I had a friend call me , she was contacted by a notary to confirm signing appointment . The notary told her she would be dropping the docs all tagged for her to sign and pick them up when she finished!! My friend declined immediately, said she was not comfortable signing a stack of documents and oh btw isn’t that illegal? Notary told her it was covid protocol and she’s been doing it like this for many months and seems to only have problems with people in our area. My friend will be contacting her lender tomorrow and requesting a new appointment with a different notary. Is this “dropping docs off” common ? Is this even legal?
I know I would not do it - in Florida the notarizations have to be done in front of the signers - so it would be illegal from a notarial standpoint here - as for the rest of the package, part of the signing process is identifying the people - I would not handle a loan package this way. Too many things can go wrong doing it this way, and guess who’s standing at the bottom of the hill when the %&$& starts to roll…you, the notary.
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Not here in Washington! All documents involving notarization must be signed (or acknowledged) in the presence of a duly appointed Notary Public.
LindaH, can you imagine? What’s next? “I want this power of attorney notarized so I can take over my mother’s bank accounts. She doesn’t want to see you because of COVID, but she already signed it. Just notarize it.”
OMG! What if some untrained, unthinking, unskilled and unethical notary actually DID that?
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I wouldn’t be surprised if there is A LOT of this going on, to be completely honest. If I had to guess, probably about 50% of my signers in recent months would have loved doing it this way if I had offered. People in my area are very COVID-conscious.
I had a signing yesterday, was surprised to find out when I arrived that we would be signing out in the garage, door open, during a snow storm in literal sub-freezing temperatures but ok. Fine. Non-borrowing wife thought that I would just give her the stack of paperwork when husband and I were finished and let her sign what she needed to sign INSIDE. Hahahaha… no.
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@Katelyn that happened to me, the first months of Covid19… the signer wanted me to be outside while she’s in the comfort of her home signing and reviewing the documents. No way that was going to happen… take as it is or I just pack and leave. I’m concerned about my health too, still life goes on, signings are done everyday (with care and precautions)
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Not here in Texas either
I just was signed up with AMROCK and this is in their Practice safe closings documents.
Go with a door delivery
If you or the client are uncomfortable meeting inside the home, consider doing a
door delivery. Here’s how it works:
- When you arrive at the borrower’s home, let them know that we’re doing
this closing differently to adhere to CDC guidelines and walk them through
the process.
- Invite the borrower to hold their driver’s license up to the window so that
you can verify their identity.
- Once their identity is verified, place the signing package on their doorstep
and step back to maintain the CDC’s recommended social distance.
- Use a video chat app (FaceTime, Skype, etc.) to address any questions as
they go through the signing process. If video isn’t an option, a phone call
will work, but either way, you need to remain available to answer any
questions as you normally would.
- Once the signing is complete, the borrower drops the signed closing
package back on their porch for you to retrieve, review, notarize and return
to Amrock as you normally would.
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The Amrock example will not fly in my state. One of the notarized forms for Quicken is the signature/name affidavit. I must witness the signers sign their names without exception. They also have to give me a sworn statement since the form contains a jurat.
@lee totally illegal process in Florida. How can you notarize a signature you did not witness yourself. Door drop signings totally eliminate the “personally appeared before me” in any notarial process.
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I do not disagree. Personally I wouldn’t take part in the signing. even with the video chat or on the phone. it would be too time consuming, error prone and not very legal in most states. Just think of all of the tagging you would have to do ahead of time to make sure that they do what is requested.
Too much time for additional liability risk…
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