Did you know that;
” Notaries used to travel with Spanish explorers to make sure that they could keep a record of the discovery of all the treasures? For that very reason, even Christopher Columbus had notaries with him to account for all his discoveries!”
Interesting, right?
See! Even matters like these needed the assistance of notaries to avoid any future conflicts! You also must have found yourself in a situation where someone told you to notarize your documents. Trust us; you might require the help of the notary public in those matters you cannot even think about! Keeping it concise, a document that demands ensuring the authenticity of all the parties connected to that document might require notarization.
If you specifically want to know what documents need to be notarized?
Keep reading to get your answers!
Firstly, Why do you need a notary? Can you notarize your own documents?
A notary public is an individual that is commissioned by the state or particularly the secretary of state to act as an unbiased or neutral witness to verify the signer’s identity and notarize the documents.
Notarizing a document with the help of a notary public serves so many benefits, like;
A notarized document is self-authenticating. So there is no need for you to appear in court. In case the attorney presents a notarized document in front of the Judge.
Adding an extra layer of protection raises the document’s authenticity.
No one can cheat or scam you if you own a document that once goes through and is lastly notarized by a commissioned notary public.
Now, if you are wondering, Can you notarize your own documents?
The answer is No! You need to contact a notary public for that. Even if you are a notary public yourself, no law allows a notary to notarize their own signature. The notary public needs to be unbiased and have no benefit from the document’s purpose. You need to contact another state-commissioned notary public to notarize your document for that very reason
What documents need to be notarized?
You just cannot say every important document needs notarization.There are a fair amount of chances it may or maybe not require notarization. So, it depends on the document type, and is the signer’s identity verification needed? If yes, you got your answer; it will require notarization. Basically, there are three types of documents that are notarized these are:
Financial Document
Most of the time, Banks, investment corporations, or other financial firms require notarization for their documents. Instead of visiting notary public time, they hire personal full-time notary public for themselves. The notary public working for them usually notarises the following documents.
Property deeds documents: Under Property deed documents includes real estate documents that transfer ownership from a seller to a buyer. These documents usually need notarization to prevent fraud from any end.
Mortgage closing documents: Finalisation of a property or house selling, along with buyer and seller, sometimes involves a third party. They hold the security if the buyer doesn’t pay them on time; they can acquire property anytime. The document that establishes the above scenario is called the Mortgage closing document.
Loan documents: Not only for property, but a buyer might also require a loan for other financial transactions like automobile purchasing, etc. Under this, like in mortgage closing, if the buyer doesn’t pay on the mentioned period on the loan document, the loan providing party has full authority to attain the transaction security.
Some types of credit documents: Like mortgage documents and loan documents, some transactions require additional credit documents signing that should be notarized by a notary public.
Financial statements: The person signing financial statements might need to attest their identity by an unbiased party, which is mainly done by a commissioned notary public.
And many more.
Legal Document
As mentioned earlier, not all legal documents require notarizations. However, the documents that claim someone’s ownership or liability require identity verification and mostly need notarization. Some of them are;
Wills: Not all, but some wills require notarization depending on the state in which you reside. Still, necessary or not, if you want to avoid coming conflicts, you can hire a notary public to notarize your Will. Mainly Wills become active after the owner’s death.
Executorships: Under this, the notary public acts as an executor to carry the instructions that are mentioned in essential documents like the Will or trust documents.
Custody and guardianship agreements: A document is made and signed by concerned parties as per the decision taken by the court regarding the custody of children after parent’s separation, incapability to care, or unexpected demise. This document is called a Custody and guardianship agreement and needs to be notarized by a state-commissioned notary public.
Power of attorney document: You can legally allow someone you trust to make decisions on your behalf with a notarized “power of attorney” document.
Advanced directives: Mainly due to poor health or some other reason, if they won’t be capable of carrying them on their own in the future, a person writes an advanced note stating their future decisions. These are also known as Living Wills.
Legal Affidavits: It is mandatory to notarize legal documents in which you claim a sworn statement by approving and signing them. These documents are called legal affidavits.
Other Court documents
Vendor contracts: To avoid fraud from any side, in the presence of a notary public, the parties involved in a business choose to sign a vendor agreement mentioning the agreement of goods or services in recovery for the payment.
Commercial leases: The signing and notarizing documents regarding the contract between the property owner and the company; come under the commercial leases notarization. With a commercial lease, the landlord provides the authority to a business firm to use their property for rental or other purposes.
