Notary Public renewals

One of the services we provide here at the registry of deeds is administering oaths of office most of which are Notaries Public whose commissions are being renewed. At least eight registry employees are "commissioners for the administration of oaths," so if you we offer walk-in swearing-in service during our normal hours of operation. The process takes less than five minutes. The individual taking the oath must fill out a short form and then take the oath in front of two of us. We then sign the back of the Notary commission and sign the other form (called "Form O") which we then mail to the Secretary of State's office.

This week there has been a real surge in folks taking their oaths for notary renewals. We were trying to discern the reason why so many are coming due now when we realized that since a notary commission is valid for seven years, the people renewing now probably obtained their initial notary commission in the summer of 2003. Thinking back, that was when the refinancing boom was at its peak. August 2003 was our busiest month in history. I suspect that at the time, real estate brokers, appraisers, law offices and anyone else connected to real estate would have everyone available becoming notaries in order to deal with the spike in business. So the high volume of notary oaths we're administering this week is one more after effect of the real estate boom.