What is the difference between a jurat and an acknowledgement?

Answer 1

An acknowledgment certificate indicates that the signer a) personally appeared before the Notary, b) was identified by the Notary, and c) acknowledged to the Notary that the document was freely signed. Documents requiring a jurat must be signed in the Notary's presence, as dictated by the typical jurat wording, "Subscribed (signed) and sworn to before me..." Contrary to popular belief, documents requiring acknowledgments do not need to be signed in the Notary's presence in most states. The confusion comes from the fact that the signer must appear before the Notary at the time of notarization to acknowledge that he or she freely signed for the purposes stated in the document. In executing a jurat, a Notary guarantees that the signer a) personally appeared before the Notary, b) was given an oath or affirmation by the Notary, and finally c) signed in the Notary's presence. An easy way to remember the chief difference between an acknowledgment and a jurat is using the following mnemonics device; "A Jurat is signed while "JUR-AT" my office (JUR-AT instead of 'you're at,' a jurat is signed while you're at my office). By remembering this, you will never forget that the Notary must always witness the signature when assisting with a Jurat.

Knowing your state's laws governing Notary Publics can certainly save a lot of time and headaches, and this is an excellent example. While not necessarily recommended (especially for first time borrowers), most of the entire loan package can be signed at home or prior to notarization. In States such as Georgia and Louisiana which require that recordable documents be signed in the presence of one or more witnesses, the documents to be recorded must always be signed in the presence of the required witnesses. A typical loan refinance with a 2nd mortgage can be well over 300 pages long, and most lenders require two sets of documents to be signed at closing. Consider the fact that's over 600 pages of documents to be sorted through and then consider that some lenders require every page to be initialed by both borrowers! Whew! My arm is hurting just thinking about it. To sum, for a seasoned borrower, signing the loan documents ahead of time and leaving just the notarial pages blank for the loan signing date, you can reduce a lot of stress ahead of time for both you and the Notary.