Vermont House Bill 512 became effective July 1, 2022, legalizing remote notarizations in the state by commissioned notaries who obtain approval from the Office of Professional Regulation. The bill, with its relevant provisions becoming effective July 1, finally allows remote notarizations in a state which had previously passed a remote notary law that was not able to take full effect.
In 2018, Vermont passed House Bill 526, the Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts, which also legalized remote notarizations in the state but made the effectiveness of the law dependent on the drafting of rules by the Vermont Secretary of State. The Secretary never acted to adopt those rules thereby keeping remote notarizations unavailable in the state until now.
The bill repeals the prior section of law which stated that no electronic or remote notarization could take place until the Secretary had prescribed rules and/or standards, including standards for the technology used for completing electronic or remote notarizations. The Secretary is still allowed to prescribe those standards, but the lack thereof can no longer prevent remote notarizations from occurring. Nevertheless, the bill adds similar requirements for technology providers and identity proofing to the state’s statutes as other states have done in enacting their versions of remote notary laws.
In addition to the provisions of House Bill 512 which allow for remote notarizations, the bill also includes provisions to enact the Uniform Real Property Electronic Recording Act to allow electronic recordings in the state property records. Those provisions allow a county recorder, for example, to accept an electronically signed security instrument in its electronic form for recording in the property records and gives the same effect to electronically recorded documents as paper recorded documents.
Both the remote notarization and electronic recording provisions were effective July 1, 2022.
