[WSBARP] RON -

[Kary Krismer]

I saw that federal legislation yesterday.  RON is what I referred to 
yesterday as something I wasn't crazy about being used today in 
Washington.  I think the argument that this 2017 act authorized it is 
flimsy, but not necessarily frivolous.

http://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/2017-18/Pdf/Bills/Session%20Laws/Senate/5081-S.SL.pdf?cite=2017%20c%20281%20%C2%A7%2011.

If you read through it, it does recognize notary acts from other states, 
but another section requires the signing party to be physically present 
with the notary, without mentioning any exceptions.  I'm just not seeing 
that that 2017 act authorized remote notary from other states, absent at 
least a greater connection to that other state (e.g. the signer was also 
in Virginia, as was the remote notary).  Add in the fact that in 2019 
the state did pass legislation on remote notary (effective Oct 1, 2020) 
and the argument regarding the 2017 legislation becomes even weaker.

My position on this has been if a bank wants to accept remote notary on 
deeds of trust, fine, but my buyers' P&S contracts typically have 
provisions prohibiting remote notary on their conveyance deeds to them.  
The difference is a deed of trust is temporary, where a deed continues 
on after a later sale if the sale is by warranty deed.  Also, the loss 
on a deed of trust should be covered by the lender's policy (assuming 
the title company stays solvent), where a loss on a deed might not be 
fully covered due to market appreciation.

That said, I hope this federal RON legislation passes, and quickly.  It 
is needed due to this crisis.  Remote notaries (those who go to the 
signer's homes) right now are one of the groups on the front lines, like 
retail clerks.

Kary L. Krismer
John L. Scott, Inc.
206 723-2148

On 3/19/2020 6:54 PM, nestor at pplsweb.com wrote:
>
> I just got this from the American Land Title Association:
>
> *Senators Introduce ALTA-supported Federal RON Bill* 
> <http://lists.altalists.org/t/677415/2746850/22403/5/>
> U.S. Senators Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) introduced 
> on Wednesday the Securing and Enabling Commerce Using Remote and 
> Electronic Notarization Act of 2020, which permits immediate 
> nationwide use of remote online notarization (RON) with minimum 
> standards and provide certainty for the interstate recognition of RON. 
> While RON won't be available for every transaction, it does provide 
> another closing option in some circumstances. "With the need for 
> social distancing to help prevent the spread of the virus, we want to 
> provide options to consumers to close their transaction remotely 
> nationwide," said Diane Tomb, ALTA's chief executive officer. "The 
> strong standards in this bill are important to prevent fraud and offer 
> consumers a more secure alternative rather than FaceTime or Skype when 
> buying property or refinancing a mortgage."
>
> Nestor Gorfinkel, Attorney at Law
>
> Licensed in Washington & Florida
>
> Florida Civil-Law (International) Notary
>
> *ATTENTION - This e-mail message and any attachment to this e-mail 
> message may contain confidential information that is legally 
> privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not 
> review, retransmit, convert to hard copy, copy, use or disseminate 
> this e-mail or any attachments to it. If you have received this e-mail 
> in error, please notify us immediately by return e-mail or by 
> telephone at the phone numbers provided herein and delete this 
> message. Please note that if this e-mail message contains a forwarded 
> message or is a reply to a prior message, some or all of the contents 
> of this message or any attachments may not have been produced by the 
> sender.*
>
> **
>
> *P****Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.*
>
>
> ***Disclaimer: Please note that RPPT listserv participation is not restricted to practicing attorneys and may include non-practicing attorneys, law students, professionals working in related fields, and others.***
>
> _______________________________________________
> WSBARP mailing list
> WSBARP at lists.wsbarppt.com
> http://mailman.fsr.com/mailman/listinfo/wsbarp
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbarp/attachments/20200320/54568c6e/attachment.html>