CA Emergency Orders for Extensions

Hi, this is Laura with Coach Me Laura and At Your Service Mobile Notary.

I have been talking about different things that impact us notaries, particularly during Covid-19. So many instructions have come our way in terms of how we do the dance to maintain social distancing and how we can follow CDC requirements. And some of those instructions have been helpful and have facilitated safe signings and some of them don't really neat notary requirements. So we had to make sure we sifted through those instructions from signing companies or title companies and doing the right thing.

California in particular has been difficult to get through Covid-19 with no emergency order for RON in our state, although many other States have gone that route. But I do have two small pieces of good news and any good news is helpful for us!

The first one is many of you may know that in the state of California, because of the DMV closures, the extension has been granted for 60 days if you're under the age of 70, if your driver's license or state ID expired after March 1st of this year. The second thing is if you're over 70, it's 120 days. So that was great and helps us to keep driving our cars. But notaries weren't accepting that because the secretary of state's office wasn't telling us that was okay. Well, the good news is it is okay!

Under the last executive order last week, they're recognizing that it can be extended for identification, not just driving the car. So please go ahead and accept those. And I recommend that if you're maintaining a journal, which is required in California, that you put in your additional information 'accepted due to Covid-19 extension'.

The other good news is that there is an extension for notary commissions. The executive order that came out last week indicated that if your commission was set to expire March 1st or after of this year, there's a 60 day extension that allows you to work with an expired commission.

So you get 60 days past the expiration date. But it has to have expired March 1st or after. A couple of things that you need to know about that. Always a little caveat, right? The first one is your bond has to remain valid. So if you purchased your bond through the National Notary Association (NNA), they have checked with Merchant Bonding, which is the company that they partner with, and they will extend that bond for the extra 60 days. No action is needed on your part. Finally, some great news! If you bought your bond from some other company, then you need to go back to that company and find out if they will extend it to cover the extra 60 days.

The second piece is if you will be notarizing a document under this extension of your commission, your seal will show that it's expired. So you need to write a statement underneath it so it will be recognized as valid. That statement is "The notary commission extended pursuant to emergency order N-63-20". We recommend that you place that right under your seal, right in the white space there, so everybody knows that, yeah, it's expired, but there was an extension granted during this time, and this is the emergency order to referred to.

So I'm hopeful it will help some California notaries who are sitting with an expired commission right now, but need to notarize documents. I hope this was helpful to you. Please help me get out the word! Post this on your social media, share with everybody about recognizing the extensions on driver's licenses and state IDs. And it's only to that. And by the way, the five-year rule isn't extended, it's just the expiration date. And also about notaries who are in the middle of renewal and ended up with an expired commission.

Thank you very much for listening today. I hope you have a great week. Be safe out there!

Until the next time.

Laura