Florida Notary Acknowledgment: Wording, Seal, and Fees

A Florida notary acknowledgment is a notarial act in which a signer personally appears before a notary public, is identified through personal knowledge or an acceptable ID, and acknowledges signing a document voluntarily. The certificate must follow the short-form wording set out in Section 117.05(4) of the Florida Statutes and, since January 2020, must state whether the signer appeared by physical presence or through online notarization.¹

What the Certificate Must Contain

Every acknowledgment certificate in Florida has to include six pieces of information. Miss any one and the notarization can be treated as defective, which is why title companies routinely reject documents at closing.

Venue: the state and county where the notary is physically located at the time of the act, written as “State of Florida, County of ____.”
Type of notarial act: language showing the signature was “acknowledged” rather than “sworn.”
Method of appearance: a checked box or statement indicating physical presence or online notarization.
Date of the acknowledgment.
Signer’s full name.
Identification method: personal knowledge or a specific type of identification document.

Statutory Wording for an Individual Signer

Notaries do not have to use the statutory language word-for-word, but the certificate must be “in substantially the same form.”¹ When a person signs on their own behalf, the form reads:

STATE OF FLORIDA
COUNTY OF ____

The foregoing instrument was acknowledged before me by means of [ ] physical presence or [ ] online notarization, this ____ day of ____, (year), by (name of person acknowledging).

(Signature of Notary Public – State of Florida)
(Print, Type, or Stamp Commissioned Name of Notary Public)
Personally Known ____ OR Produced Identification ____
Type of Identification Produced ____

Fill in every blank, check one method-of-appearance box, and mark either “Personally Known” or “Produced Identification.” If the notary personally knows the signer, the “Type of Identification Produced” line stays blank. If the notary relied on an ID, that document is named on the line.

Statutory Wording for a Representative Signer

When someone signs on behalf of another person or entity (a corporate officer, a trustee, an attorney in fact), the wording adds the signer’s role and the party being represented:

STATE OF FLORIDA
COUNTY OF ____

The foregoing instrument was acknowledged before me by means of [ ] physical presence or [ ] online notarization, this ____ day of ____, (year), by (name of person) as (type of authority, e.g., officer, trustee, attorney in fact) for (name of party on behalf of whom instrument was executed).

(Signature of Notary Public – State of Florida)
(Print, Type, or Stamp Commissioned Name of Notary Public)
Personally Known ____ OR Produced Identification ____
Type of Identification Produced ____

The notary verifies the identity of the human being who actually signs, not the entity that person represents.¹

How the Notary Identifies the Signer

Identification comes from one of two sources: personal knowledge sufficient to establish identity with reasonable certainty, or an acceptable ID document that is current or was issued within the past five years and bears a serial or identifying number.¹

Florida law recognizes ten acceptable ID documents:

Florida driver license or ID card
U.S. passport
Foreign passport stamped by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Driver license or ID card from another U.S. state, a U.S. territory, Canada, or Mexico
U.S. armed forces ID card
Veteran health identification card from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Florida Department of Corrections inmate ID issued on or after January 1, 1991
Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate ID
Sworn written statement from a law enforcement officer confirming an inmate’s identity when IDs were confiscated upon confinement
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ID card

If a signer has none of these, Florida allows credible witnesses instead: one witness who is personally known to the notary, or two witnesses whose identities are proven to the notary through acceptable ID. The witnesses sign a sworn statement confirming that they personally know the signer, that the signer is who they claim to be, and that the signer does not possess any of the listed ID documents. Witnesses cannot have a financial interest in the transaction or be parties to it.¹

Seal and Signature

After completing the certificate, the notary signs and applies the seal. The seal must be a rubber stamp in photographically reproducible black ink. An embossed impression can be added but cannot replace the stamp.¹

The stamp itself has to show four things:

The words “Notary Public-State of Florida”
The notary’s name
The notary’s commission number
The commission expiration date

Below the signature, the notary also prints, types, or stamps their name exactly as it appears on the commission. That is a separate requirement from the stamp itself. The seal and commission certificate are the notary’s personal property; an employer cannot keep them if the notary leaves, even if the employer paid for them.

Acknowledgment or Jurat

An acknowledgment and a jurat are not interchangeable, and using the wrong one can invalidate the notarization. An acknowledgment confirms that the signer appeared, was identified, and signed willingly; it does not put the signer under oath about the document’s contents. A jurat, sometimes called a “verification upon oath or affirmation,” requires the signer to swear or affirm under penalty of perjury that the contents are true. Deeds, powers of attorney, and most recorded instruments call for an acknowledgment; affidavits and sworn statements call for a jurat. If the document itself does not specify, the choice belongs to the drafter or an attorney, not the notary.

Online Acknowledgments

Florida authorizes remote online notarization (RON), in which the signer appears by live audio-video connection rather than in the room. The certificate wording is identical to an in-person acknowledgment; the notary simply checks the “online notarization” box.²

Online acknowledgments carry extra identity-verification steps: remote presentation of a government-issued ID, credential analysis of that ID, and identity proofing through knowledge-based authentication or an equivalent method. The notary cannot proceed if any step fails, and the entire audio-video session must be recorded.³ The electronic certificate must indicate the act was performed online, which is commonly satisfied by placing “online notary” in or next to the seal. Online notaries keep an electronic journal and audio-video recordings of each session for at least ten years.⁴

Fees

Florida caps notary fees at $10 for a standard in-person notarial act and $25 for an online notarization.⁵ The caps are per act, so a document with several signatures being acknowledged separately generates a fee for each one. A notary cannot charge any fee for witnessing a vote-by-mail ballot.¹

When a Notary Must Refuse

A Florida notary cannot notarize their own signature, and using a commission under any name other than the notary’s legal name is a third-degree felony.¹ A notary who cannot act as a disinterested party should also decline: Florida’s credible-witness rules bar anyone with a financial interest in the transaction, and the same principle applies to the notary. Notarizing for a spouse, parent, or child, or for a deal the notary has a stake in, exposes the act to challenge.

Non-attorney notaries also cannot prepare legal documents, give legal advice, or counsel anyone about remedies or courses of action. They may sell blank legal forms and type information a customer has already written out. For Supreme Court-approved family-law or landlord-tenant forms, a non-attorney notary can ask basic factual questions to fill in the blanks, and no more.⁶

1
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 117.05 – Use of Notary Commission
2
Florida Division of Corporations. Sample Notarial Statements
3
Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes 117.265 – Online Notarizations
4
Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes 117.245 – Electronic Journal of Online Notarizations
5
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes Chapter 117
6
Florida Department of State. Prepare Legal Documents