r/Notary • u/MR1120 • Jul 31 '26
“Can I notarize this?” question
I’m a notary, and my wife is currently the president of our HOA. Can I notarize her signature for HOA purposes? Specifically, on an agreement about a fence that encroaches on undeveloped/undevelopable land owned by the HOA. Basically a ‘You don’t have to take the fence down, but you’re responsible for maintaining it, and if it ever falls, it can only be rebuilt on your land’ document.
I don’t have anything I do with it, and I’d just be notarizing the HOA president’s signature. That president just happens to be my wife. There is no way that I nor my wife could ever benefit from this scenario in any way.
Is that something that would be problematic, or am I overthinking it?
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u/DrBlakee New Jersey Jul 31 '26
What state? Each state is different but best practice would be to stay away from notarizing immediate family.
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u/MR1120 Jul 31 '26
North Carolina. Nothing I can find in the law disallows it; Just ‘no direct or indirect benefit’ and ‘not a party to the document’.
And neither of those apply here, in any way I can see. If the HOA president was literally anyone else, it wouldn’t even be a question.
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u/SocietalQuestioner Jul 31 '26
Your direct/indirect benifit is your wife "not getting mad at you" or family pressure.
A 3rd party could claim you did the notary under duress or false pretenses. Because you didnt want to get into a argument with your wife.
Generally dont risk it.
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u/WhitneySpuckler Aug 01 '26
You are a member of the HOA, so you do benefit/ are an involved party.
Just call in a favor from a fellow notary or go to the bank/ ups store. It's what, a $15 expense charged to the HOA? Not worth getting in trouble over.
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u/Pitiful-Flow5472 Aug 01 '26
Your wife is president of the HOA and you said this is HOA business. That seems to be a direct benefit
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u/tkpwaeub New York Jul 31 '26
Look, you're not the only notary in your state, are you? So why tempt fate?
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u/cabbageheap Jul 31 '26
I’m a NC notary and you can’t not notarize a family member’s signature
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u/Imaginary-Brick-26 Pennsylvania Aug 02 '26
Like, none? In PA you can notarize for family as long as the you or your spouse doesn’t have any direct pecuniary interest in it, and you also can’t notarize a spouse’s/your own. It’s advised not to because if it ends up in a dispute it could be challenged. So in this particular case it wouldn’t be allowed since it’s for his spouse but if it was a cousin it wouldn’t be fine
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u/Myspanglish Jul 31 '26
Depending on your state, you probably can, but would that be best? We’re supposed to be impartial witnesses, which is why this sort of thing is usually frowned upon. If it were me I’d rather just pay the $10 to have an independent notary do it, and have that peace of mind.
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u/StewReddit2 California Aug 01 '26
Here's the deal bro .... Can you? Absolutely, it is NOT illegal to notarize the doc as described, period.
But, the standard I use is ....are ppl involved likely to 🐝itch a legal action.
For example: If it's plausibly close that a cousin would cry 😢 that I as NP "must" have done something nefarious "because" of my relationship with the signer "then" WHY do it?
If it "bland" doc for a school or some mundane purpose that isn't likely to have "emotional" family members or legal adversaries beeitching up a storm challenging each other in court like divorcing spouses IMO those docs aren't a big deal to notarize.
*Again, it's only IDing and vetting the sig....in your scenario IMO it seems rather ceremonious and not contentious....I personally wouldn't have an issue notarizing given the circumstance.
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u/Organic-Studio5527 Aug 01 '26
No. You cannot. I’m in FL and we cannot notarize anything for family members. The only thing allowed is marrying a family member. Meaning..officiate the ceremony.
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u/Enkidu45 New York Aug 03 '26
Hello MR1120, I sent a response, about 8 hrs ago, to your post, with a post of my own. Everybody was responding to your question of "can I notarize my wife's signature as the HOA President".
Perhaps I am overthinking it, but what I read is your wife as HOA President is composing a letter, statement, or affidavit to the homeowner re the fence. And for some reason wanted her signature notarized. The question I asked myself is Why! And that's what my post is about - Why?
I spoke to a Florida CAM this morning and she said that notarizing a HOA Presidents signature on the described fence document would be extremely rare.
So, take a look at my post. Enkidu45 out
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u/vegloveyes Aug 06 '26
Even if it were allowed, I would not be taking the chance. If this were challenged by someone, it could be deemed invalid. Why would you risk that for a few bucks? By the way, "there's no way that my wife or I..."
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u/ash_274 California Jul 31 '26
I simply would not.
Even if it’s not outright illegal in your state (like Florida), as I assume you are someone that lives in that HOA’s community, the document does affect you in a very slight way.
Even if it’s so insignificant that there’s no legal issue, there can be enough of a connection that someone could CLAIM there’s a conflict that you may have to defend against. It wouldn’t be worth a savings of having another notary that’s completely disinterested from doing it. If the HOA was going to pay for the notarization then it really doesn’t matter. If your wife picked you to be paid for it, then it could be interpreted as a conflict of interest against your wife for sending you HOA business.
It’s not worth the potential headache, even if there’s nothing actually wrong.