This week, an Escrow Officer from Old Republic informed me that we are now required to print all documents on letter-size paper only. If any documents are formatted in legal size, we are expected to convert them to letter size before printing.
However, after receiving that instruction, I was assigned additional orders that included both letter- and legal-size documents, printed directly from the PDF as provided.
I understand that in California, the recording documents must be printed on letter-size paper, but does this requirement apply to the entire package as well?
The only time I’ve had letter only - it was prepared that way. We have forms in WA State that are only accepted in legal size. So that must be a CA thing.
I have spoken with several Escrow Officers, and they mentioned that it depends on the lender, which we all understand.
To be on the safe side, I confirmed with Title every time I get docs with legal size paper— would you like the legal-size documents printed on legal paper, or converted to letter size? It seems this may apply specifically to Old Republic Title. I am not sure.
That happens more than you think. They’ll have 150 pages of letter-size and 1 page of legal-size. When that happens, I’ll ususally shrink down the 1 page. Nobody has ever said anything to me about it.
Settlement Statements might be the only legal sized. You can get away with shrinking that. But in some states, Deeds of Trust are required to be on legal or they can’t be recorded.
In WA there is a Real Estate Tax form that must be on legal or it is rejected.
I’m not saying you are doing anything wrong, but I will say you should be careful stating that it’s an okay thing to do when new notaries read these things and might get themselves in trouble not knowing any better. That’s why it’s always better to encourage notaries to print the size pages come in.
Seems to me that if one wants to be a loan signing agent, investing in a proper two tray printer and using the Adobe page separator software (free) is the only way to go. Work-arounds are time consuming and often costly.
In this light, I’ve noticed a lot of posts on this forum lately where notaries, both experienced and newbies, want to buck the system and do things their way. That’s asking for trouble in most instances. I always follow the orders exactly as given and don’t skirt around with paper changes, deletions of “fluff” pages, etc. I call when I have a question or don’t want to do something and I remain polite and professional. I’ve not had any problems.
I work a LOT with ORT in WA state and the branch down the street typically prints my docs and I pick them up. I’m still seeing mixed doc sizes. As someone mentioned earlier maybe a CA thing…
If it is just 1 or 2 pages I just print it letter. It always be 2 pages that the borrower don’t have to sign. Its nuts I think its accidentally put the 2 sheet legal.
