All of our conventional security instruments are duplicates of the FNMA Uniform Security Instruments published on their website (https://www.fanniemae.com/singlefamily/security-instruments). All of these instruments contain witness signature lines; however, all of their instructions allow for the removal of such lines under some (if not all) circumstances.
Traditionally, we have removed these signature lines except for when: (a) witnesses are legally required to acknowledge the borrower’s signature on the instrument under state law (such as in Georgia); or (b) witnesses may acknowledge the borrower’s signature in lieu of a notary acknowledgment. We have removed these lines in order to shorten the instruments, thus decreasing recording costs.
We are now changing our policy and will be, by default, excluding witness lines from appearing on the instrument, except where witnesses are legally required to sign the instrument.
However, to accommodate individual cases where a notary public may not be present at the closing of a loan and witnesses will be necessary in order to close, we have created a new field entitled “Print Witness Lines on Security Instruments” (Field 95509). When set to “Yes,” optional witness lines will appear on certain security instruments. This field can either be prompted or mapped for each client.
At the present time, hardcoded witness lines will be replaced by the ones triggered by this Field on the following security instruments:
- Alabama (see Ala. Code Ann. § 35-4-20)
- AL Mortgage (Cx309)
- AL Mortgage FHA (Cx362)
- AL Mortgage Second (Cx468)
- HELOC Mortgage – AL (Cx1391)
- Idaho (see Idaho Code Ann. § 55-718)
- ID Deed of Trust (Cx322)
- ID Deed of Trust FHA (Cx375)
- ID Deed of Trust Second (Cx480)
- HELOC Deed of Trust – ID (C1358)
- North Carolina (see N.C. Gen. Stat. § 47-12)
- NC Deed of Trust (Cx336)
- NC Deed of Trust FHA (Cx389)
- NC Deed of Trust Second (C494)
- HELOC Deed of Trust – NC (Cx1395)
- North Dakota (see N.D. Cent. Code §§ 47-19-03 & 47-19-22)
- ND Mortgage (Cx337)
- ND Mortgage FHA (Cx390)
- ND Mortgage Second (Cx495)
- HELOC Mortgage – ND (Cx3028)
- Tennessee (see Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-22-101)
- TN Deed of Trust (Cx351)
- TN Deed of Trust FHA (Cx404)
- TN Deed of Trust Second (Cx509)
- HELOC Deed of Trust – TN (Cx1389)
We will add this field to other security instruments in the future as further legal research is completed and as applicable.
These changes will take effect on March 7, 2015. If you have any questions or concerns about these changes, please contact Client Support at 1.800.497.3584.
March 2, 2015
DR 165813