5.1 Maximum Fees

New York is unusual among U.S. states in how tightly it regulates what a notary public may charge. The amounts are fixed by statute, not set by the market, and they are surprisingly small. Because the dollar figures are precise and easy to test, fee questions appear frequently on the New York notary exam. You should be able to recall the exact maximum for each common act and apply the rule that fees are charged per person and per act, not per document.

Where the Fee Limits Come From

The core fee schedule lives in New York Executive Law Section 136 (Notarial fees). A related provision in Executive Law Section 135 caps the fee a notary may charge for protesting a negotiable instrument. The fee for electronic notarial acts is not a fixed number in the statute; instead, Section 136 directs the Secretary of State to set the electronic fee by regulation, and the Department of State has set that ceiling at $25.00 per electronic notarial act.

A key exam principle: the statutory amounts are maximums. A notary may always charge less, or charge nothing at all. What a notary may never do is charge more than the law allows for a notarial act.

The Core $2.00 Fee

For the everyday acts a New York notary performs, the maximum fee is $2.00. Executive Law Section 136 lists these acts explicitly:

Notice that the statute says by one person and each additional person. The fee attaches to the signature/person, not to the sheet of paper. This is the single most heavily tested fee concept in New York.

Per Person, Per Act — Worked Example

Example: A married couple comes to you to acknowledge a deed. Both spouses sign and you acknowledge both signatures. Because the fee is per person, you may charge $2.00 for the husband and $2.00 for the wife — a $4.00 maximum. If a third co-owner also signs the same deed, you may add another $2.00, for $6.00 total. One document, three people, $6.00 maximum.

Now contrast that with a single signer who needs two different acts. If one person both acknowledges a deed and swears to an affidavit in the same visit, those are two separate notarial acts — $2.00 + $2.00 = $4.00 maximum.

Protest Fees — The Odd One Out

Protesting a negotiable instrument (a formal certification that a note, bill of exchange, check, or draft was presented and dishonored) carries its own historic fee, set in Executive Law Section 135:

• 75 cents for protesting non-payment of a note, or non-acceptance or non-payment of a bill of exchange, check, or draft.
• 10 cents for each notice of protest — but not exceeding five notices on any one bill or note.

These amounts are tiny and rarely used in practice, but the exam likes them precisely because they are different from the $2.00 default. If a question asks the maximum fee for a protest, the answer is 75 cents — not $2.00.

Electronic and Remote Notarial Acts

Electronic notarization carries a much higher ceiling. A registered electronic notary may charge up to $25.00 for each electronic notarial act. This higher amount reflects the technology, identity-proofing, and recordkeeping burden of electronic and remote online notarization (RON).

Watch the trap: the $25.00 cap is per electronic act, the same per-person logic still applies, and papering out is a separate $2.00 act layered on top of the $25.00.

Travel Fees, Waivers, and the Overcharging Rule

New York's fee caps govern the notarial act itself. A mobile or signing-agent notary who travels to the signer may charge a separate, clearly disclosed travel or convenience fee, because that charge is for travel, not for the notarial act. To stay clean, the notary should disclose and agree to the travel fee in advance and keep it distinct from the $2.00 statutory fee.

A notary may also waive the fee entirely — charging nothing is always permitted. What converts a fee into misconduct is charging more than the statutory maximum for the notarial act, or disguising an inflated notarial charge as a service fee. Overcharging is treated as notary misconduct and can lead to discipline or removal from office by the Department of State.

Recap

Memorize three numbers for the exam: $2.00 for ordinary acts (per person, per act), 75 cents for a protest, and $25.00 for an electronic notarial act. Remember that maximums can always be reduced or waived, that travel fees must be separate and disclosed, and that charging above the cap is misconduct.