When a Texas Notary Must Refuse, and What to Do Next

Nobody books a notary hoping to be turned away. But a refusal at the table is almost always better than the alternative, which is a sealed document that fails six months later in front of a title company, a probate court or a bank, when the signer is no longer available to fix it.

Texas treats refusal as part of the job rather than an exception to it. Subchapter E of 1 TAC ch. 87, the chapter of administrative rules governing Texas notaries, contains a rule titled § 87.42, Refusal of Requests, and a separate one titled § 87.43, Reasons to Refuse an Online Notarization. The State wrote rules about saying no because saying no is sometimes the only lawful answer.

This guide sets out the grounds, what each one actually means at the table, and, more usefully, how to fix it.

The hard stops

The signer is not there

This is the one with criminal consequences attached, and it is the reason a notary will not seal a document you leave with her.

Tex. Gov't Code § 406.0091, added by S.B. 693 and effective 1 September 2025, makes it an offense to knowingly notarize a signature for a person who has not personally appeared. A violation is a Class A misdemeanor, and a state jail felony where the document transfers real property or any interest in real property. Deeds and loan packages sit squarely in that second category.

Personal appearance means physically in the same room, or live in a compliant online session with two-way audio and video. It has never meant dropping paperwork off, and since September 2025 the shortcut is expressly prosecutable.

The fix: get the signer to the appointment, or bring the appointment to the signer. A mobile visit exists exactly for this, and an online session solves it for a signer in another city.

The signer cannot be identified

Every signer needs an unexpired, government-issued photo identification carrying their photograph and signature. Expired means expired, however plainly the photograph is the person in front of her. A photocopy, a phone picture or a digital wallet image is not the card.

The fix: find the current card, or say so before the appointment so an alternative can be arranged rather than improvised. Identification problems are the single most common reason an appointment is wasted, and they are almost always solvable a day in advance.

The signer does not appear to understand, or is under pressure

The notary certifies that the signer appeared to know what they were signing and signed willingly. If the signer cannot follow what is happening, or if somebody else in the room is answering for them, pushing them or holding the pen, she has nothing to certify.

This comes up most often at hospital bedsides and in care facilities, where it deserves its own planning. The guide to hospital and care facility signings covers how to give that appointment the best chance.

The fix: reschedule for a better time of day, and ask everyone who is not signing or witnessing to step back from the table.

The document has blank spaces

A notary cannot notarize a document with blanks that are meant to be filled in. The reason is not fussiness. A sealed document with empty fields can be completed afterwards by anyone, and the seal makes the later addition look authorized.

The fix: complete every field before the appointment, and write "N/A" where a field genuinely does not apply. Leave the notarial certificate block itself alone; the county, the date and the seal belong to the notary.

There is no notarial certificate, and you want her to pick one

This is the refusal that surprises people most, because it looks like the notary being unhelpful about a technicality.

It is not. The Texas Secretary of State is explicit on the point: if a notary public is brought a document without a certificate and decides which certificate to attach, that notary public would be practicing law. Practicing law without a license is outside a notary's authority under Tex. Gov't Code § 81.101 and § 81.102, and § 406.016(d) separately prohibits a notary who is not a licensed attorney from giving legal advice.

The choice matters because the two acts assert different things. An acknowledgment says the signature is yours. A jurat says you swore the contents are true. Picking one for you would be deciding what you are legally asserting.

The fix: ask whoever is going to receive the document. The lender, the court, the agency, the employer or your attorney knows which certificate they need. A notary may explain what each act is; she may not choose.

The acts a Texas notary simply may not perform

§ 406.016 and the Secretary of State's prohibited-acts list rule these out entirely. No amount of rearranging the appointment changes them.

• Certifying a copy of a record recordable in the public records. Birth certificates, death certificates and marriage licenses are the usual ones. Only the government records office that issued the record can produce a certified copy. She can certify a copy of a diploma, a transcript, a signed power of attorney or a contract, when you bring the original to compare against.
• Issuing an identification card. Prohibited outright by § 406.016(c).
• Signing a notarial certificate under any name other than the one she was commissioned under, under § 406.016(b). A recently married notary who has not updated her commission still signs as commissioned.
• Notarizing her own signature.
• Preparing, drafting, selecting or advising on your document. That is the practice of law, and it is also what § 406.017(a)(2) and § 406.016(d) forbid.
• Officiating your wedding. Under Tex. Fam. Code § 2.202 a marriage ceremony in Texas may be conducted only by a licensed or ordained Christian minister or priest, a Jewish rabbi, an officer of a religious organization authorized by that organization, or a current, former or retired federal or state judge. A notary public is not on the list. Several states allow it; Texas does not.
• Notarizing a will, codicil or testamentary trust online. Those are excluded from the Texas Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 322.003; Tex. Estates Code § 251.051), so they are signed in person or not at all.

Conflict of interest

A notary may not notarize a document in which she has a financial or beneficial interest. A notary named as a beneficiary in a will, as the agent in a power of attorney, or as a party who would receive property under a deed is disqualified, regardless of who else signs.

