What Documents Need a Notary

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Whether you’re buying a house, selling a car, or finishing up a small legal matter, you’ll probably be using a notary. Notaries have special licenses from their state to act as a sort of official witness to legal actions on paper. They can certify a document was prepared and signed properly by placing their seal and signature on the page. You might be going through your head of all the paperwork you deal with on a daily or weekly basis and wonder, “which of these pages need notary seals?” If you think you might require a notary public to make a document official, check out this list of a few things they can certify to find out!

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Financial

There are a number of financial documents that require a notary to make them official. Among them are mortgage documents, property deeds, and loan paperwork. This is because large sums of money are being passed from entity to another, so the contract must be legally binding and entered willingly by both parties. The notary can help draw up the documents if need be, but in most of these instances a bank will provide the paperwork and typically even provides a notary themselves.

Legal

This is where most notaries find their sweet spot, as the majority of legal documents need to be notarized before they can be filed with a court or considered officials. They can notarize wills, trusts, custody agreements, and power of attorney privileges to name a few. The commonality in this department is that all the documents they notarize have the force of law for a set of actions. Just like with financial paperwork, the notary is certifying all signed parties enter the agreement willingly and appear before them to sign in person. So if you’re finishing up any legal business, odds are you’ll need a notary.

Business

This is yet another area where having a notary can come in handy. Notaries can make official things like articles of incorporation in a business, construction agreements, and vendor contracts. This can help to provide significantly more protection to a business who’s working with an outside entity for any reason. Having a legal contract that is notarized gives them a powerful defense in court in the event they have to sue someone for a breech of contract.

It may seem like notaries have a niche position in the world, but really they can be used for a wide variety of purposes.