IA Senate File 452

In 2012, Iowa enacted the Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts (RULONA) and repealed previous  chapter 9E that contained the Notary statutes. It is inevitable that in putting in place a new statutory scheme for regulating Notaries there would be some minor issues to iron out. In cases such as this, “clean up” legislation is often enacted in the year or two following a major new law change. Senate File 452 contains “clean up” provisions. It clarifies that a notarial officer may complete a notarial certificate if “any” (replacing the word “all”) of the 4 rules listed in the statute apply. This may seem like a small change, but it really is important. Without the change, a Notary technically could complete a certificate for a notarial act only if it complied with all 4 of the rules. This would be practically impossible and the effect was that it could prevent a Notary from completing a certificate for any notarization. Therefore, this change was necessary. SF 452 also clarifies that if a Notary has an official seal made with the words “My Commission Expires” followed by a blank line, the Notary is to write the Notary’s commission expiration date on the line. Iowa Notaries have been permitted to have their seals made with a blank line so that they would not have to purchase a new seal every 4 years. This is not a change of policy, but simply a clarification of what the statute intended all along. Presumably, there were Notaries who failed to write the expiration date on the line, thus possibly preventing documents from being recorded in the land records or causing rejections by other filing offices. Finally, SF 452 replaces the term “notary public” with “notarial officer” in several statutes throughout the Iowa Code, since under the RULONA the operative term used is “notarial officer.”