Are electronic signatures likely to be accepted by conveyancing solicitor?

sjc93

We're currently going through the conveyancing process on purchasing our first house, and our solicitors required everything as wet signatures to be posted to them, but they were okay with us scanning them on and sending them a PDF copy of our forms with our wet signatures in the interim.

They're all legal documents, so I would be really surprised if they accept electronic signatures, especially those ones that need to be witnessed.

Wkmg

sjc93 said:

We're currently going through the conveyancing process on purchasing our first house, and our solicitors required everything as wet signatures to be posted to them, but they were okay with us scanning them on and sending them a PDF copy of our forms with our wet signatures in the interim.

They're all legal documents, so I would be really surprised if they accept electronic signatures, especially those ones that need to be witnessed.

The fact that they're legal documents doesn't mean they can't be electronically signed. It's interesting to know that your conveyancer wouldn't accept the electronic signatures though. Hopefully mine will. They do the ID check via MS teams so hopefully that's a good sign.

https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/law/electronically-signed-deeds-are-legal-lord-chancellor-confirms/5103306.article

davidmcn

You still haven't told us what these "documents" are. Things like engagement letters are going to be different from actual deeds which are intended to be registered. If you're at early stages I guess it's more likely to be the former and therefore more formal requirements wouldn't apply.

bucksbloke

If you don't want to go to a Post Office - then you send Special Delivery via https://send.royalmail.com
It says that you need to take the item to a Post Office but I always put it in a postbox and it gets tracked once it gets to the sorting office. 

eddddy

FWIW, where wet signatures are required, my solicitors have always sent me a pdf by email so that I can start reviewing it asap, with a paper copy in the post for signing, witnessing and returning.

They discourage me printing out, signing and returning them - perhaps because they've had experience of clients using knackered printers, almost empty print cartridges, and Tesco value paper - but will agree if the timescale is tight.
 

However advice from Land Registry which was updated on 20 May:

HM Land Registry will, until further notice, accept for the purposes of registration a transfer and certain other deeds (see Deeds that can be Mercury signed) signed in accordance with option 1. The steps involved in option 1 where a transfer is involved are the following (and the same steps will apply similarly for other deeds):

STEP 1 - Final agreed copies of the transfer are emailed to each party by their conveyancer.
STEP 2 - Each party prints the signature page only.
STEP 3 - Each party signs the signature page in the physical presence of a witness.
STEP 4 - The witness signs the signature page.
STEP 5 - Each party sends a single email to their conveyancer to which are attached the final agreed copy of the transfer (see STEP 1) and a PDF/JPEG or other suitable copy of the signed signature page.
STEP 6 - The conveyancing transaction is completed.
STEP 7 - The conveyancer applies to register the disposition and includes with the application the final agreed copy of the transfer and the signed signature page or pages in the form of a single document.
STEP 8 - The application is processed by HM Land Registry following standard operating procedure.

The conveyancers involved will clearly need to agree to option 1 being used before the process starts.

Link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/execution-of-deeds/practice-guide-8-execution-of-deeds

And

Accordingly, HM Land Registry continues to require that the witness be actually present when the deed is signed, the witness then adding their signature. However, there is no reason why the witness and signatory cannot be separated by glass, so a signature could be witnessed by someone looking through a car or house window – if, of course, they were then able to see clearly the signatory signing.

But I've only skim-read the above - so I may have missed some key info!

Wkmg

davidmcn said:

You still haven't told us what these "documents" are. Things like engagement letters are going to be different from actual deeds which are intended to be registered. If you're at early stages I guess it's more likely to be the former and therefore more formal requirements wouldn't apply.

As my first sentence was "We just instructed..." I thought it would be clear I didn't mean the deeds but if you need me to be explicit, yes, it's just engagement forms and the like.

eddddy

Wkmg said:
As my first sentence was "We just instructed..." I thought it would be clear I didn't mean the deeds but if you need me to be explicit, yes, it's just engagement forms and the like.

In that case, in your position, I would

• fill-in the forms electronically and return them, confirming in your email that you want to proceed. (The pdf signature feature isn't important, it doesn't add any value.)

• And in the email I'd say something like "If you require the forms with original signatures, please send paper copies by post, and we'll sign and return them". 

As your 'other half' is jointly instructing, it's less likely that the solicitor would accept an email that's just from you.

Have you established how the solicitor is going to verify your ID? Often, a face to face visit to the solicitor's office with passport etc is the easiest way - but they might want to do things differently now.

Wkmg

Have you established how the solicitor is going to verify your ID? Often, a face to face visit to the solicitor's office with passport etc is the easiest way - but they might want to do things differently now.

They do it via MS teams. We scan and send them our documents then appear on web cam with said documents at the appointed time.