State Notary Agent®
The Florida Notary Public Directory
Florida notaries perform several distinct acts, but two account for nearly every notarization you will ever see. They look similar on the page and are constantly confused.
An acknowledgment is the signer telling the notary: that is my signature, and I made it freely. The signature does not have to be made in front of the notary. It can have been signed an hour earlier at the kitchen table — the signer simply appears and acknowledges it. Deeds, mortgages, and most real-property instruments take acknowledgments.
A jurat is the signer swearing: the contents of this document are true. A jurat requires two things an acknowledgment does not. The signer must sign in the notary's presence, and the notary must administer an oath or affirmation out loud. Affidavits, sworn statements, and verified pleadings take jurats.
The tell in the certificate wording: an acknowledgment reads “acknowledged before me”; a jurat reads “sworn to (or affirmed) and subscribed before me.” That word subscribed is the giveaway — it means signed in the notary's presence.
A notarial certificate is a sworn statement by the notary about what happened. If you complete a jurat, you are certifying under your commission that you administered an oath. If you did not actually administer one, the certificate is false — and Fla. Stat. §117.107(9) prohibits a notary from certifying to something that did not occur in the notary's presence.
Downstream, the consequences are practical. A court can refuse an affidavit that carries an acknowledgment instead of a jurat, because nothing was ever sworn. A recording office can reject a deed whose certificate does not track the statutory acknowledgment language. In a loan package, a mismatched certificate is one of the most common reasons documents are sent back for re-execution — which means a second appointment, at your cost.
Here is the constraint that trips up new notaries: under Fla. Stat. §117.05, choosing the notarial act for the signer is legal advice, and a notary who is not a Florida attorney may not give it. But you also cannot notarize without knowing which act to perform. The way through:
Whichever act you perform, §117.05(4) requires the certificate to state the venue, the type of act, whether the signer appeared physically or by audio-video link, the exact date, the signer's name, how you identified them, and your signature, printed name, and seal.
An acknowledgment confirms the signer's signature is genuine and voluntary; the signature may have been made before the notary appointment. A jurat is an oath that the contents of the document are true, and it requires the signer to sign in the notary's presence and to be sworn by the notary.
No. Selecting the notarial act is legal advice, and a Florida notary who is not an attorney may not give it. The notary will follow the certificate wording already printed on the document, or ask you which act you need. If you do not know, ask the agency, court, or lender requesting the document.
Yes. A jurat requires the signature to be made in the notary's presence and requires the notary to administer an oath or affirmation. An acknowledgment does not — the signer only has to appear and acknowledge that the signature is theirs.
The notarization can be treated as defective. Courts can reject an affidavit that was never sworn, recording offices can reject an instrument whose certificate does not match statutory form, and lenders routinely send loan documents back for re-execution. For the notary it is also a compliance problem, since the certificate is a sworn statement about what actually occurred.
Subscribed means signed. On a Florida certificate, “sworn to (or affirmed) and subscribed before me” signals a jurat — the signer both swore an oath and signed while the notary watched.
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