Signing Companies Not Paying Notary Signing Agents

A recent survey by CD&C Business & Legal Form Processing Services, LLC ("CD&C") of Notary Signing Agents ("NSA") resulted in several areas/topics of concern. The chief response among the feedback centered on non-payment and debt collection. In a nutshell, NSAs are doing signings and are being "stiffed" by some signing companies. This has been a problem for notary signing agents for a long time. Question is...what can be done about it?

First, let us say that there are many reputable companies out there. But there are a few bad apples. These disreputable companies take advantage of the NSAs services. In fact, it would appear that scamming NSAs is becoming its own business. There are companies that open shop, hire NSAs to do closings, then refuse to pay them or promise a "payment/check in the mail" that can never seem to get there. Then there are other companies who agree to pay a certain fee for the services of a NSA, only to reduce the fee after the closing has been completed. Excuses range from poor quality of work to lenders not paying enough for the closing to citing slow business. What happens to these companies? Well, after enough complaints are lodged against them, they simply close shop and re-open under a different name.