How to Verify a Notary Commission Before a Closing

Published 2026-09-03 · Updated 2026-09-03 · For Title Companies

Why this is a title issue, not an admin task

A Florida notary commission runs four years, and Florida provides no grace period. A notarial act performed after the expiration date is void — the notary had no authority to perform it.

On a mortgage or deed, a void acknowledgment means the instrument was not properly executed for recording. That surfaces on a later title search, at the worst possible moment: someone else's closing, years after everyone involved has moved on. Curing it means locating the original signers and re-executing, or filing a corrective instrument — both of which cost more than the entire notary fee by orders of magnitude.

The expiration date is the field that catches this. Everything else on the verification is confirming that the notary is who they say they are.

The procedure

1. Capture four fields from the seal or certificate: the notary's name exactly as printed, the commission number, the expiration date, and the date of the notarial act.
2. Confirm the act date precedes the expiration date. This single comparison prevents nearly every void notarization.
3. Match name and commission number against the state record. The Florida Department of State maintains the authoritative record at notaries.dos.fl.gov. State Notary Agent's free register, compiled from the Department's published journals, is faster for name and city searches during intake.
4. Confirm the commissioned name matches the signature and printed name on the certificate. A notary must act under the exact commissioned name.
5. For a RON act, verify online notary registration separately. It is distinct from the base commission and carries its own $25,000 bond and E&O requirement under Fla. Stat. §117.225.

When to run it

• At onboarding — before a notary ever touches a borrower's package.
• Quarterly across the whole bench — expirations arrive on a rolling four-year cycle, so there is no annual date to watch. A quarterly sweep of names against the register takes a few minutes and catches the notary whose commission lapsed in March.
• Before any assignment where the notary has been dormant for six months or more.
• In post-closing review, against the certificate as executed — verify the act date against the expiration printed on the seal. This is where a lapse is still cheap to fix.

Two additional checks worth building into the same pass: E&O expiration, diaried from the certificate of insurance, and background screening date, at whatever interval your lender clients require. Both lapse quietly, and both are what an audit asks for.

Related articles