I received an email from a title company this afternoon, in regard to a closing I completed in December 18, saying that they damaged a page (the last page of the mortgage) and that they need me to reprint, sign, stamp, and drop it at FedEx ASAP.
They didn’t offer to compensate me… which is a little frustrating considering it was their mistake.
Am I required to do this for them? If so, what kind of fee should I charge? The FedEx is 20 minutes away, so it would be 40 minutes of driving plus the time to print and fill the page out again.
Well…it appears that they want you to sign, stamp and date, notarize the mortgage again which means “backdate” and that’s illegal in ALL states. So I would tell them to kick rocks. It’s their fault not yours.
P.S. If you do decide to do it and they pay you make them send you a picture of the damage paper before you do anything. Don’t trust them🤔 And… make sure they pay you first via PayPal.
Not sure what your notary laws are, but here in FL and in many other states - they would have to send back the original mortgage (or we print out another original) and it requires another visit to the signers, a resign of the mortgage and a new acknowledgement notarized with the current date ., This last part is vital - can’t notarize and backdate - must be current date mortgage is re-signed and re-notarized.
This is on THEIR dime - both an equitable fee to you for doing the revisit plus FedEx fees.
I live in PA, and reached out to the PA Association of Notaries, who confirmed that what the title co is asking me to do is not legal. Unfortunately, they are not taking no for an answer and even the SS is telling me to just do it. Very frustrating, hoping that they don’t give me to the boot for refusing to comply although I guess this is a sign that I shouldn’t be working with them anyways.
If they don’t “understand” your position, then send them a copy of your state’s notary law where it says “backdating is illegal”… I bet you they’ll stop insisting.
Even if it is not a scan back, I scan all docs. My scanner jammed on a scan back that also needed it fedexed. I taped it the best I could and copied it. Then I certified the copy. Never heard back from them. Personally, I would talk to the title co. Easiest way would be if you had a scanned copy and you could certify it was a true copy of the original. Today’s date and notary stamp.
