Question

Your clients are Mr. and Mrs. Stanford. They are the sellers in this transaction. The closing is taking place today. You were informed in advance that Mr. Stanford travels constantly for business and would be out of state on the day of closing, and thus you prepared a power of attorney for him to sign giving Mrs. Stanford the right to sign the requisite documents for him. You gave the power of attorney to Mrs. Stanford a couple of weeks ago, and she promised that her husband would sign it and have it notarized. She handed the power of attorney to you a few minutes before closing. You are in the conference room, ready to begin the closing. You notice that the signature for Mr. Stanford on the power of attorney does not look like his signature on other papers you have in the closing file. It looks like the signature of Mrs. Stanford. What should you do?

Answer 1

I would stop the closing from happening and take the issue with the client. Forging signature is a grave crime and it can cause severe repercussions. Therefore, it is better to deal with the situation before any untoward incident happens and to clear the misunderstanding with the clients.