TWO BIG ANNOUNCEMENTS
On July 1st, 2022, the North Carolina General Assembly passed House Bill 776 Remote Electronic Notarization.
Over the past year and half the North Carolina Notary Association's Legislative Committee has been advocating for its members and for all of North Carolina notaries.
We advocated for:
An increase to the notary fee.
The ability to offset our expenses by having the ability to charge travel and other ancillary fees.
To keep North Carolina notaries competitive by allowing North Carolina notaries located within North Carolina to remotely notarize for principal signers located outside the state boundaries of North Carolina.
To allow for a military exception when it comes to the definition of Satisfactory Evidence which currently excluded us from using Military and Department of Defense identification cards.
To maintain a public database of all North Carolina notaries so the public can verify if a notary they are meeting with is in good standings and can perform the requested notarization.
House Bill 776 is a great start and provides some of the changes that we were seeking such as:
Once signed into law by Governor Cooper the notary fees will increase as follows:
Traditional notarizations will increase to $10.00 per notarized principal signature
Electronic notarizations will increase to $15.00 per notarized principal signature
After the signing of House Bill 776 North Carolina notaries would be allowed to charge for mileage
When agreed to in writing prior to meeting with the principal signer we can charge the federal mileage rates. The current federal mileage rate is set at $0.625 cent per
mile. (Please note that the federal mileage rate can change from year to year.)
Remote Online Notarization (RON) is set to become effective in July of 2023*.
RON allows a North Carolina notary located in North Carolina to notarize for a
principal signer located outside of North Carolina after meeting certain conditions.
Remote Online Notarizations fee will be set at $25.00 per notarized principal
signature.
I would like to take a moment to say thank you to the members of our Legislative Committee and the two North Carolina Notary Association Presidents that lead the association during this legislative cycle. It was a lot of hard work, meetings, phone calls and emails but we made an impact.
Judy Chapman, NCNA President (2022- current)
Crystal Gillard, NCNA President during the previous NCNA term (2018-2022)
Legislative Committee Members: Judy Chapman, Patricia Hoffman, Alisha DeBerry, Tatia Foltz and Belinda Bennett.
You can review House Bill 776 on our website under Resources then Legislative Updates.
We want your feedback on the legislative change and any other changes that you would like to see in the future. Please email us legislation@ncnotary.org
Speaking of website that brings us to our second
announcement.
We have launched a NEW and UPDATED website for the North Carolina Notary Association. NCNotary.org
Some of the new features include:
Forum - Members can interact with each other, ask and answer questions, discuss upcoming events, and talk about anything Notary related.
Mobile Friendly Version of the Website.
Mobile App (via Wix Spaces) to access your profile, forum, and blog.
Legislative Updates as they happen will be made available for everyone.
'Signature Newsletter' the NCNA publication will be made available for everyone.
We have also started offering a multi-year membership option. Purchase a 3–5-year membership at a discounted rate so your NCNA membership can run concurrently with your notary commission.
and many more changes are coming so stay tuned.
If you have question with the website transition and your current membership or renewing a previous membership, please email me at membership@ncnotary.org.
*House Bill 776 has NOT been signed by Governor Cooper making it law and RON will NOT be in effect until July 2023 we will keep you updated as developments occur.
Jonathan L. Brown Guerrero
Legislative Envoy and Committee Chair
North Carolina Notary Association
We want your feedback on the legislative changes and any other changes that you would like to see in the future. Please email us legislation@ncnotary.org