As a notary, it is very important to me that the acceptable ID match the names on the documents. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be very important to the title companies and lenders. Too often I find that the title company has told the borrower that it's OK to sign a nickname on the docs since the original Deed has the nickname. For example, the borrower's photo driver license says "James Joseph Jones", but the original Deed has "Jimmy Jones". Obviously the attorney or whoever drew up the original Deed and whoever notarized the original Deed didn't care that the document was signed and notarized with a nickname instead of the person's true legal name. Whenever this occurs, I try to reasonably explain to the title company that by law I must see acceptable photo ID for the name being signed, and of course the borrower doesn't have it, so the name on the docs that I'm supposed to notarize is not the same name that I ID'd. I'm constantly being told angrily that the AKA Statement "will take care of it", and of course it does not. The notarization clearly states that I used acceptable proof to ID the person as being "blank blank", the person signing the documents, and if the ID says one name and the docs say another, even if it is a fairly close version of the legal name, and I go ahead and notarize "James Joseph Jones" signing as "Jimmy Jones", I'm not properly executing my duties as a notary.
My question is...how does this mismatched name situation cause problems for title searchers, or doesn't it affect your work at all?

to post a reply: login - or - register