Frequently Asked Questions

A Florida Notary Public is a public officer appointed and commissioned by the Governor of Florida and authorized to perform certain notarial acts, including administering oaths and affirmations and taking acknowledgments.

When notarizing a signature, the notary must follow Florida's requirements for personal appearance, identification, the notarial certificate, and other applicable procedures.

Learn more in Chapter 117, Florida Statutes.

A notary's role is limited. A notarization does not mean the notary has approved the document, determined that it is legally valid or enforceable, or advised the signer to enter into the transaction.

A Notary Signing Agent is a notary who has received additional training related to real estate and loan-signing packages.

A signing agent may present documents, identify signature and initial locations, perform required notarial acts, check the package for signing completeness, and return documents according to the hiring party's instructions.

"Notary Signing Agent" is an industry designation. It is not a separate Florida public office or license and does not give the notary additional legal authority.

A signing agent does not provide legal advice or interpret the legal effect of loan documents.

Learn more about our Loan Signing Services and Real Estate Signing Services.

Under Section 117.05, Florida Statutes, a Florida notary may charge up to $10 for any one notarial act under Part I of Chapter 117, except as otherwise provided by law.

For Remote Online Notarization, Section 117.275, Florida Statutes allows an Online Notary Public or the notary's employer to charge up to $25 for an online notarial act.

The number of notarial acts required depends on the documents and notarial certificates involved.

Mobile travel, loan-signing services, technology or platform services, and other non-notarial services may involve separate charges where applicable. Any applicable charges will be disclosed when your appointment is quoted.

Contact us for pricing.

Tampa Bay Signing Services provides mobile notary services throughout Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Hernando, Manatee, and Sarasota counties.

Travel availability and fees may depend on the appointment location.

Visit our Service Area page for more information.

Unless you have been specifically instructed otherwise, we recommend waiting to sign until your appointment.

Some notarial acts require the signature to be made in the notary's presence. Others, such as an acknowledgment, may involve a document that was signed before the appointment, provided the signer personally appears before the notary and acknowledges executing it.

Waiting to sign helps avoid problems when the required notarial act is not yet clear.

For loan signings, documents are generally provided to us by the title company, lender, signing service, or other hiring party.

Florida law allows a notary to identify a signer through personal knowledge or satisfactory evidence of identity.

Florida recognizes several specific forms of identification. A qualifying identification document may be current or may have been issued within the preceding five years, provided it otherwise satisfies Florida's statutory requirements.

Common examples include qualifying driver's licenses, state identification cards, U.S. passports, and identification cards issued by a branch of the U.S. Armed Forces. Florida law recognizes additional forms of identification as well.

The notary must be satisfied that the person appearing is the individual described in and executing the document.

Florida law does not state that every character of the name appearing on the identification must exactly match the document. However, significant name differences may prevent the notary from being satisfied as to identity.

Lenders, title companies, government agencies, RON platforms, or other receiving parties may impose identification requirements beyond Florida's basic notarial requirements.

Please contact us before your appointment if your identification is expired, your name has changed, or the name on your identification differs significantly from the document.

See our What to Bring page for additional information.

Yes. We provide mobile notary appointments at hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, nursing homes, assisted living communities, rehabilitation facilities, and similar locations, subject to facility access rules and approval.

Appointments can be coordinated with the signer, family, and facility staff as appropriate.

Visit our Nursing Home & Facility Notary page for additional information.

A medical diagnosis by itself is not something a notary interprets or evaluates medically.

Florida law requires the notary to consider the signer's condition at the time of the notarization. Under Section 117.107, Florida Statutes, a notary may not notarize a signature if it appears that the person is mentally incapable of understanding the nature and effect of the document at that time.

Florida law also contains separate restrictions when a notary actually knows that a person has been adjudicated mentally incapacitated and the requested acknowledgment or oath involves the exercise of a legal right that has been removed and not restored.

A notary does not make a medical diagnosis or provide a legal opinion regarding capacity.

If there are known concerns involving legal capacity, guardianship, or the validity of a proposed document, the appropriate attorney should be consulted before scheduling the notarization.

Documents presented during facility appointments may include powers of attorney, health-care documents, advance directives, HIPAA-related forms, estate-planning documents, facility paperwork, and other personal or business documents.

Not every document requires notarization, and whether a particular document requires notarization, witnesses, or specific execution formalities depends on the document and applicable law.

We do not draft legal documents, determine whether a document is legally sufficient, or advise someone which document they should use.

If document preparation or legal advice is needed, please consult a licensed attorney.

Yes. In most cases, there is no need to transport the signer to another location.

Contact us with the facility information, the type of document involved, and any known scheduling or access requirements. We can coordinate a mobile appointment at the facility, subject to facility policies and the signer's ability to complete the required notarial act. Visit our Nursing Home & Facility Notary page for details.

When our schedule permits, yes.

Contact us as early as possible with your location, document type, number of signers, and preferred appointment time. We will let you know what availability we have.

Request an appointment.

Yes. We offer evening and weekend appointments when scheduling permits.

Contact us to check availability.

Yes.

Tampa Bay Signing Services offers Remote Online Notarization using compliant real-time audio-video technology.

