2.2 Notary Records and the SB693 Changes

The Record Book Is a Long-Standing Duty

A common exam trap is to assume the record book (often called a journal) was invented by Senate Bill 693. It was not. Government Code Section 406.014 has required Texas notaries to "keep in a book" a record of every instrument notarized for decades, whether or not a fee is charged. What changed in 2025 is the retention period and the enforcement consequences. Knowing the difference between the underlying §406.014 duty and the SB693 amendments is exactly the kind of distinction test writers use to separate prepared candidates from those relying on a single blog summary.

What SB693 Actually Changed

SB693 passed the 89th Texas Legislature and took effect September 1, 2025. Its notary provisions did three principal things:

The new criminal offense is graded as a Class A misdemeanor, escalating to a state jail felony when the document involves the transfer of real property. That escalation tied to real-estate documents is a frequently tested detail.

Required Contents of Each Entry

Section 406.014(a) lists the data points. Build a habit of completing every field at the time of the act:

• Date of the instrument (the document's own date)
• Date of the notarization
• Name of the signer, grantor, or maker
• Mailing address of that person
• Method of identification — whether personally known, identified by a government-issued ID card or a U.S. passport, or introduced by a credible witness (and, if introduced, that witness's name and mailing address)
• For an instrument proved by a witness: the witness's mailing address and how that witness was identified
• The name and mailing address of the grantee (the party receiving the interest)

Retention: Counting the 10 Years

The retention clock runs from the date of notarization, not the date you close the book or surrender the commission. Each entry effectively has its own 10-year horizon.

A notary who resigns or lets the commission lapse must still preserve existing records for the full ten years — surrendering the commission does not erase the retention duty.

Acceptable Formats

For Remote Online Notarization (RON), separate electronic recording requirements also apply, and the same 10-year retention governs the electronic record and any audiovisual recording.

Worked Scenario

In February 2026 a notary completes a deed of trust acknowledgment but skips the signer's mailing address and the grantee's name to "save time." Two years later the Secretary of State receives a fraud complaint and requests the record. The entries are incomplete. Under SB693, failure to maintain proper records is itself good cause for disciplinary action — the notary faces possible suspension or revocation independent of whether the underlying notarization was otherwise valid. The lesson: completeness, not just possession, of the record is what protects the commission.

Consequences Snapshot

A Model Entry

Using the §406.014 fields, a complete paper entry looks like this:

Date of instrument: January 14, 2026 Date of notarization: January 15, 2026 Signer/grantor/maker: John Robert Smith Mailing address: 123 Main Street, Houston, TX 77001 Identification: Texas driver license (government-issued ID card) Grantee: First Texas Title Company, P.O. Box 9000, Houston, TX 77002 Notarial act: Acknowledgment of a deed of trust

Every field in that block maps to a statutory requirement; the optional fee or notes column does not. The fee a notary may charge — for example, the $10 maximum for the first signature on an acknowledgment and $1 for each additional signature under Government Code §406.024 — is logged for the notary's own records but is not one of the mandatory §406.014 fields.

Identifying the Signer for the Record

The record must state how you knew the signer, and §406.014 recognizes only three methods. The exam tests whether you can label each correctly:

If a credible witness introduces the signer, the witness's name and address become part of your record — this is why "introduced by" entries carry extra fields. A signer who cannot satisfy any of the three methods cannot be notarized for.

Why the Record Protects You

The record book is not bureaucratic busywork; it is the notary's primary defense. If a signer later claims a forgery, denies appearing, or a transaction is challenged in court, a complete contemporaneous entry showing the date, the identification method, and the document is powerful evidence that you followed the law. An empty or sloppy book leaves you with only memory — which is exactly why SB693 made record failures independently sanctionable. Maintaining the book carefully turns a potential liability into protection for the full ten-year window.

Exam Focus

Nail the distinctions: the record book itself predates SB693 (it lives in §406.014); SB693 raised retention from 5 to 10 years, made record failures good cause for discipline, added 2 hours of education, and created a personal-presence criminal offense (Class A misdemeanor; state jail felony for real property). Know the required entry fields, the three identification methods, that records may be kept electronically, and that the fee log is not a mandatory §406.014 field.