NYS Real Estate Closing Documents: Which ones actually need a notary?

If you are in the middle of buying or selling property in New York State, you have probably noticed that the closing package looks like a small mountain of paperwork. Deeds, mortgages, affidavits, tax forms, declarations, certificates… and somewhere in there, a lot of little lines that say “Notary Public” next to a blank box for a date and a fee.

Here is the question I get the most, and the one I am sure you are wondering right now: out of everything in that packet, which documents actually need a notary? And if a document does need one, does it specifically need a New York notary? And can any of it be done remotely, the way I do it, without you ever standing in front of a desk?

Let me walk you through it, document by document. By the end, you will know exactly where a notary signature belongs, what that signature is actually doing, and where you can stop worrying.

First, a small but important idea: what a notary is actually doing at a closing

Before we sort the documents into buckets, it helps to understand the two tools in a notary’s kit, because they are not interchangeable.

An acknowledgment is a statement, made in front of a notary, that a person signed the document and that this signature is the real thing. The notary is not reading the document. The notary is not telling you whether the terms are fair. The notary is confirming identity, confirming that the signer actually signed it, and confirming that the signer signed it voluntarily. That confirmation is then written down on the document in a special block called the “acknowledgment certificate.”

In New York, every recordable instrument, like a deed, must carry one of the three statutory certificate wordings found in Real Property Law Section 308. These are the long, formal “on the __ day of __, before me, personally appeared…” forms you may have seen. If your deed goes to the county clerk without a proper Section 308 certificate, the clerk can reject it, and until it is recorded, your ownership is not officially part of the public chain of title.

A jurat is something different. A jurat is where a signer swears or affirms that what they signed is true and correct, and the notary administers that oath. Some affidavits and sworn statements at a closing use a jurat; others just say “under penalty of perjury,” which means no notary is needed at all. That distinction is the source of a lot of closing confusion, so I will flag it whenever it matters.

A quick word of caution that I tell every client: an acknowledgment is not a guarantee about the content of the document. It is a guarantee about the signature. As the New York State Department of State puts it, upon the faith of these acknowledgments rests the title of real property, and the security is the fidelity of the notaries and the signers. That is the whole job. Everything else, whether the price is right, whether the terms are fair, is what your attorney is for.

The document that always needs a notary: the deed

The deed is the one document in a New York closing that must be notarized, every single time. No exceptions that I would ever plan a closing around.

The seller, called the “grantor,” signs the deed, and the signature must be followed by a notarized acknowledgment. A deed signed without an acknowledgment can still pass ownership between the two parties in a private sense, but it cannot be recorded with the county clerk, and unrecorded deeds are a title headache for everyone downstream.

A few New York details worth knowing:

New York’s standard deed is a bargain-and-sale deed with covenants, authorized by Real Property Law Section 247. You will also see quitclaim deeds (used for fixing up ownership between people who already own the property), gift deeds, and mortgage deeds in refinancing situations. All of them are recordable instruments, so all of them carry the same rule: signed and acknowledged before a notary.
The deed must include a legal description of the property and the names and addresses of all parties, with a physical mailing address, not a P.O. box, if it is going to a New York county recorder.
The deed is usually prepared at the closing by the attorney, which matters, because I will come back to who signs what in a New York closing in a moment.

Where you get it recorded: upstate, the deed goes to your County Clerk’s Office. In New York City, real property documents are recorded through the Department of Finance system and searched through the ACRIS database. The recording office in Erie County, for example, lists its own recording fees and requires the acknowledgment to be in one of the statutory forms, and if a deed is notarized out of state, the acknowledgment may need extra verification. That last part is one reason I always ask clients where a document was signed before we start a remote session.

The other document that almost always needs a notary: the mortgage

If you are buying with a loan, or refinancing, the mortgage instrument is a recordable document, and like the deed, it needs a notarized acknowledgment from the borrower before it can be recorded.

What I want to be clear about: the mortgage is not notarized because a notary “approves” the loan. It is notarized because a mortgage that is not recorded is invisible to the world. Lenders record mortgages so that any future buyer, lender, or tax assessor can see that this property is encumbered. The notary’s part is confirming the borrower’s signature.

