Does wet ink still hold water in the sale of land?

When the Alienation of Land Act was passed in 1981, a signature meant a handwritten mark in ink. The Electronic Communications and Transactions Act later gave electronic signatures legal effect for many contracts. It did not do so for an agreement to alienate land. Schedule 1 of that Act, read with section 2(1) of the Alienation of Land Act, still takes a sale of immovable property outside the electronic regime.

The De Rebus article, written by Stefan Le Roux and Celine Bakker, sets out why that exception still matters in a practice that otherwise signs at a distance. A scanned manuscript signature has been treated, in at least one High Court, as a valid communication. An advanced electronic signature, by itself, has not replaced wet ink for the sale of land.

Until the statute moves, offers, addenda and deeds of sale of immovable property should be signed by hand. The conveyancing floor will not treat a typed signature as the Alienation of Land Act’s signature.