Wow, Robert, that would be partially what is wrong with our business right now. The fraud just trickles right on down to the closers/title agents. In Ohio, you can not back date or pre-date the documents. The only way to have done it correctly would have been to have the documents dated as they were but the NOTARY CLAUSES MUST SHOW THE DATE OF THE SIGNATURE. The request made by the signing company to the Notary was a blatant request to bend the rules and as such the Notary now becomes a party to the fraud.
As I understand the post the only dates that were changed were the dates on the mortgage itself and with out initials on it who's to say the signing company wouldn't have switched it out upon return of signed docs just like James said.
Kudos to James for having the knowledge to know better and the fortitude to do the right thing which was to not do the closing. These requests have been made to me several times in my 15 years and I too have been threatened with "I'll take the deal somewhere else" or "I have a closer that will do it so we will just send them". That is when I say fine take it away but I will be forced to report this to the proper authorities. It is amazing how quickly they change their minds and either get you a new package with the correct dates.
You are breaking the law plain and simple, at least in Ohio. If one were to get caught doing closings this way one would be subject to loss of their Notary Commission and or Title License (or both) for life. All for a measly $100.00. Just doesn't seem worth it.
I have never seen a mortgage that didn't require initials on every page and some include the notary page as well. It is in the customer's best interest to initial each page whether required or not. My borrowers always initial - especially things like payment letters, coupons, mortgages and notes.
I am curious, what dates did they have on the RtoC? It was mentioned that the dates needed to be inserted but did they ask you to insert the correct dates???? I am sure they did not as all the document must be dated the same - at least that is what all lenders tell me when I have asked to only change the Notary Clause dates to reflect the signing date. I have never, never, had a request like this where the RtoC was dated correctly. It always reflected the document date - in this case the 20th with rescission ending on the 24th (counting Sat.) or 25th (no Sat. depending on lender).
So, James, in the end you should be praised for standing up and doing the right thing. As for being black balled from them - sounds good to me, if more closers/notaries did the right thing people like this wouldn't be in business. I think I would have responded with, "that is fine with me, I will be sure to add your company to my black ball list of firms that I won't work with because they commit fraud". Hopefully, you made that phone call you spoke of to report them because as the caller mentioned, everyone does this and what is the big deal.....
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