A couple of practical notes from my remote sessions:

The mortgage is almost always prepared by the lender’s attorney and handed to the signer at the closing. The signer signs in front of a notary (me, in a remote session), and the recorded mortgage goes to the same county office as the deed.
A deed of release (or release of mortgage), which shows up when a loan is paid off, is also a recordable instrument and also needs a notary. This is a fun one, because it often surfaces years after the original closing, and people are surprised to learn that a “release” is not some internal letter the bank sends you, but an actual document that has to be notarized and recorded.

The famous one, RP-5217: the Real Property Transfer Report

This form is a rite of passage, and honestly, it is the form that confuses the most people in a New York closing, so let me get it right.

The RP-5217 is New York’s “Real Property Transfer Report.” It is a required form for virtually every transfer of real property, and it does several jobs at once:

It reports the transfer to the Department of Taxation and Finance and the county.
It is where the first-time homebuyer exemption (the $100,000 portion of a home under $450,000 is exempt from state transfer tax) is claimed.
It is where other transfer tax exemptions are claimed.

Now, the notary question: the RP-5217 is signed under penalty of perjury, which means the signature is a sworn statement made without a notary present. A notary is not required on the RP-5217 itself. This is the exact opposite of what a lot of closing packets suggest. The person filing the form, usually the buyer or the buyer’s attorney, signs it and files it with the recording office along with the deed.

One thing that trips people up: a gift deed still gets an RP-5217. The notary attaches to the deed, never to the RP-5217. But the form is still filed, and the giver simply checks the “Gift Deed” exemption box (Section 5), which takes it off the transfer tax. So the paperwork is the same, the tax is not.

One New York quirk to remember: the RP-5217 form has to be generated fresh for each transaction from the Department of Taxation and Finance, because it carries a bar code that is specific to that sale. You cannot save an old form, fill it in again, and file it. Each transfer gets its own. That is why your closing attorney or the county office will hand you a new one at the closing.

Transfer tax: the money side of the paperwork

Because transfer tax drives so much of what the closing packet contains, a quick orientation.

New York State transfer tax on a priced transfer of real property is 0.4% of the consideration (two-fifths of one percent), under Tax Law Section 1402 and the related fee schedule.
New York City adds a “realty transfer tax” of 1% on the first $500,000 and 1.1% on the portion above $500,000 for residential property (a mansion tax rate), with a $25,000 exemption on non-residential. So in a five-borough transaction, you are paying both the state and the city.
A mansion tax also applies in the state, on residential property where the consideration is $1 million or more, at a 1% rate, under Tax Law Section 1432 and Section 2153.
Upstate counties may add their own county-level transfer taxes. Erie County, for example, imposes a county transfer tax of $2.50 per $500 on top of the state portion, and it sets its own fees for recording a deed and filing each form.

Who pays is a matter of the contract and local custom. In New York, it is common for the seller to be responsible for the state and county transfer taxes, with the buyer paying the recording fees and the city transfer tax where applicable, but your attorney will tell you exactly how your specific contract splits it. Do not guess. This is the one line in the closing package where “I thought I did not have to” is an expensive phrase.

Affidavits and sworn statements: the mixed bag

This is where the packet really gets confusing, because some affidavits need a notary, some do not, and the reason is not always obvious.

First-time homebuyer affidavit (a separate form from the RP-5217, sometimes used to claim exemptions or document buyer status): signed under penalty of perjury, no notary required.
TP-584 tax affidavit (the NYS tax form that accompanies the deed, used to claim exemptions like the first-time homebuyer or senior citizen reductions): signed, filed with the deed, no notary required.
Transfer tax exemption affidavits (senior citizen, family member, etc.): generally signed under penalty of perjury, no notary required.
Affidavits of value (in some estate or gift deed situations): may need a notary, because they are sworn statements, and the person preparing them often requires a jurat rather than a perjury line. This is one of the documents I would double-check with your attorney, because the requirement turns on how the affidavit is worded.
Affidavits of no prior lien, of title, or of corporate authority: these vary by transaction and by what your title company wants. If the document says “sworn to before me” or carries an acknowledgment block, it needs a notary. If it says “under penalty of perjury,” it does not.

