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NC House Bill 545

Legislation

State: North Carolina
Signed: August 08, 2008

Effective: August 08, 2008
Chapter: 2008-194

Summary

House Bill 545 recognizes the legal status of electronic notarizations performed by any Virginia Notary that are recorded in the register of deeds office of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, even though such eNotarizations have been temporarily postponed in Virginia until the General Assembly publishes rules; cures certain defective notarizations; states the needed conditions for recording electronic land title documents; and clarifies that typographical errors in a recorded document may be corrected by recording a “scrivener’s” affidavit.

Affects

Amends Sections 10B-65, 10B-70, 47-14 and 47-36.1 of the North Carolina General Statutes.

Changes
  1. Bestows full legal force and effect to any electronic document filed with the Mecklenburg County Register of Deeds if the document was electronically notarized by a Notary in Virginia and contains the Virginia Notary’s typed name and commission expiration date.
  2. Prescribes that notarial acts with certain specified “defects” performed on or before May 1, 2008 (previously February 1, 2004) are validated or “cured.”
  3. States the conditions under which an electronic real property document may be accepted by a register of deeds, including acknowledgment or proof before a Notary or other authorized officer.
  4. Clarifies that a minor typographical error in a recorded real property document may be corrected by recording a “corrective” or “scrivener’s” affidavit.
Analysis

House Bill 545 enacts the first law that recognizes the legal efficacy of electronic notarizations performed by out-of-state Notaries. The law narrowly applies to electronic notarizations performed by Virginia Notaries that contain the Notary’s typed name and commission expiration date and that are filed specifically in Mecklenberg County only. Presumably, this addresses the fact that eNotarization has officially been put on hold in Virginia pending establishment of rules by the General Assembly, but also the fact that some aggressive Virginia Notaries may have jumped the gun and started notarizing electronically anyway under the permission granted by the state’s Uniform Electronic Transactions Act. In addition, House Bill 545 also enumerates the conditions needed for the recording of electronic real property documents by any register of deeds in the state.

The new law also amends a statute that “validates” or cures certain defective notarizations performed on or before May 1, 2008, and prescribes that typographical errors in recorded real property land records may be corrected by recording an affidavit noting the error.

Read House Bill 545.

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