Notary News & Notes: Nov 2006
Just a few things to cover this month:
Watch “where” you are placing your seals. Stay off the Registrar of Deeds section and make sure you are having the borrowers initial the last page of the Deed if there is an initial provision at the bottom.
Faxing docs: Effective 3 weeks ago, we began a mandatory fax-back process that has helped minimize 2 HUGE areas of concern:
1. We can now guarantee our clients that their funding docs will be faxed to them eliminating headaches on our end – and yours. If the docs are not faxed in to us by the next business morning, we can address it directly with the agent.
2. The added plus is that this process allows us to spot oversights on key documents before the package reaches the lender. We have made one change to the process, though. Instead of hanging onto the package until you hear from us, go ahead and drop it if it’s been more than an hour. If something is wrong, we will call you right away - usually within minutes.
We’d like everyone to start getting used to going to the website to submit your invoices. We are trying to get away from the faxing of invoices. Starting in January, we will be eliminating the fax back option. Just go to www.signingcarolina.com, click on NOTARY INVOICE, fill out the short form and click SUBMIT. This step will give us all the details we need to ‘close out’ the order and it also generates your payment.
Please remember that it is never acceptable to leave a message on the regular business line (336-992-3304) after hours related to trouble printing docs or inability to locate a borrower's address. If you have a dire issue like this after hours, call one of the after hours numbers provided on the voice mail greeting. Someone is always available.
Spousal doc are not just for “spouses”: As most of you know, confirming marital status is essential. Just to throw another wrench in there, be aware though, that in a few cases, you will have other people on title who are not “spouses” but should be treated the same way. For example, other people buy houses together who are not married: a couple living together, a brother/sister who went in on a house together, etc. Basically anyone who is not a borrower but has interest in the property still has to sign spousal docs. Please keep this in mind and call us if you have questions.
One of our staff members attended a NNA Notary Training class in Winston Salem, and they went over the new notary laws that affect us. The only one that was news to us was that effective October 1, 2006, all notarial seals must be photographically reproducible. This means those of you out there still using crimper type seals or embossers have to either shade over your seal with a pencil, buy an inker of some type or replace your seal altogether with a rubber stamp. The embosser by itself is not in compliance.
Please email us for rate information.
Signing Carolina, Inc.
3220 Rockingham Road, High Point, NC 27265
Phone: 336.905.7009 Fax: 800.930.0554
Member of the National Notary Association