In the face of another pandemic surge, New York Governor Kathy Hochul has signed legislation (S01780) to reinstate remote notarization.
As part of his COVID state of emergency, former Governor Andrew Cuomo issued Executive Order 202.7, providing for, among other pandemic related accommodations, remote notarization of documents. This order expired as of June 24, 2021. The current Governor and Legislature are working on the finer details and hope to have an effective date in early 2022. It’s a safe assumption that this legislation will have similar provisions as the prior Executive Orders.
Executive Order 202.7 permitted remote notarization with the following conditions:
- The individual must display valid photo ID to notary public during video conference if not personally known to notary;
- The witnessing of the signature(s) must be by two-way video conference allowing for direct interaction between notary and signatory (i.e., not prerecorded video);
- The signatory must affirmatively represent to notary that he/she is physically located in New York State;
- The signatory must transmit a legible copy of signed document by electronic means to notary on same day of conferenced signature; and then
- The notary may notarize the copy received electronically and transmit same back to signatory. The notary may repeat the notarization on the original signed document “as of” the date of the video-conferenced execution as long as notary receives the physical copy of the original signed document (with the electronically notarized copy) from the signatory within 30 days after the execution.
Executive Order 202.14 set a similar procedure for the remote witnessing of Wills, Health Care Proxies, and Statutory Gift Riders to Powers of Attorney. The signatory and witness must meet all of the requirements set forth above for remote notarization, except that there is no specific requirement that the signatory affirmatively represent to the witness that he or she is physically located in New York State.
We will provide an update as soon as this legislation is finalized.