Signing deeds as a witness remotely

[mymindisallaround]

Hi,

I have been asked by friends to add a signature to the mortgage deeds as witness and than scan and send the documents back to them. I refused and stated that I will only sign it if I see my friends to sign it in person. They stated that they will send it to someone else. My question is: Did the law change and it is acceptable to sign as a witness remotely? What would be the implications if I signed it as requested?

No, the law has not changed. Under the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989 a mortgage deed must be signed in the presence of a witness. You don't have to sign at the same time as your friends, nor do they have to see you sign it but you must be there when they sign it. However, there are unlikely to be any repercussions if you witness a signature without being present.

There is talk about remote witnessing for wills I believe but it hasn't happened yet and I don't know how it would work.

Agree with the above. Some law firms are doing this but the law hasn’t changed and the guidance which came out (was noted in the Lawyers Gazette but can’t remember which body) is that it should not be done except possibly in exceptional circumstances where no other possible solution.

Sorry missed your second question - agree no likely implications for you but might affect validity of will which surely they would like to avoid seeing as they are going to the bother of drawing it up.

Here is the updated guidance from the Law Society below. The Statutory Instrument allowing remote witnessing is due to come into effect in September and is proposed to be backdated for cover wills from September. So technically not in force and although stated may for whatever reason not come into force. Personally I would still say signing remotely is not ideal (but might be okay come September if the Government doesn’t change its mind.
Law Society Guidance:
The government has announced a change to allow video witnessing of wills. Under the current law (Wills Act 1837), it's not permitted to witness a will via video messaging as a witness must be physically present.

These changes will be made via new legislation in September and will allow for wills witnessed in such a way to be deemed legal, as long as the quality of the sound and video is sufficient to see and hear what is happening at the time. There will be no change to the requirement for two witnesses.

The measures will be backdated to 31 January 2020, the date of the first confirmed coronavirus case in the UK, and will be in force for two years, in line with other coronavirus legislation.

We received numerous queries from members about this issue and from the start of lockdown were in discussions with the Ministry of Justice about the best way forward in the current circumstances.

The SRA has also updated its guidance for solicitors who practice in this area following our discussions with them.

That's very timely that this question was asked and answered!

Note that the changes relate to wills. The OP's question was about mortgage deeds. I'm not aware of any changes relating to them.

My original question was about Mortgage deeds, but it is good to know about the will (just in case). Thank you all for the input and detailed information.