The Uniform Law Commission is actively drafting and revising its proposed Deed Fraud Act, and the drafting committee met again this weekend to consider additional changes. The proposal is still in development, and it will likely be at least another year before a final version is completed and ready for states to consider adopting.

Even though the act is not final, the current draft gives notaries an important preview of where the conversation is headed. For notaries, the most significant parts of the proposal focus on fraud alerts, misuse of notarial information, and possible new verification systems tied to real estate documents.

One of the most notable ideas in the draft is a Notary Recording Notification Program. Under this proposal, a notary could receive notice when a recorded real estate document contains that notary’s name, commission number, or seal. The goal is to create an early warning system so notaries can become aware if their identity, stamp, or acknowledgment appears on a document that may have been recorded without their knowledge.

That matters because deed fraud often involves impersonation, forged signatures, or misuse of notarizations. A notification program could help notaries spot suspicious activity earlier and potentially report concerns before more damage is done.

At the same time, the draft is careful to protect notaries from being unfairly burdened. It specifically says that receiving a notice would not create a duty for the notary to investigate, would not automatically mean the notary has knowledge of wrongdoing, would not create liability, and would not affect the validity of the notarial act itself. In other words, the notice is intended to be informational, not punitive.

Another major issue still under discussion is dual authentication of notarial acts. The committee is considering two different approaches.

The first option is an optional online notarial log and verification system. Under that model, a notary could enter certain information about a real-property notarization into a regulator-maintained system and receive a verification key connected to that act. That key could later be used to confirm that the notarization was logged.

The second option is a mandatory statewide system. In that version, notaries would be required to log covered real estate notarizations into a statewide system, and a verification key would have to be included on the notarial certificate. This would be a much bigger shift in notarial procedure and could significantly change how notaries handle real estate-related acts.

Importantly, even under the mandatory version, the draft does not say that a missing verification key would automatically make a document void. Instead, the omission could be treated more like a curable technical defect, similar to other notarial mistakes that may be corrected under existing law. That distinction is important because the draft is trying to strike a balance between fraud prevention and title stability.

Overall, the direction of the draft suggests that the Uniform Law Commission is looking for ways to give property owners, recording offices, and notaries more tools to detect fraud earlier, while avoiding rules that would create automatic liability or unnecessarily invalidate documents. For notaries, that means the conversation is moving toward more oversight and more verification tools, but also toward preserving the principle that notaries should not become the default scapegoats for deed fraud schemes they did not create.

Because the act is still being debated, several major policy choices remain unresolved. The committee still has to decide whether notary notifications should be included at all, whether they should be handled locally or through a statewide system, and whether any notarial verification system should be optional or mandatory.

For now, notaries should view this draft as an early signal of possible future changes rather than settled law. It is worth watching closely. If adopted in some form by the states, these provisions could shape how notaries are alerted to fraud, how real estate notarizations are documented, and how notarial acts are reviewed in deed fraud cases for years to come.

Read the full act here: https://www.uniformlaws.org/committees/community-home/librarydocuments?communitykey=590da28b-f95a-4774-aef2-019b130b27bd&LibraryFolderKey=&DefaultView=