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What makes a written agreement legally sound

  • 20-09-2019 11:08pm
    #1
    Calltocall
    Registered Users Posts: 340 ✭✭


    Take this scenario, a written agreement is drawn up and signed by two parties, not witnessed by anyone just signed by the parties involved, the agreement refers to a repayment of money over a number of years, if one of the parties passes away would the agreement stand up in court even though it was not witnessed or drafted by a Solicitor. If it wouldn’t stand up in court what would need to be done when drawing up such an agreement to make it legally sound?


Comments

  • #2
    Victor
    Registered Users Posts: 78,239 ✭✭✭✭Victor


    An obvious issue here is 'consideration', usually money. If the amount of money is serious, then involving a solicitor to draw up something and a second solicitor to advise the other party might be useful.

    Note that there could be tax issues involved, even if no interest is charged.


  • #3
    Calltocall
    Registered Users Posts: 340 ✭✭Calltocall


    Victor wrote: »
    An obvious issue here is 'consideration', usually money. If the amount of money is serious, then involving a solicitor to draw up something and a second solicitor to advise the other party might be useful.

    Note that there could be tax issues involved, even if no interest is charged.

    Thanks for reply, I should have been clearer in my question and taxation issues aside, the crux of it is if an agreement was made between two parties, written and drawn up and signed by the two parties alone without a Solicitor would this agreement then stand up as legitimate/legally sound if later it was produced in court and one of the parties was at that stage deceased?

    Can a home made written agreement be deemed as valid by a court if it was not witnessed by a third party or drawn up by a Solicitor?


  • #4
    drunkmonkey
    Registered Users Posts: 28,086 ✭✭✭✭drunkmonkey


    Just at a pratical level what's to say the dead man hadn't already paid you back, he's not around and I doubt he's next of kin will just take your word for it that it wasn't paid back.
    I'm not qualified to say it wouldn't stand up but I can't see how it could.
    I wouldn't be inclined to lend anyone money your not prepared to lose.


  • #5
    Samuel T. Cogley
    Registered Users Posts: 10,684 ✭✭✭✭Samuel T. Cogley


    Calltocall wrote: »
    Can a home made written agreement be deemed as valid by a court if it was not witnessed by a third party or drawn up by a Solicitor?


    Absolutely and it's also an utter myth that verbal agreements are worthless. However there may be issues with the debt surviving the debtor's death.


  • #6
    Peregrinus
    Registered Users Posts: 26,047 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    With very limited exceptions, binding contracts don't even have to be in writing, never mind drawn up by solicitors or formally witnessed. So, as STC says, there is no reason why the agreement described in the OP wouldn't stand up in court.

    But of course we're not told what it says; just that it deals with "repayment of money over a number of years". We don't know who the parties to the agreement are, we don't know who is paying money to who, we don't know why money is being paid, we don't know what exactly the agreement says about payment, whether it contains any acknowledgement of indebtedness, whether it includes a promise to pay (as opposed to simply referring to payments that one or both parties expect will or might be paid), etc, etc. And as others have pointed out the fact that one of the parties has died may complicate matters further, not least because in so far as the written agreement is vague, ambiguous or incomplete he's not around to say what he understood by it at the time he signed it.

    What needs to be done when drawing up such an agreement to make it legally sound? Think it through. Say what needs to be said. Do not say what does not need to be said. Say explicitly what is to happen in all the eventualities that might arise.

    This is why people go to lawyers - not because the involvement of a lawyer turns an agreement into a magic Harry-Potter-like incantation which will produce results, but because lawyers are trained and experienced in thinking things through, and in getting down on paper what needs to be got down on paper.


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