Witnessing a signature.

Mojisola

davidmcn said:

Slinky said:

A witness to a will, for example, cannot be a beneficiary 

I don't think that's strictly speaking true, but it is of course good advice not to use a beneficiary as a witness, in case it gives rise to questions about the circumstances of the Will's execution. 

A witness, or the spouse of a witness, cannot inherit through the will they have witnessed.

adamktek386

TBagpuss said:

I had something more financial in mind though Like others pointed out, I think I stressed myself too much unnecessarily... The question is still valid though!  

I think the take away is to check that you know what you are signing before you sign! 
Generally, if you are a witness, all you are doing is confirming that you saw them sign their name. You are not even confirming that you know that the person you saw sign is the same person as is named, although with a neighbour presumably you would be able to confirm that you knew Mr & Mrs Jones and that it was them whom you saw sign.

If asked in future, just check what it says where you sign - if it says 'signature of witness / name of witness' etc you are fine. If it says 'signature of guarantor' or anything other than 'witness' then obviously read further and decline if you are not sure!

You're right 100% I guess the question I originally had was the above, i.e. what if it was saying guarantor? I signed twice in the document but would this be valid? Don't guarantors have to be credit checked etc? That's what I was wondering all along

steampowered

It's very normal for legal documents to need witnessing.

There are some quite old fashioned legal rules which say that certain documents need to have someone "witness" the signatures. This was originally intended as an anti-fraud measure so that the witness could be contacted to be asked whether they observed the person signing if (for example) an allegation was made that the main signature was a forgery.

It doesn't mean you are a to the contract. The witness is just there just as a formality, to tick the box that a witness was present to observe the signature. Don't worry about it.

jonnygee2

Even if you had accidentally signed the contract somehow, it wouldn't mean anything. It would be trivially easy to demonstrate you intended to sign as a witness and your friends were the purchasers!

Bet hey ho then again maybe you'd get a free house :-D