Articles of incorporation: When someone opens a new company, they must submit Articles of Incorporation documents to the governing body. Getting these documents notarized is vital, and the concerned person needs to contact a notary public before submitting them.
Employment contracts: Notarization is not something that is required when it comes to employment contracts. However, big companies and private firms prefer notarizing employment contracts whenever a new employee joins their company. All the company policies, terms, and conditions are mentioned in the employment contract to which the employee agrees after getting verified by the notary public and signing on them.
Memorandum of understanding documents: It is a formal document in which all the participating parties sign the document approving their opinion is the same for the matter that is mentioned in the document. Notarizing the Memorandum of understanding documents avoids possible disputes if someone challenges its authenticity.
and many more
Also Read: What are the types of Notaries: Mobile, Electronic and RON!
Our Notarization Process
1. Fill up the online application with your details.
2. Upload Your Documents
3. Get Approved and Receive your Documents On Your Email.
What Documents are not possible to be Notarized?
A notary public is allowed to do notarization in the state in which the state commissions them. When a client contacts the notary public to notarize their document, the notary must tell them if the document really requires notarization! a notary can deny notarizing the document in the following scenarios.
- The notary public is not commissioned in the signer’s state
- Notary public’s notary stamp is expired
- The identity of the signer is not authentic.
- The signer doesn’t provide enough information to verify their identity
- In terms of oath or affirmation, the signer refuses to affirm the statement mentioned in the document.
- The document is blank or incomplete
- Content in the document is not understandable, or the intent of the content is not clear to the notary public.
- Notary feels that signer is not signing the document with their own will
- The signer doesn’t understand the intent of the document
- In the case of a replica, the document doesn’t match with the original document.
From, Where to get documents notarized?
To notarize a document, you can visit any notary office in your city. However, it is time-consuming. First, you need to take out time from your busy schedule to visit the notary office, and still, there is no guarantee that they will be available there, plus they will or will not notarize your documents on the same day.
We get it! It is a little vexatious. Well, after the legalisation of remote online notarization, you can notarize documents from the comfort of your home. You don’t need to go anywhere. A notary public will contact you on your preferable day and your preferable time. Many platforms provide remote online notary services like Lottalegal. Our process to notarize documents is simple and easy! It goes as:
Upload Document that you want to get notarized
Visit our portal and fill up a simple form mentioning your essential details like name, contact number, residency, and type of documents you want to notarize. After that, you have to upload a soft file of all the documents that need to be notarized.
You can make a soft copy by taking pictures of all the documents and making a pdf file. Once you do that, upload this file to our portal.
Connect with Legal Notary and Notarize Your Documents
After you upload the documents and submit them along with the form, a Notary will contact you to conduct audio-video conferencing. During the call, the notary will confirm your identity via KBN and check whether the provided information is correct or not.
Download your documents
Once the notary approves that all the details are correct, they will notarize the documents and send the notarized documents via email. You can download these documents anytime and save them for future use.
Do I need to notarize replicate copies of documents?
Whether legal, business, financial, or any other document, you might require a copy of them to submit in a legal body. Replicate copies of these documents mostly require to be notarized in order to present them as authentic in the eyes of the law. For example, it is mandatory to notarize copies of marriage certificates if you submit them for legal activity.
Can a Notary Give Legal Advice?
No. That’s what differentiates a notary public from an attorney. A notary public doesn’t have that many authorities like giving legal suggestions to the client. This is because an attorney has more knowledge about laws and is qualified to get into legal issues and advise clients for the same.
Whereas a notary public can just verify the signer’s identity, ensure the signer knows the document’s purpose, and not sign under anyone’s pressure. Other than this, a notary has the capacity to authorise oaths, affirmations, etc.
Last Updated: Mar 1st, 2022
Jasper Becky
Author
Jasper Becky is a Famous legal writer. She was a notary public herself; at the same time, she loved writing and wrote some great pieces all along with her career as a notary. A few years back, she switched to full-time writing. Being a notary public in the past, she has excellent knowledge and has a nice grasp regarding laws and rules in America. She is a wife and mother of two girls plus one cute dog. She likes to spend time with her family and cook for them. She tries new recipes every now and her closer ones considers herself an amazing baker.
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How long does it take to notarize a document?
The whole notarial act hardly takes 20 to 25 minutes. From identity verifying to document signing, the notary public wraps up the notarization in this exact amount of time. Right after the completion of the notarial act, you can use this notarized document for its required purpose.