NO ROOM for a stamp! Aaargh!! I hate having to fill out and attach a loose certificate because someone (who is obviously NOT a Notary!) did not accurately format a document. Geez, leave room for the stamp, please!
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OOoohh…good topic, Judi…
Being told I can’t alter the certificate on the document (even if it’s wrong) and no a separate cert is not acceptable - I must use the one provided.
Being told not to contact borrowers in advance…just go.
Shall I go on? lol!!
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Please, do go on! How about cat box odor? I mean, of a strength that greets you at the door in a staggering wave that makes your eyes water and your nose stop up as if you’d shoved a cork up it. It’s not as if the owners don’t have plenty of notice I’m coming, to clean the thing(s) before I get there.
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Catching an assignment (nearby, good fee, yay!) only to have the signer say, “That’s not the time I requested - I told them (some time for which you are already booked…).”
Taking an appt and after you have already signed being told that their company (insert name here) “always” requires faxbacks on every file and they do not include this in their instructions or confirmation because it is in their original vendor agreement and their pkgs are 180+ pages (even thought there is a 3 day RTC).
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Good one! Doesn’t the person doling out that line of smelly stuff always seem just the tiniest bit sanctimonius?
I wouldn’t. Too many times I did that because the signing company, or title company told me just to go, and guess who got the short end of that stick? Yep, me! I’ll never do it again. I contact the borrower to confirm, or I don’t go. End of conversation.
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I like this conversation! 
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Horrible smell of cigarette smoke in the house.
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Signers who argue you with me when I say the instructions are for them to sign however their name is on the loan docs.
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Signers who are downright rude.
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Signers who try and get you to tell them how to fill out the Statement of Information. “What should I put here?” “How should I…?” My answer is always that I can read them the question to help them understand, but that it is against the law for me to help them fill out, or how to word the information, etc… Sometimes I feel like I’m babysitting adults.
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Signers who keep getting up and doing stuff during the signing. One lady even went and put a load of laundry in the washer!
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I hear you, Susan. Have you run into the one who dumps her slobbering wet baby in your lap to hold “for a minute” so she can sign? Guess who is going to be late to her next appointment, so she can change out of slacks now smelling of wet diaper and a blouse destroyed by a badly misinformed infant’s rooting?
People who don’t put their pets away. That drives me crazy when I have a dog or cat end up in my lap. Also had signing where signers mother was there, but let their kid come over and start pulling on my paints. No pets and give your kids something to do, or have someone watch them.
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Oh, yes!! Nothing like swiping at black slacks with a damp fast food napkin to get pet hair off, while hoping there isn’t a lot back where you can’t reach…
TRAFFIC JAMS. Always terrible around here. No matter how much I pad the schedule, it’s never enough. Any appointment made 7 - 9 am or 3 - 7 pm is subject to delay due to traffic. Thankfully, signers are usually well aware of traffic problems in and out of their areas. When I confirm appointments during commute hours, I always remind the signer of traffic, and tell them that I will be there in a window - 4 to 4:15, or 5:15 to 5:30, for example.
Chasing down documents. Why on earth don’t lenders (or signing companies) do us the courtesy of a quick email when docs will be late, so we don’t waste time calling, emailing, calling, emailing, ad nauseum, looking for them?
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When you get to the signing and one of the signers does not have a current Driver License because they no longer drive, so they figured it wasn’t necessary to renew it so they think they can show you ANY thing with a picture on it and expect you to accept it as a valid form of ID to notarize 
Hmmm! There are so many!! Let me count the ways…
- 200 + page packages with faxbacks of 150 page critical documents, ( so I can pick through the package and pull out the docs!! And of course they aren’t ever in order!!)
- Having to acknowledge every single random document that isn’t even a critical document.
- Having the docs have a signers name printed on the signing line, yet in the acknowledgment or Jurat section there is a blank line for me to write their name in. (It’s always my favorite when they have a long, difficult name I get to write over and over again!)
- Being threatened within an inch of my life for making a single mistake or being late, yet they get docs to me 10 minutes before the appointment and they have a mistake on each page that requires me to line through, initial and correct.
- Signing all the SS company paperwork that explicitly says they pay net 30, yet having to send multiple emails and phone calls to get paid. Ugh!!
- Having the borrower fill out all the title documents with their last 10 years of history. Really??? Why don’t they just give them an SAT test on my time??? This should have been done way before I show up with docs when the signers have time to dig through their address book, cell phone etc.
- REVERSE MORTGAGES!!! Let’s give an 85 year old with arthritis 200 pages to sign! And make sure they have all the documentation at hand. Now that’s a great idea!!?? Said no one EVER!
I could go on, but suffice it to say that someone out there could rectify many of these pet peeves, until then, I’ll make the best of it! Luckily there are plenty of great things about this job that I could go on and on about so focus on the good!
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Great post Katy!!! 
Thank you Linda! I’m glad that you enjoyed my post. Sometimes it just feels good to vent those pet peeves and move on! 
Grumble… grumble… Last minute cancellations. “Lender cancelled the signing yesterday…” YESTERDAY? And you, SS, are just now calling me, 2 HOURS before the signing, when I’ve already passed up other offers for that prime time slot? Grrrrrr…
Almost everyone grumbles about the Statement of Information (10 year history). Some more than others. I had one borrower take one look at that form, call his loan officer and yell at him for 5 minutes about wasting his time like that. Of course, in the time he spent yelling, he could have filled out the form and been done with it.
And it’s not as if the lender doesn’t already have all of that information, multiple times, on multiple forms.