My practical rule, which I give every client: look for two things on any document, and if you find either, that document needs a notary. First, an acknowledgment block, the “before me, personally appeared” language. Second, a jurat, the “sworn to and subscribed before me” language. If a document has neither and instead says “under penalty of perjury,” it does not need a notary, no matter how official-looking the box is.

Documents that almost never need a notary: the buyer’s paperwork

Because so many buyers ask “do I have to notary anything at all?”, it is worth listing out the buyer-side documents that are signed but not notarized, so you can stop worrying about them:

The purchase contract itself, the offer, and the counter-offers: private contracts, signed and exchanged, but not notarized. A notary adds nothing to a purchase contract’s enforceability.
The application for a home loan: a form, signed and submitted to the lender, not notarized.
The HPD rent division or co-op board applications (if you are buying a co-op): signed and submitted to the board, not notarized.
The utility transfer requests, the mortgage payment authorization, and the insurance declarations: administrative forms, signed, not notarized.
The deed of gift (in a family transfer, often used to transfer between spouses or parents and children): this one is a deed, so it does need a notary, even though no money changed hands. I want to flag that specifically, because “no money, no notary” is the exact wrong instinct here. The person who gives the gift, the current owner, is the one who signs the deed and stands before the notary. The person who receives it does not sign the deed. And even though it is a gift, an RP-5217 is still filed, with the “Gift Deed” exemption box checked, so it is exempt from transfer tax.

A very New York thing: who actually signs what at the closing

New York is an attorney-closing state. This means the closing is conducted by an attorney, either the buyer’s attorney, the seller’s attorney, or, in some transactions, a single attorney acting for both sides with a written agreement. The buyer’s attorney typically does not stand at the table signing the documents in front of you. Instead, the attorney prepares the package, sends it to the signer, and the signer signs the required documents, either in person at the attorney’s office with a notary present, or, increasingly, in a remote online session with a New York remote online notary, like me.

This is where I do most of my work. A New York real estate closing is one of the most natural fits for a remote online notarization, because:

The signer is usually in a specific state, New York, and the notary has to be in New York, which I am.
The documents are prepared by the attorney and delivered to the signer. The signer does not need to be physically in the attorney’s office. They need to be in front of a camera, on a secure platform, with the required documents.
The timing is tight. Closures have a deadline, and a remote session is often faster and more reliable than a trip to a notary’s office on a Saturday.

In a New York remote online notarization session for a closing, here is what actually happens:

The attorney or title company schedules a session with me on a compliant platform, like the New York State Department of State’s list of approved RON platforms.
We do identity proofing. I verify your identity against non-reusable credentials and match it to the document, and I take a photograph of you.
You read the documents, and I watch. For a closing, you typically sign the deed, the mortgage, and any other acknowledgment-carrying documents in one sitting.
I complete the acknowledgment and jurat, as required, and affix my notary seal and my RON-specific certification.
The session is recorded, and the recording is kept with the journal entry for at least ten years, which is New York’s requirement for remote online notarial acts.
The signed documents go back to the attorney, who files them with the county recorder along with the RP-5217, the TP-584, and the transfer tax payment.

The fee for a remote online notarial act in New York is $25 per act under Executive Law Section 135-c, and I am transparent about that. If your closing has, say, the deed, the mortgage, and a release of an old mortgage, that is three acts, and the fee is three times $25. I will always tell you up front how many acts your packet contains, so there are no surprises on the closing day.

What I see clients actually struggle with

After a lot of remote closings, the same questions and mistakes keep showing up, so here is my honest list of “things that trip people up.”

“Do I have to notary the RP-5217?” No. It is a sworn statement under penalty of perjury. If your closing packet has a notary box on the RP-5217, that is either a custom local variation, or the attorney has mixed up which box belongs on which form. I would call the attorney’s office and ask before I sign anything.

“Can my out-of-state notary do the deed?” You can, if the notary is licensed in the state where you are, and the deed is notarized in that state. But New York counties expect the statutory Section 308 acknowledgment form on the deed, and some counties want extra verification if the deed is notarized out of state. If you are doing a New York closing, I always recommend a New York notary for the deed, because a New York notary will use the correct statutory certificate and the county will not question it.

