Terms at Minute Notary.

Minute Notary provides notary public services in accordance with the Notaries Act of Ontario. The work this office is authorised to perform includes:

• Certifying true copies of original documents
• Notarizing and witnessing signatures
• Administering oaths and solemn affirmations
• Commissioning statutory declarations and affidavits
• Providing remote online appointments only where the document and signing circumstances allow it

As a client, you agree to:

• Provide valid government-issued photo identification
• Provide accurate and truthful information in all documents
• Attend the appointment yourself, in person or by approved video meeting when remote service is allowed
• Pay all applicable fees before an online appointment is confirmed
• Upload the unsigned document and required ID images before online checkout when the booking flow asks for them
• Confirm that the person or organization receiving the document will accept a remotely commissioned document
• Ensure you understand the documents you are signing

Some documents must be signed in front of the notary. Please do not sign them in advance.

• Do not sign a document that requires a witnessed signature before the appointment; sign it when the notary asks you to.
• Give information that is true, complete, and accurate in every document.
• You are responsible for the truth of any statement you swear or affirm.
• Tell us if any detail changes before the appointment is completed.

To keep the service safe and lawful, you agree not to:

• Ask us to notarize a document that is incomplete, blank, fraudulent, altered, or that you do not understand.
• Use the service for any unlawful purpose or to misrepresent your identity.
• Scrape, probe, overload, reverse engineer, or attempt to gain unauthorized access to the website or its systems.
• Interfere with other clients' use of the service or with the security of the site.

Online appointments are hosted by Google Meet and scheduled through Google Calendar. The client and all listed signers must join the call on time, have working audio/video, and be able to show valid ID when requested.

• The notary may stop the appointment if video quality, identity verification, signer capacity, duress concerns, or document requirements make remote service unsuitable.
• Google Calendar invitations and Google Meet links are sent after successful payment. The meeting link should not be shared with anyone who is not part of the appointment.
• Some services and documents are not eligible for remote handling. If the booking flow marks a service as not allowed or needs review, the office may decline, request more information, or ask for an in-person appointment.

Fees for in-person notary services are due at the time of service unless another arrangement is confirmed by the office. Online bookings are confirmed only after Stripe confirms successful payment.

• Notary fees are charged per stamp. A "stamp" is one notarial act — one signature witnessed, or one oath, affirmation, or declaration commissioned — not one physical seal impression and not one document.
• Online pricing therefore depends on both the number of documents and the number of people signing. The first signer is included in the base stamp; each additional signer is billed as one additional stamp, including additional signers on the same document. A single document signed by two people is two stamps.
• The number of stamps, applicable taxes, processing fees, and any approved checkout fees are calculated and shown before payment.
• A booking whose appointment starts within minutes of checkout carries an instant booking fee; any such fee is disclosed when the time is chosen and itemized before payment.
• Stripe handles card and wallet payment details, including Google Pay where available. This website does not store card numbers.
• Posted prices may change without notice, but the checkout amount shown before payment controls that online booking.

We work by appointment, so the time you book is held for you and taken off the calendar for everyone else. How much is refunded depends on how much notice you give, counted back from the time your appointment was scheduled to start.

100%More than 48 hours before

Your booking is refunded in full. If you would rather keep the appointment, we will gladly move it to another available time at no charge.

50%24 to 48 hours before

Half of the amount paid is refunded. At that notice the reserved time usually cannot be offered to another client, so the cost of the reserved time is shared between us.

0%Less than 24 hours before

Unfortunately, a refund is not available at this notice. This applies to cancelling or rescheduling, not attending, arriving too late for the appointment to be completed, attending without valid ID or without the document booked for, and any other circumstance within your control.

Every percentage above is calculated on the full amount you were charged at checkout, including HST, the card processing fee, and any add-on such as printing and mail.

Two rules override that table. They apply however close to the appointment we are:

• If we are unable to proceed, you are refunded in full. When the appointment cannot go ahead for a reason outside your control — the notary is unavailable, your document turns out not to be eligible for online notarization in Ontario, or we are otherwise unable to take on the work — you are offered a new time or a full refund, whichever you prefer. This applies no matter how close to the appointment we find out, including during the appointment itself, and it overrides the 24-hour rule.
• Missed or incomplete appointments inside 24 hours are not refundable. If the appointment cannot be completed inside the 24-hour window for a reason within your control — not attending, arriving too late for it to be completed, or attending without valid ID or the document booked for — we are unfortunately unable to offer a refund, as the time reserved for you cannot be offered to another client.

