At a real estate closing, many documents are executed by the seller and buyer. A substantial number of the documents must be notarized by a notary public.
Section 117.05(5) of the Florida Statutes provides that a notary public may not notarize a signature on a document unless he or she personally knows, or has satisfactory evidence, that the person whose signature is to be notarized is the individual who is executing the instrument.
It is highly unlikely that you will personally know the notary public at your closing, therefore, you must provide the notary public with at least one of the following forms of identification:
- A Florida identification card or driver's license issued by the public agency authorized to issue driver's licenses;
- A passport issued by the U.S. Department of State;
- A passport issued by a foreign government if the document is stamped by the United States Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services;
- A driver's license issued by a public agency authorized to issue driver's licenses in a state other than Florida, a territory of the United States, or Canada or Mexico;
- An identification card issued by a territory of the United States or a state other than Florida;
- An identification card issued by any branch of the armed forces of the United States; or,
- An identification card issued by the United States Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services.
We highly recommend to our clients that they obtain a Florida identification card if they no longer possess a driver's license.