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Have you ever refused to notarize?

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T O P I C R E V I E W
jbelmont	Posted - 08/19/2011 : 12:33:08 AM Legally, in many states, we are not supposed to notarize a person's signature if we feel that fraud is going on, or that the person is too intoxicated or ignorant to sign. Have you ever refused to notarize for one reason or another? What has your experience been? Did you sacrifice your trip fee for your principles? Refusing to notarize has it's costs, but might keep you out of court too!
7 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First)
debcyn	Posted - 09/13/2011 : 10:28:17 AM Went from Miami to Orlando to notarize a loan pkg at Atty's Title Insurance Headquarters. My client paid me very well to travel. Parents had their 2 kids with them. After getting thrown out of AT because of the children's outrageous behavior, my partner and I followed them to their house. Driving in Orlando is crazy(almost like LA). After sitting at the dining room table, the clients were across from each other and my partner was opposite me, we started to complete the rest of the pkg (about 2/3 left). My partner gives me a look and I look at her quizically and proceed to get hit in the back of the head. Total shock and ready to retaliate. Partner was afraid to say anything in case I turned my head and got hit in the face or eye by a large plastic sword thrown by one of the kids. At that point I told the parents they would have to put their kids in a separate room to keep them from us which started to turn into a fight (I guess their kids were angels). I packed my stuff and told them they would have to get someone else to do their loan signing. It was very hard not to tell the parents about themselves. And as for those kids, they were lucky they were not mine!!!
17516	Posted - 08/25/2011 : 06:38:35 AM This last week had a husband that was trying to get wife to sign a waiver about her pressing charges against him on july 6th---- now for the story: As always I arrive a few minutes early, walking up to the door hearing loud voices. Ring doorbell, wait 6 minutes (in 109% heat) for them to answer the door. Husband answers the door we go to formal living area--he says "she will be a few minutes go ahead and start looking at the documents" to which I do so. I see ticket from the city with assault charge against the man I am looking at.... after hearing the loud voices am now very worried and looking at the front door wondering just what I got myself into. next 2 sheets of paper is the waiver of the misses not pressing charges against the mr and they are already signed.... le sigh so at this point 10 minutes has passed and the misses has not come out of the bathroom and he is telling me everything and more about this and saying things he really should not be saying. (trying to keep story clean and confidential at same time) He goes back to the bathroom and starts pounding on the door to get wife out of there. we are up to 25 minutes at this point. She comes out.... We talk for another 8 minutes and I figure it out very quickly that she does not have mental capacity to make this type of decision or is on something & would be signing under Duress Too (husband was speaking different language but tone was harsh)-- I felt and still feel bad because there are 2 kids in this household and she is driving them to school etc. I refused to notarize it & suggested they get counseling since they had asked me what to do. What else could I have done? Warmly, Tonie Visit my site: http://www.dashnotary.com I am not an attorney licensed to practice law in the State of Texas, and I may not give legal advice or accept fees for legal advice.
catmama47	Posted - 08/21/2011 : 11:38:44 AM A few years ago, I worked with a loan officer on a few re-fis she had. Since the loan officer didn't drive the freeways, I provided the transportation. We picked up the loan package from the title company, then proceeded to the borrower's home. About five minutes prior to arriving at the borrower's home, the loan officer asked me if I would "backdate" the loan package. I pulled over to the side of the road, told her that I was not going to risk my notary commission and be subject to heavy fines and penalities. I really should have told the woman to get out of my car and return home. However, I'm a nice person. I told the loan officer that I would not perform the notarization, I only wanted to get paid for schlepping her to the signing. The loan officer did find another notary who notarized the loan documents, this was not done in my presence. It must have been done after we returned back to my place. The loan signing company "stiffed me" on the transportation fee $40. I later contacted the borrower, asked if she had heard anything from the loan officer since I had not been paid. The borrower told me that the loan officer had lost her job. All I could do was laugh! Looks like karma bit someone in the butt. Ellen Michaels
catmama47	Posted - 08/21/2011 : 11:32:34 AM One of my loan signing companies asked me to notarize a Grant Deed. The signer was very nice, very sweet lady. She produced her drivers license. I noticed that the name on the Grant Deed and Drivers License were not identical. I asked the signer if she had any government photo i. d.'s that had the same name as the Grant Deed. The signer told me all she had was a Costco card with the same name. I told the signer for her benefit, I couldn't perform the notarization. I also reported this back to the signing company. T recommended to the signing company that we should include a Signature-Name Affidavit, have a copy of the borrower's drivers license, other documentation. The signing company also asked for a copy of the Costco card. I returned to the signer's home, we completed the notarization with the proper photo copies of her i. d.'s Ellen Michaels
jbelmont	Posted - 08/19/2011 : 11:16:15 PM Don't forget that 911 started with some illegal ID's from Virginia.
CopperheadVA	Posted - 08/19/2011 : 05:19:53 AM Yes I have refused to notarize twice. Once was for a first and second refi loan. Borrowers did not speak english well and I felt that both of their Virginia ID's were suspicious. Husband had a drivers license and the name was misspelled on it. Wife had a Virginia ID card and it was printed skewed - part of the printing was cut off the left side. The loan officer was really upset with me because he had driven down from New York City to be there for the closing and had brought his assistant who spoke the same language as the borrowers. He said he was making $14K on the deal. The other one was a woman who brought a document to me that had been drawn up by her parent's attorney, but the document had her maiden name on it and her ID had her married name.
LindaH	Posted - 08/19/2011 : 03:20:02 AM Yes, I've refused to notarize - with great regret expressed to the family. Daughter had called me to notarize for Momma but when I got there Momma's DL had expired and there was no other form of ID. In my case, this was a Living Will, which did not need notarization according to the instructions they had, so I just witnessed (as an individual, not a notary) - I did not charge but they gave me $20 for my time. Lately I've added a little blurb to my initial phone conversations, especially when family is calling me for notarize for someone else - while quoting the fee I break it down into $xx for the notarizations and $xx for travel/service fee. I then stress that the $xx service fee is payable no matter what - if for any reason the notarization cannot be completed through no fault of my own, the service fee is still due. Linda http://www.notary.net/websites/LindaHubbell http://www.columbiacountynotary.webs.com