Witness Signatures on a General Tenancy Agreement

[SansProp]

My understanding has always been that signatories to a legal document (in this case a General Tenancy Agreement) could not sign as a witness.
Our PM tells us that it is legal if they sign as a witness to the tenant’s signature as well as sign as the PM.

Any legal eagles out there with some advice please?

 

[Dazz]

Who exactly are the parties in your contract ??

Usually the two parties to a Lease over a property are the Landlord and the Tenant.

Nope - didn't see a PM anywhere in that lot. Sales agents and PM's are never the principals in sales contracts & leasing contracts respectively. You as the landlord have authorised your PM under your Authorisation to Act form.

They give that impression, they act like they are, they talk like they are, they dress like they are, they whip out the paperwork like they are.....but when the nut-cutting starts, they always need to stand back and let the real players sign off on the deal.

Once again, the REA's revel to hoodwink the main players to the contract.

They have bugger all to do with the exact legal transacting of real estate, either sales or leasing.

They are handy to witness docs however, as they always hang around like spare pr1cks at a wedding.

Of course, way back when, there was only the Landlord and the Tenant....no need for anyone else. It only got hazy when the squirmy squirrels felt scared and needed an "expert" to hold their hand.....

I've never actually seen a contract however, and am not an eagle like you were looking for, so forget what I just wrote....it doesn't count.

 

[Collector]

In our office I sign the lease on behalf of the landlord (as per instructions in the agency agreement), the tenant signs, and then someone else in the office witness both the signatures.

I am with you - as a PM I would not risk it to sign as for the landlord and as a witness

 

[Perp]

My understanding has always been that signatories to a legal document (in this case a General Tenancy Agreement) could not sign as a witness.

I'm not a legal eagle, and I don't know if it would render the agreement invalid, but it's certainly not good practise.

Not only should the PM not witness, nobody in the PM's office should, because witnesses to signatures should be independent, ie unrelated to either party. All PM staff are related to one of the parties to the agreement (the landlord), and have an interest - albeit tiny - in the agreement, because the PM fees help pay their wages. Possibly if the sales and management functions were entirely separate, one of the sales staff may be considered sufficiently independent, but certainly nobody involved in property management should witness.

I couldn't find any examples of a lease being challenged on these grounds, but certainly credit contracts have been found to be void due to having a non-independent witness, and I should think the same principles apply to a lease.