Getting every co-owner to sign the mandate
How an estate agency gets a mandate e-signed by co-owners who live apart, in the right order and on time, and what the completion certificate records.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Real estate businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
The house belongs to a brother in Durban, a sister in Lagos and their mother, who still lives in it. All three agree to sell. The agent meets the mother, explains the mandate, and leaves it with her. Three weeks later, one signature is still missing, the brother has been "meaning to get to it", and a competing agency has already shown the house to a buyer.
Co-owned property is common: spouses, siblings who inherited, business partners, family trusts. Every owner whose consent the mandate needs must sign it, and the more owners there are and the further apart they live, the longer an ink signature takes. Electronic signing removes the distance. It does not remove the need to organise the process well.
Why one missing signature stalls a listing
A mandate signed by some of the owners is a weak foundation. The agency may market a property it is not properly authorised to sell, an unsigned owner may later object, and a buyer's offer can stall when the conveyancer finds that not everyone agreed. Agencies that wait for the last signature before marketing lose time; agencies that do not wait take on risk.
The answer is to make getting all the signatures quick and visible, so that the choice never arises.
Each co-owner as a signer on the envelope
In Achekam, any document can be sent for electronic signature. The agency places signature and initials fields on the mandate, adds each signer, and sends the envelope. It can send an uploaded PDF, a document composed from text blocks with merge fields, or a saved template. The signing console has no sidebar entry; it opens from the Sign button and the dashboard.
Set the envelope up so that every co-owner is a signer in their own right:
- one signer per owner, each with their own e-mail address;
- a signature field, and initials fields on each page if the agency's practice requires them, placed for each owner;
- copied recipients, such as the agent and the principal, added as copies rather than signers.
Avoid the shortcut of one owner signing "for" the others. If an owner cannot sign, find out why and get the proper authority, rather than accepting a signature from someone else.
Each signer signs from a link e-mailed to them, without an Achekam account. That matters for co-owners who live elsewhere; they need nothing but the e-mail and a device.
One step comes before sending: an envelope with a signer from outside the business must be linked to a client or a CRM lead. Set the sellers up as the agency's client or lead first, then build the envelope.
Signing in order or all at once
Envelopes can be sent to signers in order or all at once. Choose deliberately:
| Approach | When it suits |
|---|---|
| All at once | Owners are equal and independent; speed matters most |
| In order | One owner should review first, or the agency's principal should countersign after all owners |
For most family co-ownership, all at once is faster: nobody waits for anyone else. Signing in order suits cases where, say, the owner who negotiated with the agent should confirm the terms before the others are asked, or where the agency's principal signs last to accept the mandate.
Expiry dates and reminders
An envelope can carry an expiry and reminders. Signing links last 30 days by default.
Use both:
- set an expiry that matches how long the agency is prepared to wait before re-thinking the listing;
- keep reminders on, so the brother who is "meaning to get to it" receives a nudge without the agent having to send one;
- tell each owner by phone or message that the e-mail is coming and what it is, so it is not mistaken for spam.
If the expiry passes with signatures missing, do not simply resend. Phone the owner who has not signed, find out what is holding them back, and resolve it first.
What the completion certificate records
When everyone has signed, Achekam produces the signed PDF with a completion certificate. The certificate lists each signer's e-mail address, the times, their IP address and browser, and the document's fingerprint.
That record is what the agency relies on if a co-owner later says they never agreed. It shows who signed, when and from where, and the fingerprint shows the document they signed is the one on file.
Two points of care. First, the certificate always describes the signatures under South Africa's Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, whatever the workspace's country. Nigerian and Kenyan agencies should be aware of that wording and take advice on how their own law treats electronic signatures on mandates; the e-signature certificate by country discusses it further. Second, whether a particular document can be signed electronically at all is a legal question. The UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Signatures sets reliability criteria for treating electronic signatures as equivalent to handwritten ones, and many national laws build on it, but a mandate is not the same as a sale agreement, and agencies should know which of their documents need ink.
Filing the signed mandate with the property's documents
The signed PDF and the completion certificate are filed back into Documents. Document Centre is a folder-based store where the business uploads files or whole folders, previews, downloads, renames, moves, tags, archives and searches them, and a new version keeps the earlier ones.
Keep a folder per property, and file the mandate there with the title deed copy, the owners' identity documents and later the offer and correspondence. When a buyer's conveyancer asks for proof of the mandate, it is one search away, with its certificate beside it. Law firms use the same approach for their own mandates, described in e-signing a legal mandate.
Before the next co-owned listing, prepare a mandate template with signature fields for several owners, and agree with the principal the expiry and reminder settings the agency will use every time.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