• To cancel or reschedule, use the booking page in your dashboard or contact the office. The moment your request reaches us is the moment we measure against your appointment time, in the time zone you booked in.
• Approved refunds go back to the original payment method and typically land within 5 to 10 business days, depending on your bank or card issuer.
• For an unconfirmed online booking, saved form details, uploaded unsigned documents and ID images may be available in the same browser for up to 24 hours after the last successful booking activity. After that the draft and its files expire together and must be entered and uploaded again.

The same rules, with worked examples, are set out on the Refund & Cancellation Policy page.

We reserve the right to refuse service if:

• The client cannot provide valid identification
• The client appears to be under duress or coercion
• The documents appear fraudulent or have been altered
• The requested service is outside our scope of authority as a Notary Public
• A remote online appointment does not meet identity, video, document, signer, or legal requirements

What happens to your money

If we are unable to proceed for any reason outside your control, the booking is refunded in full, even when we only discover it during the appointment. The clearest example is a document that turns out to need a wet-ink original or an in-person appointment under Ontario law: no fault attaches to you, so you are not out of pocket. Where an in-person appointment can solve it, we will offer you that instead, and you choose.

Where we cannot proceed because of something within your control — missing identification, a missing document, or non-attendance — the cancellation table above applies to the notice you gave.

If you create an account or receive a meeting link or signing link, you are responsible for keeping it confidential. Do not share sign-in details or appointment links with anyone who is not part of the appointment. Tell the office promptly if you believe an account or link has been used without your permission.

The website, including its text, design, layout, logo, and the Minute Notary name, belongs to this office or its licensors. You may use the site to learn about and book our services, but you may not copy, scrape, republish, or reuse its content for another purpose without written permission.

Running the service depends on trusted third-party providers, and their terms and privacy practices also apply when you use those parts of the service:

• Google (Calendar, Meet, Drive, and email) for scheduling, meetings, file handling, and delivery.
• Stripe for payment processing.
• Cloudflare for bot protection and delivery.
• An independent timestamp authority for time-stamping completed documents. Electronic signing itself normally takes place on the Minute Notary website, not on a third-party signing platform.
• SignNow, used only as a backup e-signature provider if our own signing system is temporarily unavailable.

We choose these providers with care, but we are not responsible for outages or issues within their systems that are outside our control.

Our website may offer a generative AI chat assistant, powered by Anthropic, to help you find general information about our services, including which documents can be commissioned online, what to prepare, approximate pricing, available times, and how to start a booking. Messages you submit are processed by Anthropic to generate replies. It is a convenience tool only.

• The assistant provides general information and may be incomplete or inaccurate. It is not legal advice and is not a substitute for confirmation by the notary.
• Nothing the assistant says is a binding offer, quote, contract, or guarantee. It cannot approve, confirm, hold, reschedule, or cancel an appointment, and it cannot waive fees or set prices.
• A booking is created only when you complete it yourself in the secure booking flow and payment is confirmed. Any price, eligibility, or availability is final only as shown in that flow and confirmed by the notary.
• The assistant cannot accept documents or read uploaded files, and you should not share sensitive identifiers (such as SIN or full ID numbers) in the chat.
• If the assistant and these Terms, our published policies, or the notary ever disagree, those authoritative sources govern, not the chat.

The website and the information on it are provided as is and as available. We do not warrant that the site will be uninterrupted or error free, that general information shown is complete for your specific situation, or that any third party, government agency, bank, school, or foreign authority will accept a remotely commissioned document. You are responsible for checking recipient requirements before booking.

Our role as a Notary Public is limited to witnessing signatures, administering oaths, and certifying documents. We do not provide legal advice. For legal matters, please consult a licensed lawyer. We are not liable for the content or legal effect of documents notarized.

We also cannot guarantee that a third party, government agency, bank, school, or foreign authority will accept a remotely commissioned document. The client is responsible for checking recipient requirements before booking.

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless this office and the notary from any claim, loss, or expense that arises from your misuse of the service, from information or statements you provide that are false or misleading, or from your breach of these Terms, to the extent permitted by law.

These terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the applicable laws of Canada. Any disputes shall be resolved in the courts of Ontario.

Concerns about the conduct of the notary may be directed to the office in the first instance, or to the Law Society of Ontario (lso.ca), which regulates lawyers and licensed paralegals in the province. Notaries public are appointed by Ontario’s Attorney General under the Notaries Act.

We reserve the right to modify these terms at any time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated revision date.