What am I looking for?
Conscientious Notaries help to prevent fraud! Well, how can a Notary prevent fraud if they didn’t complete the documents they are going to notarize? Notaries help to prevent fraud by checking ALL BLANK spaces before stamping and signing ANY document. All blanks in a document should be filled in by signers, their lawyers’, or their representatives’, but not by the Notary.
A Notary can be held liable for entering information on a document that is incorrect or fraudulent. Notaries complete notarial certificates ONLY. There are exceptions to completing blanks, such as assisting persons with physical limitations.
What if a Notary misses a blank space on a contract, and a specific amount of money should have been entered there, and the Notary notarizes the document with the blank not filled in, what can happen? Someone could enter a fraudulent amount of money in that space, a citizen can be harmed, and a Notary can be held partially liable for damages.
Here are some examples of blank spaces, incorrect or missing information that signers should complete or correct:
- Title of Document, if required.
- Signer’s name is missing
- Missing date
- Dollar amount is missing
- Signer’s name is incorrect
- Typos in blank spaces
- Missing city or state
- Name for Power of Attorney missing or incorrect
- Name for Beneficiary missing or incorrect
- Witness Signatures missing or incorrect
- Last 4 digits of a social security number missing
- Missing address
- Incorrect date, check predated dates on acknowledgments
- Notarial certificate wording not approved by Michigan
What if a blank is inapplicable?
Don’t leave it blank! The signer must fill in “Not applicable” or “N/A.” The blank could be for powers or a brief explanation space on a Power of Attorney. Someone could assign themselves a power as an attorney-in-fact that the principle did not want them to have. Make sure signers’ initial or fill in blanks with “N/A” where applicable.
Does this apply to documents?
Yes it does! A document can be considered as a blank. If there are multiple pages in a document, make sure each page is present at the notarization. If the words “See attached”, or something to that nature is present in the document to be notarized, the attachment must be present. Happy scanning of your documents and remember that all blanks need to be addressed before notarization.
Notary Pricing – how much is it to notarize?
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