California Notary Public Bond

The bond amount is $15,000 and it covers the whole four-year commission. You do not pay $15,000; you pay a small one-time premium for the full term, which makes this one of the cheapest surety bonds written in California.

With the county clerk of the county where you maintain your principal place of business, as shown on the application you filed with the California Secretary of State. Not with the Secretary of State, and not with us. We issue the bond; you file it locally.

30 days from the start of the commission term under Gov. Code §8213. Miss the window and the commission does not take effect, which means passing the exam and paying the fees but not being a notary. This is the deadline to protect.

The commission does not take effect. Gov. Code §8213 conditions it on the bond and oath being filed inside the 30-day window, so a late filing is not a fine, it is a commission that never started. Order the bond as soon as the commission arrives, not at the end of the month.

Yes, and with the same clerk inside the same 30-day window. The bond and the oath of office are filed together. Notaries who remember one and forget the other are in the same position as notaries who filed neither.

The full four-year commission. It is not an annual bond and there is nothing to renew mid-term. When you renew the commission you file a new bond and a new oath for the new term.

No, and this is the most common misunderstanding. The bond protects the public: if a claim is paid, you reimburse the surety. Errors-and-omissions insurance protects you, covering your own defense and mistakes. Many notaries carry both, because the bond does nothing for the notary.

Financial harm to the public caused by your errors or misconduct as a notary, up to $15,000. A signer who loses money because of an improper acknowledgment can claim against it. If the surety pays, it recovers from you, so the bond is protection for them and an obligation for you.

Almost always. It is a small fixed-amount bond and rarely credit-sensitive, so collections, a past bankruptcy, or a thin file are usually no obstacle. This is one of the few bonds where credit is close to irrelevant to whether you get approved.

Same day in most cases. It is a fixed-amount bond with no financial statements and no underwriting queue, so the limit is paperwork rather than review. Given the filing deadline, ordering it the day your commission arrives is the safe move.

Yes. The bond runs with the commission, so each new four-year term needs a new bond and a new oath filed with the county clerk. Renewing notaries sometimes assume the original bond carries over. It does not.

Yes, for every notary public, under Gov. Code §8212. There is no exemption based on volume, employer, or how little notarizing you expect to do. An employer may pay for it, but the bond is filed in your name and the obligation is yours.

Your bond stays valid; it is filed against your commission, not your address. What changes is your filing county for a future term, which follows your principal place of business. Notify the Secretary of State of the address change and keep the current bond in place.

The same $15,000 bond covers your notarial acts whether the document is a loan package or a single acknowledgment. What it does not cover is your own liability as a signing agent for errors outside the notarial act, which is what errors-and-omissions coverage is for.