Why Promissory Notes Should Be Notarized

A promissory note is not something new.  Everyone, at least once in their lives has had to deal with a promissory note.  A promissory note is a consideration given by a creditor to his debtor.  The debtor promises to pay a certain amount at a certain period for a certain debt.

Generally, promissory notes need not be notarized.  However, there are a handful of reasons why promissory notes should be notarized.

First, if you want to enforce the note in court, then you need to get it notarized. A notarized promissory note makes the promise binding for both parties and getting it notarized protects both parties from issues that may arise in the future.  Hence, if you are a creditor and you want to ensure getting good on that loan, you need to get the promissory note notarized.

Second, if you are a debtor and you want to protect yourself from issues of the creditor, you need to get that promissory note notarized.  For example, your debt is due and demandable every 20^th of the month; a promissory note that is notarized would prevent the creditor from going after your debt early in the month because it is not yet due.

Third, a notarized promissory note can be presented in court in case the creditor dies and they need to go after all of the debtors of the creditor.  If one of the parties dies, the other party can just deny the existence of the debt.  However, if you have a notarized document that proves the existence of the document you will be sure that whatever would occur the debt will be paid.

Fourth, a notarized promissory note can be presented in banks to show financial capacity.  If you are a creditor, it shows that you have had the financial capacity to loan out money and may just be going through some tough times which explain why you have to go to the bank.  If you are a debtor it is proof that you know how to make good on a debt.

Finally, a promissory note that is notarized ensures that your debt will be paid because if you cannot go after the liquidity of the debtor, you have evidence of the existence of the debt and get a tax credit out of it and call it a bad debt.  Of course, this is not always ideal but it still protects you and makes sure that you still get your hard earned money back one way or another.