Texas does not flatly prohibit notarizing for a relative where no such interest exists. Professional bodies still discourage it, for the practical reason that a notarization performed by a family member is easier to attack. On a document that might be contested, and estate documents lead that list, a neutral third party is the more durable choice. That is covered in more depth in wills, powers of attorney and the self-proving affidavit.

Fees are a refusal ground too

This one runs the other way: it is a reason to refuse a notary, not a reason for a notary to refuse you.

Tex. Gov't Code § 406.024(a) caps the fee for the notarial act. The everyday figures are $10 for an acknowledgment or proof of a deed for the first signature, $1 for each additional signature, and $10 for administering an oath or affirmation with certificate and seal. § 406.024(b) provides that a notary may charge a fee only for an acknowledgment or official act under Subsection (a), and that the fee may not exceed the authorized amount. An online notarization carries up to $25 more under § 406.111, in addition to the § 406.024 fee, not instead of it.

Charging above those caps is good cause for discipline under 1 TAC § 87.31(9), and the Secretary of State states that it also exposes the notary to possible criminal prosecution.

Travel is a different thing. It is a private, non-notarial service, Texas does not cap it, and charging for it is perfectly lawful provided it is quoted and itemized separately and never recorded as a notarial fee. A notary who charges $50 and writes it down as a notary fee has documented a fivefold overcharge. A notary who charges $10 for the act plus a $40 travel fee, shown as two lines, has done nothing wrong. Under § 603.007 she must be ready to produce a written bill containing the details of the fee. The fee page and the Texas fee guide lay the whole structure out. Her own prices: one visit fee per visit, never per signature, and it is not a notarial fee: $5 when you meet her at her Addison meeting spot (weekdays 9 am to 6 pm, by appointment), $15 anywhere in Addison, $25 in Zone 2 (about 10 driving miles), $45 in Zone 3 (about 10 to 20 driving miles), and a quote before booking beyond about 20 driving miles. Your ZIP code decides the zone, and the written quote confirms it. On top of that is the $10 State fee per notarization (the § 406.024 maximum), so one signature totals $15 at the meet-up spot or $25 at your door in Addison. Businesses have separate visit-size pricing on the business pricing page. An online notarization is $35 ($10 + $25), with no visit fee.

What happens to a notary who ignores all this

The Secretary of State may act on good cause under § 406.009(d)(2), with the grounds listed in 1 TAC § 87.31. Those grounds include a violation of § 406.017, collecting a fee above the statutory cap, and false or misleading advertising representing duties, rights, powers or privileges the notary does not possess by law.

The disciplinary ladder in 1 TAC § 87.34 runs from a written reprimand, through a written agreement (no further misconduct, voluntary surrender, a set period of suspension, completing a course of study, or agreeing not to seek renewal), to revocation. Under § 87.34(b) the Secretary of State may revoke the online commission alone, or both the traditional and the online commission together.

Add the criminal exposure from § 406.0091 and § 406.017, and a notary who bends the rules to be accommodating is risking a commission and, in the worst case, a conviction, so that you can save a second trip. It is not a favor worth asking for.

What to do when you are turned away

1. Ask which ground it is. A notary may not advise you on your document, but she can tell you plainly what stopped the act: no valid identification, a blank field, a missing certificate, a missing signer.
2. Fix the fixable ones immediately. A blank field, a missing signer and a document signed too early are all same-day problems. A fresh unsigned copy solves more of them than anything else.
3. Call the receiving party for a certificate question. One phone call to the lender, court or agency usually resolves it in a minute.
4. Go to the issuing office for a vital record. If someone asked you for a notarized copy of a birth certificate, what they actually need is a certified copy from the vital statistics office.
5. Reschedule rather than push. If a signer is too unwell, too medicated or too distressed to follow the moment, a later appointment is worth far more than a sealed document that gets set aside.
6. Expect the travel fee to stand. If the notary made the trip, the travel time was spent. The notarial fee is not charged for an act that was not performed, but the private travel charge is a separate contractual matter, which is one more reason to say everything you know when you book.

The short version

• Refusal is built into the Texas rules: 1 TAC § 87.42 and § 87.43 exist for it.
• No signer present, no notarization, and since 1 September 2025 a knowing violation is criminal under § 406.0091.
• No valid unexpired photo identification, no notarization.
• No blanks, no missing certificate, no guessing which certificate you need.
• No vital-record copies, no identification cards, no weddings, no online wills.
• No financial or beneficial interest, ever.
• Fees above § 406.024 and § 406.111 are a reason for you to walk away.

Almost every refusal is avoidable in the two minutes before you book. Send Gwen the details, including anything unusual, and she will confirm whether it is something a Texas notary can do at all, what identification to bring and the full fee before she travels. The step-by-step guide covers the rest.

Gwen is a Texas notary public, not an attorney, and cannot give legal advice or tell you which document you need. She notarizes documents you provide. She does not prepare, draft, select or advise on them.