A prior agreement may require future agreements to be in writing, and signed by the contracting parties or witnesses. The law may require an agreement to be in writing or signed. The law may also specify who must sign and with what kind of signature electronic or advanced electronic.
Examples of these laws are:. In each case you need to look at the specific laws to see what they require. For example, Deeds of Sale do not need to be signed by witnesses. A witnesses signature can be useful for evidentiary purposes. If a party to the agreement later says they did not sign, the person who witnessed the party signing can be called to confirm it. The witness can confirm that the specific person signed and that that was the signature they made.
If there are going to be witnesses:. For this reason, the name and contact details of the witnesses must appear on the agreement, in addition to their signature. A witness is often of little value because they often do not sign, or cannot be traced. A better way to verify and prove the contracting party signed an agreement is to use:. Yet another reason to use electronic signatures.
There are various ways we can help you with electronic signatures. It should not be acted on without first seeking professional advice. Life Sciences. Skip to content. A quick guide to requirements for witnesses in common English law agreements. When is a witness required? Who can witness? How do you witness a signature? Does the witness need to be physically present?
Do you really need a witness? There are two main ways in which you may be able to avoid a requirement for a witness under English law: Use a simple contract rather than a deed Agreements are often drafted as deeds where the agreement includes a power of attorney which, under English law, must be executed as a deed or if the agreement has no consideration e. Execute the document with more signatories The default rules for execution of deeds by companies and LLPs under English law provide multiple options for valid execution of documents.
Chloe Taylor. Jake Marshall. Search website. Offices London Munich Dublin. When you consider that many agreements can be made informally and do not even need to be in writing, it is not surprising that the execution formalities for simple contracts as opposed to deeds are not very onerous. Only the two parties entering into the agreement need to sign it and the signatures do not need to be witnessed. Despite there being no legal requirement for a signature to be witnessed, it can prove helpful in evidence if a dispute arises about the validity of the agreement.
However, the signature being witnessed will be of little help if a document has been signed fraudulently, as this could well mean that the signature has also been witnessed fraudulently. When an individual executes a deed, their signature must be witnessed. A party to a deed cannot be a witness to another signature to that deed.
However, it is best to ensure independent witnesses are sought to ensure unbiased evidence can be provided, if and when required. There is also no prohibition against a minor acting as a witness but this can become problematic if the signature is challenged.
You must at least ensure that the minor is of sufficient maturity for his or her evidence to be regarded as reliable. There are only a small number of documents that require execution by way of a deed. These include land transfers, leases, mortgages and charges, sales by a mortgagee, appointments of trustees, powers of attorney, gifts of tangible goods that are not accompanied by delivery, and releases and variations.
A deed may be used, even where it is not mandatory, when it is unclear whether valuable consideration has been given or if the parties wish to obtain the longer limitation period of 12 years that applies to claims brought under deeds. All documents which previously required execution by affixing a company seal are no longer subject to that requirement and can now be executed by either two authorised signatories a director and the company secretary or two directors or a single director in the presence of a witness.
Companies can still use a common seal to execute documents, and many do — old habits die hard and some people like the formality and ceremony of the sealing process. However, executing a document using a common seal will not result in the document automatically being considered as a deed and, where relevant, the document must still be expressed to be a deed. The Model Articles provide that this can be determined by the directors. If the directors do not do this, then one authorised person a director, company secretary or any other person authorised to sign can sign and this must be in the presence of a witness.
The signatures of two authorised signatories are required and a single individual cannot sign in two different capacities.
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