Notarize Email Signature Trial with airSlate SignNow

Notarize email signature trial

once upon a time there was an escrow this escrow was scheduled to close in a week the escrow officer was waiting for buyers new loan documents to come down so that the seller and the buyer could come in to sign final closing paperwork on the monday of the beginning of that week a phone call was received from the seller's wife the husband had flown back to taiwan over the weekend and she suddenly realized that she did not inform the escrow officer and the grant deed that needed to be signed in person in front of the notary public had not been signed mr stella was now in taiwan and due to the pandemic was under a 14-day quarantine needless to say the conscientious escrow officer immediately freaked out after she stopped hyperventilating she set about finding out what could be done and presented some limited choices mr seller opted for a power of attorney that would allow mrs zeller to sign on his behalf now normal documents could be signed on an electronic signing platform but a signature on the power of attorney needed to be notarized california's notary law would only allow notarization if the person appeared in front of the notary showed identification signed the notaries book and gave a theme print mr cello was gone so what do we do there were two ways of doing this the traditional way was that he would make an appointment at the american consulate and get it signed there but they weren't even sure that the american council was open to conduct business this was during the pandemic and mr stella was under a 14-day quarantine so it would be a while before he could step out to transact business the other way was to have mr sellers sign the document and get it notarized through remote online notarization or ron as it is called in the industry in 2012 the state of virginia passed a law that allowed notarization to occur remotely through online platforms the signer and the notary met visually online through webcam on a ron platform signer's identifications were given to the notary public and the signers were asked specific personal background information questions the documents were presented online and signed by both the signer and the notary public online the whole process would be recorded and the metadata would be available if anyone challenged the notary process because of the pandemic and even before the majority of the states passed laws that would allow ron so hey amazing what technology can do and what an easy way it was to solve this problem right but not so fast unfortunately california is not one of those states who had this law so to do this via ron the signer had to use a special platform and find an out-of-state notary but there are a few necessary steps before this because this is such a new process first and foremost the escrow officer had to get the approval of the title company insuring the transaction to approve this wrong signed document secondly they had to get the county recorder to approve it thank goodness this was a seller signature if it was a buyer's signature on loan documents their lender would have had to approve it too the wrong platform also had to be approved because remember when everything is signed online there was not going to be any real wet signatures on the documents either from the cyanor or the notary public but the title companies and county recorders realized through the long months of the pandemic that real estate and other legal transactions had to be finalized and uh so they relaxed their requirements and would allow the recording of these wrong signed documents as long as the notary public was in a state that allowed laws regarding remote online notarizations and the ron was done on a reputable and industry known platform this was the only route available to my client because of time constraints remember the escrow was scheduled to close on monday and this was already wednesday so escrow prepared the poa and emailed it to the title company so that they and the county could review the content and format approval was given and on wednesday the document was emailed to the seller together with the names of two bronze signing companies it was all in the seller's hands now with the 15 hour difference between the u.s and taiwan the seller could not start locating a notary until thursday and that is when the problem started first of all he had to look into which ron platform was easiest to use unfortunately english was not his primary language so he might have had a little trouble navigating the platforms and reviewing the consent forms the costs were expensive also so he was shopping for a more reasonable rate as well secondly mr seller had to have some technological background he had to locate the email on his phone and then figure a way to transmit it to the platform i'm not sure if he had a laptop with him but certainly i hope that he did thirdly mr seller had to pass the knowledge-based authentication or kba portion he was presented with four to five multiple choice personal questions that are available online and he had to pick the correct answer within a specified time limit of approximately two minutes now this varies from platform to platform but this part is important to authenticate that the person was who he said he was outside of the visual id the answers should have been known by the person without having to go to the internet to find out if he was not able to answer all the questions correctly within the time allowed he would then be kicked out of the program and once he was kicked out twice most of the platforms would not allow him to reapply on this platform for 24 hours what happened to mr seller through the day was a little hazy but the email subject lines that the escrow officer received said something like please resend power of attorney form waiting for help please advise and notary session expired this went on for five hours on thursday meanwhile during this time the escrow officer was downloading the buyer's loan documents reviewing the conditions and preparing them to be sent to a mobile notary to meet with the buyers thank goodness these people were all in california and were ready willing and able to sign as an added kicker the loan documents had to be signed on thursday because they wanted to fund the loan on friday and close the escrow on monday well that wasn't going to happen unfortunately one of their conditions was that they needed a copy