Relating to Real Estate
New Acknowledgment Forms Became Effective on October 1, 2020
We wrote about remote notarization in the June 2020 issue of Relating to Real Estate. We wrote about the law that the General Assembly passed in 2019 (Senate Bill 678/Chapter 407 (2019)) to bring the Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts (RULONA) to Maryland, albeit with a delayed effective date of October 1 2020. About how the Maryland Secretary of State wanted to delay the implementation of that law until October 1, 2021, because the educational and testing provisions of the new law would not be ready in 2020. About how the banking, real estate and title industries pushed back against a delayed effective date. About how the parties agreed to permit RULONA to go into effect on October 1, 2020, with only the educational provisions delayed for an additional one year, in legislation passed shortly before the General Assembly shut down due to COVID-19. Senate Bill 636/Chapter 571 (2020). And about Governor Lawrence Hogan’s Executive Order of March 30, 2020, that permitted, on a somewhat different basis, remote notarization in Maryland during the pandemic.
This article is about another portion of RULONA that became effective on October 1, 2020. Under RULONA, there are now new acknowledgment forms for notarizations in Maryland. And while enacting new acknowledgment forms, RULONA repealed the prior acknowledgment forms authorized by Maryland law.
There are two new statutory forms of acknowledgment, and they are very short. Please note that use of a form that was authorized under prior law will, in all probability, comply with the new law. The new forms are:
Short form certificate that may be used for an acknowledgment in an individual capacity
| State of Maryland | ||
| County of (county in Maryland, or City of Baltimore, in which the notarial act occurs) | ||
| This record was acknowledged before me on the __ day of (month), 20__ by (name of the person making the acknowledgment/signing the document). | ||
| ______________________ | ||
| Signature of notarial officer | ||
| [affix notary stamp] Title of the notarial officer (Notary Public, Clerk of the Court, etc.) | ||
| My commission expires: |
Short form certificate that may be used for an acknowledgment in a representative capacity
| State of Maryland |
| County of (county in Maryland, or City of Baltimore, in which the notarial act occurs) |
| This record was acknowledged before me on the __ day of (month), 20__ by (name of the person making the acknowledgment/signing the document) as (type of authority, such as an officer or trustee) of (name of party, such as a company or other individual, on behalf of whom record was executed). |
| ______________________ |
| Signature of notarial officer |
| [affix notary stamp] Title of the notarial officer (Notary Public, Clerk of the Court, etc.) |
| My commission expires: |
Example
The second acknowledgment form would be used for a person signing on behalf of an entity that is signing on behalf of another entity. For example, suppose Signer, an individual who physically signs the document, is the president of Manager Corp., which is the manager of Borrower LLC. The acknowledgment for this would be:
| State of Maryland |
| County of (county in Maryland, or City of Baltimore, in which the notarial act occurs) |
| This record was acknowledged before me on the __ day of ______, 20__ by Signer as President of Manager Corp., which is the manager of Borrower LLC, on behalf of which this record was executed. |
| ______________________ |
| [affix notary stamp] Notary Public |
| My commission expires: |
For questions, contact Edward J. Levin.
Ed Levin
410-576-1900 • elevin@gfrlaw.com
A version of this article was published by the Maryland Mortgage Bankers and Brokers Association, Inc. and Maryland Bankers Association on October 5, 2020.