The Bills of Exchange Act deals with foreign exchange, cheques and bonds (called tradable instruments). This Act requires that these negotiable instruments be written and signed and that the ECTA expressly stipulate that they do not apply to these instruments. Further information on an ECTA AES requires that AESes be issued by a service provider accredited by the Department of Communications. In the opinion of the lead counsel and the JWP, a contract with an electronic signature (which can only exist in electronic form) fulfils a legal obligation in written form and/or signed and/or on hand for the following reasons. The leases are different. There is no legal obligation that they be written or signed. There are therefore two possibilities: however, some documents require a signature and a certificate, so that physical signatures and witnesses are required, for example for documents signed in the form of deeds with leases of more than 3 years and title deeds, etc. The wills law requires that be written, signed and certified. The ECTA requires that its provisions not apply to the execution, preservation and presentation of a will. In other words, signing a will electronically, even if it is an advanced electronic signature, does not constitute compliance with the Wills Act. It is now common for legal documents to be signed and transmitted electronically, but is this process legally beyond reproach? b) an « advanced electronic signature » meeting the following requirements: (i) it is clearly linked to the signatory – (ii) it is able to: Identify the signatory – (iii) it is created using electronic signature creation data that the signatory can obtain a high degree of confidence, use under its sole control, and – iv) it is linked to the data that is signed in such a way that each subsequent modification of the data is identifiable, and as a general rule, if a counterparty takes care of it, ask them to send the hardcopy version signed by regular mail.
Firstly, the signing of online contracts is a perfectly legal route, based on electronic signature in the Global and National Commerce Act 2000 (ESIGN) and the European Union eIDAS (EU-910/2014) with regard to electronic signatures and transfers. This means that signing leases online is a 100% legal, safe and simple method. In addition, electronic signatures are widely recognized around the world. In other words, many countries have already switched to this method because it is less painful than ink signatures. eSigning speeds up the entire deal making process! Yet many people would still be quite concerned about the adoption of documents signed in this way, especially if they come from the older generation — of course, the younger generations are much more accepting of new technologies and instant communication by email and text. Our general advice is, as far as possible, that all communication be identified as « according to the contract » and that the lease be signed and dated only when it begins and the keys are handed over. In this case, the lease can of course be signed simply on paper. If this happens, it is best to send a copy of the project lease in advance by email, as this makes the signing date much faster and easier, since tenants have already read the agreement in their own time and at its own pace. My landlord sent me a copy of our new rental agreement in the form of a PDF document via email. I will print it, start each page, then sign and date the last page, scan it and email it.