To file a notary complaint form, download the one published by your state’s Secretary of State (or whichever agency commissions notaries in your state), fill it in with the notary’s name and commission number, a specific factual account of what went wrong, and copies of the documents and correspondence that back up your story, then submit it the way the agency instructs — online, by mail, or occasionally by email. The sections below walk through each step and the decisions you’ll have to make along the way.
Make Sure Your Complaint Fits What the Agency Investigates
State commissioning authorities investigate violations of notary law, not customer service disputes. Before you spend time on the form, confirm that what happened falls into one of the categories the agency actually has power to address.
The violations most commonly accepted for investigation include:
- No personal appearance — the notary certified a signature without the signer physically in front of them.
- Failure to verify identity, including accepting an expired or inadequate ID.
- Skipping the oath or affirmation on a document that required one, such as an affidavit.
- Improper notarization — wrong acknowledgment or jurat language, incomplete seal, or a backdated certificate.
- Notarizing a document in which the notary had a personal or financial interest.
- Fraud or forgery, including a falsified journal entry.
- Charging more than the state’s statutory maximum fee.
Rude behavior, slow service, or a price you simply thought was too high generally fall outside the agency’s authority. So does a dispute over the underlying document itself. If your real problem is with the title company, lender, or attorney who directed the signing rather than with the notary’s own conduct, the notary complaint form is not the right vehicle.
Gather the Information and Evidence First
Opening the form before you have your facts assembled is how complaints end up vague, and vague complaints get dismissed. Pull everything together first.
About the Notary
You need the notary’s full legal name and commission number. Both normally appear on the seal or stamp imprinted on the document. If the imprint is illegible or the document is gone, most states run a searchable online database of active notaries through the Secretary of State’s website, where you can look up a notary by name, commission number, or location. Record the date and location of the notarization as well; investigators use those details to cross-reference the notary’s required journal entries.
About What Happened
Copies of the notarized document are your primary exhibit, especially if the problem is on the certificate itself — wrong wording, missing seal, suspicious date. Flag the specific area where the error appears.
Written statements from anyone who watched the notarization add weight. Keep them to observable facts: the notary didn’t ask for ID, didn’t administer an oath, notarized for someone who wasn’t in the room. Opinions and speculation weaken a witness statement; investigators want to know what the witness saw.
Include any emails, texts, or letters you exchanged with the notary. Correspondence in which the notary acknowledged the error or refused to fix it is particularly useful.
Find the Right Form
Go to your state’s Secretary of State website (or the equivalent commissioning agency) and look for a notary section. Most offices publish a fillable PDF; some have moved to online-only submission through an account-based portal. Typing “notary complaint” into the agency’s site search is usually faster than clicking through menus.
Two things to check before you start filling anything in:
- Format. Some states take only online submissions, some require mailed hard copy, a few accept both.
- The attachment checklist. Many agencies publish a list of required exhibits alongside the form. Missing one is a leading cause of delay.
Do not substitute a generic template from a third-party site. State forms have fields built for the agency’s investigative process, and the wrong paperwork can come back to you unopened.
Fill Out the Form
Layouts vary, but the sequence is predictable. Your own contact information comes first — name, address, phone, email — because the agency needs to reach you for follow-up and to notify you of the outcome.
Then the notary’s information: full name, commission number, and the date and location of the notarization. If you couldn’t find the commission number, say so on the form and provide whatever identifying details you do have. Some forms include a field for the notary’s employer or business, which matters when the signing happened at a bank, signing service, or law office.
The narrative section is the core of the complaint. Describe what the notary did or failed to do, specifically and in chronological order. “The notary certified my mother’s signature on a deed on March 3 even though she was hospitalized that day and never appeared in person” gives an investigator something to work with. “The notary acted improperly” does not. Write what you personally observed or can document, and stop there.
Many forms ask you to identify the specific duty violated, with checkboxes for categories like failure to require personal appearance, failure to verify identity, failure to administer an oath, improper record-keeping, or overcharging fees. Check every box that applies, and make sure your narrative actually supports each one you check.
Signature, Perjury Language, and Whether the Form Itself Must Be Notarized
Most states require you to sign the complaint under penalty of perjury, attesting that what you’ve written is true and complete to the best of your knowledge. Federal law treats unsworn declarations signed under penalty of perjury as carrying the same weight as sworn statements, which is the mechanism state complaint forms use to discourage fabricated filings.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 U.S. Code 1746 – Unsworn Declarations Under Penalty of Perjury
Some states go further and require the complaint form itself to be notarized by a different, uninvolved notary before you submit it. Read the instructions carefully. Sending in an un-notarized complaint where notarization is required means the whole package comes back and you start over weeks later.
Submit the Complaint and Keep Copies
Delivery depends on the state. Online portals typically give you an immediate confirmation number when you upload the form and attachments. If you have to mail the paperwork, use certified mail or a tracked service so you have proof of delivery. A few states accept email, though that’s less common when the filing requires an original or notarized signature. When the website isn’t clear, call the notary division and ask.
Photocopy everything before it leaves your hands: the completed form, every attachment, and your proof of delivery. If someone at the agency calls months later asking for a document you already sent, having your own copies lets you resend it instead of rebuilding the file.
What Happens After You File
Staff first run a preliminary review to decide whether the allegations are within their jurisdiction and detailed enough to open an investigation. An incomplete complaint usually prompts a request for more information rather than an immediate dismissal.
If the complaint clears screening, investigators work the specifics. They may come back to you for clarification or originals, and they will pull the notary’s journal records. The notary is given notice and a chance to respond in writing within a set number of days.
Expect the process to take months. Timelines vary with the state, the complexity of the facts, and the agency’s backlog; straightforward cases can wrap up in a couple of months, more complicated ones can run six months or longer. Silence doesn’t mean inaction.
If the agency finds a violation, the discipline it can impose ranges from a letter of admonition for minor or first-time problems, to suspension, to permanent revocation of the commission, with civil penalties available in some states. If investigators find no violation, the agency closes the case and tells you. A closure does not stop you from suing the notary or pursuing a bond claim for financial losses.
Why Complaints Get Dismissed
Dismissals happen more often than people expect. The usual reasons:
- The conduct described isn’t something the commissioning authority regulates.
- The complaint alleges wrongdoing but offers no specifics or evidence an investigator could verify.
- The filing came in after the state’s statute of limitations on notary complaints.
- The real target is a title company, lender, or attorney, not the notary.
Agencies generally explain why they dismissed a complaint, and in many cases you can refile with better evidence or a tighter narrative.
If You Lost Money: The Notary’s Surety Bond
A complaint to the state affects the notary’s commission; it does not compensate you. If the misconduct caused a financial loss — a fraudulent deed, a forged power of attorney used to drain an account — you may have a claim against the notary’s surety bond.
Every state requires notaries to maintain a surety bond as a condition of their commission. Bond amounts typically run from $5,000 to $25,000 depending on the state. The bond exists to compensate people harmed by a notary’s failure to follow the law; it protects you, not the notary.
To file, identify the surety company that issued the bond. That information is sometimes in the Secretary of State’s notary database, and you can also request it from the commissioning office. Then contact the surety’s claims department with documentation of the notarization, the misconduct, and your loss. The surety conducts its own investigation, including contacting the notary and reviewing journal records. If the claim has merit, the surety will settle or pay out up to the bond’s face amount. If your loss is larger, the remainder would have to come from a civil suit against the notary directly.
The bond claim and the state complaint run on separate tracks. You can pursue both at once, and neither one’s outcome controls the other.