of the seller's grant deed while the escrow officer did what she could and with fingers crossed made an appointment with mrs seller to come in and sign the pal the sign the grant deed by the end of the thursday work day this was provided the power of attorney was received in time because you see mrs seller could not sign for mr seller before mr seller gave her the written right to do so we needed that power of attorney as soon as possible mrs seller's appointment time came and went and there was no power of attorney the seller apparently was having a hard time and in desperation in the early evening hours the escrow officer was connected to the parties through a three-way conversation and this is what was learned during the conversation the technology was too confusing the internet connection broke off throughout through halfway through mr saleh could not answer all the kba correctly and was kicked out three times including for the bad connection he complained bitterly about the kba questions for instance he could not remember his daughter's birthday he could not remember some of the past addresses that he lived in so every time he was kicked out and he had to start afresh and of course the kba questions became new ones but nobody could help him because he was on the platform and he was being videoed but he assured that he everybody that he would continue to try and it is very doubtful that he split celeb so much on that thursday night a new appointment was set for early friday morning with mrs seller if mr seller signed overnight this could all be finished friday morning but when the escrow officer was getting ready to leave thursday evening she received an email with a copy of the signed and notarized power of attorney hallelujah my goodness upon inspection though she was dismayed to see that mr seller undersigned his electronic signature he did not sign with his middle initial although everywhere on the document his name included his middle initial this power of attorney would be rejected by the county right away in addition the wrong platform that he used was not one that was authorized on that on a list that the title company was willing to take calling mr seller back and giving him the bad news was tough he said that he was exhausted and tired of being kicked out of the platform so he decided to search online for another platform well he picked one that no one had heard of and was not proven by the industry so it was back to his to the drawing board for him on friday morning mrs seller came in to sign the deed and apologized profusely for inserting this drama into an otherwise simple transaction the escrow officer very gently advised her that one of the biggest concerns that the escrow industry had were clients leaving and going on vacation without letting their escrow officer know and not signing all the important documents well mrs seller said that the backup plan was that her husband did make an appointment with the american consulate but the appointment date would fall two weeks after he was released from quarantine but that would still be a week after our supposed closing date not having heard from the seller through the morning of friday and given the 15-hour time difference the escrow officer was happy that mrs seller called and her husband asked that everyone be calm and patient he would try again and don't pressure him okay on an optimistic note the escrow officer mentioned that there was a whole weekend now to work with and if he got it signed sometime on the weekend all that was needed was mrs seller to come back in and re-sign the deed with a new notary date that would have been scheduled after the power of attorney date the buyer's lender had already been alerted about the issues and understood that the funding and the closing would be delayed this is a there is a happy ending to this story on friday night at seven o'clock the escrow officer received a new signed power of attorney a review showed that it was signed through an authorized platform and in this instance mr seller in the fear of getting his signature rejected again over signed and signed his full name including all of his middle initials and he figured that more signing was better than less signing and he was right so the seller was in taiwan the notary public was in florida and the document got signed notary notarized and delivered to the escrow officer here in california is this an example of international and interstate commerce or what why am i publishing the story remote online notarization is such a new thing out there and there's a lot of interest from the real estate escrow and title industry many of our clients are looking for ways to complete their real estate transaction while they're stuck in another country this may be the panacea for closing real estate transactions during the pandemic when you can't travel but care should be taken here is what we learned talk to the title officer first to make sure that they and the county recorder are willing and able to insure this wrong document if this is a signing of loan documents you need to get your lender to approve it also choose a platform that the title company will accept there are many platforms out there as a lot of companies jumped on this bandwagon but some don't have the track record or the technology to maintain the database needed for each individual notary event make sure that the signer has some technological background to navigate the platform hopefully they have a laptop available and are not trying to rely on their phone make sure that the signer is aware that knowledge based authentication is going to be needed to establish their identity you would be surprised at what easily accessible information is out there on a person some that he himself cannot even remember correctly be sure that the signer is aware that there is a time limit to the kba if he cannot answer within the specified time limit his session will end and he will be kicked out a lot of the platforms after two times of being kicked out he might not be able to go back into that particular platform for another 24 hours we are all learning and as we learn i want to be sure that my experiences are shared not only with my escrow peers but also the general public this is juliana too and yes i am that escrow officer that was totally stressed out for days by this turn of events this is a story of escrow in the trenches and the drama and craziness that surround us thank you for watching