the documents have explicitly consented to this video recording, it appears justifiable to implement a supplementary fee to task and the potential associated liabilities .
Replying to Bobby; I realize we are both commissioned in California, so we cannot participate in remote online notarizations. Then, my question for both of us, to a Florida notary who does “RON”: how is videotaping different from RON?
I’m NOT trying to be argumentative, however, I remain unconvinced that producing a video for any third party’s usage, authorized by the video’s subject(s) or not, 1) falls completely outside the officially stated duties of a notary; and, 2) exposes that notary to all of the problematic issues I mentioned earlier. Why in the world would anyone chance it, regardless of releases signed, pay offered or anything else. The notary has to know (or should know, anyway) going in to the assignment where this videoing thing is required. Therefore, the notary has ample opportunity to decline the offer and avoid the potentially adverse consequences.
In my prior career, I saw too many victims set up by bad actors. The grief and financial losses were significant. I sense the same could happen if a notary does as asked in this scenario and then things turn on them. What coverage, recourse, explanation, will be enough to extract oneself from a sticky situation that was unforeseen when they decided to perform duties clearly outside their scope of responsibility. Nope, my view is unchanged. Why take the chance?
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@ewing_joe, just wanted to clarify, RON is totally virtual. That request to video the signing is more like an IPEN (in-person electronic notarization). In @reoqueenbee’s post, it seems like the hiring party wants a regular mobile in-person loan signing and wants to record the whole thing. As long as everyone agrees to the recording, I don’t know of anything that makes it illegal. Obviously, I’m not a lawyer, so no legal advice here. I assume it’s a legal concern, since the property came form an intestate estate.
Thanks, cfletcher, I have agreed on a few occasions to have my closing videotaped. I’ve had lawyers, real estate agents, and loan officers tag along with me, I see no problem with it.
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If somebody else does the videotaping (defined as “not me!”), that’s something else again. Then they need my permission for me to be in the frame. Not me, baby. I don’t wanna be in some company’s ad or be presented in a way that I may not agree with. Y’all surely have your own take on all this. You now know mine. For what it’s worth to those who are on the fence out there.
Be careful, newbies.
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