Under Florida law, a registered Florida Online Notary must be physically located in Florida while performing the online notarization. The principal and witnesses do not have to be physically located in Florida.

When the principal is outside Florida, additional procedures apply, including confirmation that the principal wants the notarial act performed by a Florida notary under Florida law.

Florida law does not limit online notarization only to signers physically located within the United States. However, our ability to complete an appointment for a signer outside the United States can depend on identification, the RON platform, the document, the transaction, applicable law, and whether the receiving party will accept the notarization.

Some lenders, title companies, courts, government agencies, recording offices, or other receiving parties may require an in-person or wet-ink signing.

Contact us before booking if you are unsure whether your document can be completed remotely.

Florida law authorizes electronic notarization under Section 117.021, Florida Statutes.

When a signer physically appears before the notary but the document, signatures, and notarization are completed electronically rather than with pen and paper, the process is commonly referred to in the notary industry as In-Person Electronic Notarization, or IPEN.

Unlike RON, IPEN does not replace physical appearance with an online audio-video appearance.

Florida does not require a separate Online Notary Public registration merely to perform an electronic notarization under Section 117.021, although the notary must use technology that satisfies Florida's requirements.

Learn more on our IPEN page.

The primary difference is how the signer appears before the notary.

With IPEN, the signer and notary are physically together, but the document and notarization are completed electronically.

With RON, personal appearance occurs through compliant real-time audio-video communication rather than by being physically together.

Which option is appropriate can depend on the document, transaction, receiving party, available technology, and whether electronic or online notarization is accepted.

Learn more about Remote Online Notarization and IPEN.

Potentially, yes.

Florida law provides a procedure for a person who signs with a mark, such as an "X."

Under Section 117.05(14), Florida Statutes, the document signing must be witnessed by two disinterested persons, and the notary must follow specific statutory procedures concerning the signature line and notarial certificate.

Florida law also provides a separate procedure when a person is physically unable to sign or make a signature mark and directs the notary to sign the person's name on the person's behalf. That procedure also requires two disinterested witnesses and additional statutory steps.

Please let us know about the situation before the appointment so the appropriate arrangements can be made.

We can explain the notarization process, including general procedural information about acknowledgments, jurats, identification, personal appearance, and what happens during a notary appointment.

We cannot interpret the legal meaning or effect of your document, tell you whether you should sign it, advise you about your legal rights, recommend a legal strategy, or select a legal document or legal option for you.

If you need legal advice, please consult a licensed attorney.

It depends on the document.

Some Florida documents have statutory witness requirements.

For example, a Florida will generally must be executed in the presence of at least two attesting witnesses, subject to the requirements of Section 732.502, Florida Statutes.

A Florida power of attorney governed by Section 709.2105, Florida Statutes must be signed by the principal and two subscribing witnesses and acknowledged by the principal before a notary public or as otherwise provided by Florida law.

Certain instruments conveying interests in Florida real property also have witness requirements under Section 689.01, Florida Statutes.

Other documents may not require witnesses at all, and lenders, title companies, attorneys, agencies, or other receiving parties may impose additional requirements.

Tampa Bay Signing Services can assist with witness logistics when arranged in advance, but we do not determine the legal execution requirements for a customer's particular document.

If you are uncertain, confirm the requirements with the attorney who prepared the document, title company, lender, government agency, or other party that will receive it before the appointment.

No. The signer must personally appear before the notary at the time of the notarization.

For a traditional notarization, personal appearance means physical presence.

For an authorized Remote Online Notarization, Florida law permits personal appearance through compliant audio-video communication technology.

However, personal appearance does not necessarily mean the notary must watch the signer place the original signature on the document.

For an acknowledgment, a document may have been signed previously as long as the signer personally appears before the notary and acknowledges execution of the document.

For a jurat, the signer takes an oath or affirmation and signs or subscribes before the notary as required by the notarial act.

An acknowledgment involves the signer personally appearing before the notary and acknowledging execution of the document. The document may have been signed before the appointment.

A jurat involves an oath or affirmation. The signer swears or affirms the truth of the statement and signs or subscribes before the notary.

Florida law specifically provides that a notary may not substitute an acknowledgment when an oath is required.

Florida's statutory certificate forms for acknowledgments and jurats appear in Section 117.05, Florida Statutes.

If the document contains a notarial certificate, it will ordinarily identify the notarial act requested. If the document does not specify the notarial act, we can explain the general procedural differences between an acknowledgment and a jurat, but we cannot choose a notarial act for you when doing so would require determining what your document legally requires.

The signer should obtain instructions from the document preparer, attorney, lender, title company, agency, court, or other receiving party when necessary.

Not by itself.

A notarization establishes that a particular notarial act was performed. Depending on the act, that can include personal appearance, identification of the signer, acknowledgment of execution, or administration of an oath or affirmation.

For some documents, notarization may be one of the legal formalities required for execution or recording.

However, a notary does not determine or guarantee that the document itself is legally valid, enforceable, properly drafted, sufficient for its intended purpose, or in the signer's best interests.

Those are separate legal questions.

You can schedule through our Contact page, by email, or by phone.

Please provide the type of service requested, your general location, number of signers, number or type of documents, and preferred date and time.

We will confirm availability and provide any preparation instructions before the appointment.