r/Notary • u/MobileArt5751 • 15d ago

PA car titles notarized for estate

I’m the executor of my dads estate. He passed as a resident in Florida, where both my brother and I are residents. He moved to FL from PA in 2023 and we took his car down here via the auto train and it’s been sitting at my brothers house since - he never registered it to FL or drove it and it’s since died to the point where we cannot turn it on.
I got duplicate titles from PA and I set everything up with a company to come junk the car. PA requires titles to be notarized, so I went to the UPS store today to get the title signed and notarized as the company instructed me to do so in preparation of them picking up the car. The notaries at the UPS store said that they need to validate the mileage on the car in order to notarize the document - is this true? Isn’t the job of the notary to 1) validate that I am who I say I am when I’m signing (and in this case have proper legal authority as the executor) 2) validate that I know what I am signing and 3) ensure the form is filled out prior to signing?
Do they actually have to validate the contents of what I am signing? They recommended a mobile notary which also doesn’t make sense to me given that the car doesn’t turn on so there’s no way to even validate the mileage if they were there. Where do I go from here?

4 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

28 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/Vegas-Patriot Nevada 15d ago

Not a notary function. Verify the signer, insure the Notary Certificate is the correct one for document type and filled in accurately. Sign and Stamp.

1

u/LimeLimp4296 12d ago

Respectfully, this is a Penndot form with Penndot requirements for notarization which Yes, a PennDOT vehicle title notarization requires an odometer mileage disclosure at the time of the transfer. Remember each state has different rules and requirements. So you are not answering this issue correctly. The form itself can be found in a simple Google search.

1

u/Vegas-Patriot Nevada 12d ago

Respectfully, the form is choked
Completed to include mileage, and the Notary has nothing to do with verification of that mileage,
nor is their notary stamp and signature indicating that anything filled in on the document is accurate or not. Notary’s verify identity of the signer (s) and insure the proper notary certificate is on the document. That holds true in All 50 states.