“I’m the buyer, so I don’t need a notary, right?” Wrong instinct. In a New York closing, the seller signs the deed, and the buyer signs the mortgage. If you are the buyer with a loan, you are the one who has to go through a notary session for the mortgage. If you are the buyer with cash, you may not need to sign anything that requires a notary, and that is a nice surprise. If you are the seller, you are the one doing the deed, and you need a notary session.

“The mortgage is a big scary document, so of course it needs a notary.” It does, but for a boring reason: it has to be recorded, and to be recorded it has to be acknowledged. The notary is not blessing the mortgage. The notary is just saying, “this is the borrower, and this is their real signature.”

“The attorney said ‘we will handle the notary,’ so I can forget about it.” The attorney handles the scheduling, but you are the signer, and you have to be present in front of a notary, in person or on a remote platform, at the time of signing. “We will handle it” means “we will set it up for you.” It does not mean “we will sign for you.”

FAQ: the questions I actually get

Q: What is the difference between an acknowledgment and a jurat, in plain English? An acknowledgment is “I signed this, this is me, I signed it willingly.” A jurat is “I swear this is true, in front of a notary, right now.” The notary’s job in an acknowledgment is to verify identity and the signature. The notary’s job in a jurat is to administer the oath.

Q: Does a New York deed have to be notarized in New York? It does not have to be, but it is much safer that way. A New York notary will use the statutory Section 308 certificate, and the county clerk will record it without a second thought. An out-of-state notary will use the certificate from that state, and some counties will want extra proof that it is in the correct form. If the deed is going to be recorded in New York, use a New York notary.

Q: Can I notary a deed remotely, in front of my own home, for a New York closing? Yes, that is exactly what a New York remote online notary is for. You do not have to drive to the attorney’s office. You sign on the secure platform, I complete the acknowledgment, and the document goes to the attorney. The whole thing takes about 30 to 45 minutes, and it is the same as an in-person notary act for recording purposes.

Q: Do co-owners both have to sign the deed, and both have to come before a notary? If the property is owned by two people, and both are transferring their interest, yes, both have to sign the deed, and both have to have their signatures acknowledged. If one of them cannot be there in person, they can do a remote session separately, and the two acknowledgments can be recorded on the same deed. I do this a lot for family transactions.

Q: What about a transfer between spouses? Does it need a notary? Yes. It is still a deed, and a deed is a recordable instrument, and a recordable instrument needs an acknowledgment. The fact that no money changed hands does not change the notary requirement. A “deed of gift” between spouses is still a deed, and it still needs a notary.

Q: What is the $25 RON fee, and why is it that much higher than the in-person $2? It is the statutory rate for a remote online notarial act, under Executive Law Section 135-c, which is what I am required to charge. The higher fee covers the platform, the recording, the identity proofing, and the ten-year retention of the journal entry. It is not a markup. It is the law.

Q: How many days before the closing should I schedule my remote session? I would not wait until the morning of the closing. The attorney has to deliver the documents to you, and you have to have the time to read them. A remote session scheduled 24 to 48 hours before the closing is comfortable, and it gives you a buffer if there is a hiccup with the platform or with your documents. If your closing is at 3 p.m., I would not schedule the session for 2 p.m. the same day. That is not a buffer, that is a race.

Final thoughts, and what to do next

Here is the short version, if you want to keep it on the fridge:

Deed: notarized, always. Seller signs.
Mortgage: notarized, almost always. Buyer signs, if there is a loan.
Deed of release: notarized, when the loan is paid off.
RP-5217: signed under penalty of perjury, no notary.
TP-584: signed, no notary.
Purchase contract, loan application, co-op application: signed, no notary.
Any affidavit with an acknowledgment block or a jurat: notary required. Any affidavit that just says “under penalty of perjury”: notary not required.

And the golden rule that I want you to carry out of this article: if you are not sure, ask your attorney, and ask specifically which documents have an acknowledgment block and which have a jurat. That is the question that separates the documents that need a notary from the ones that do not. It is a one-sentence question, and it saves you from walking into a remote session with the wrong set of documents, or worse, from showing up at a closing with a document that could not be notarized at all.

Disclaimer: This post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice, tax advice, or a substitute for consulting with a New York attorney about your specific real estate transaction.