E-signatures for architects and surveyors

The short answer

Yes, a client can sign a fee proposal online. Save the fee proposal, appointment letter or terms of engagement as a PDF, upload it to Pixasign, put a signature box where the client signs, and send it. The client opens an email, reads it on their phone and signs with a finger. No app, no account, no password.

When the last person signs, the whole file is sealed. You get the signed PDF and an evidence certificate: who signed, when, from what device, and from what approximate location. It is free for 3 documents a month, with no card. You send from your computer.

What a practice gets signed

• Architects. The fee proposal and the appointment. The client’s sign-off at the end of a design stage. Each change to the scope, and the fee that goes with it.
• Building and other surveyors. The instruction and the terms of engagement, before the inspection. The client’s go-ahead for extra work before you instruct anyone.
• Structural and other engineers. The fee letter for the calculations. Then the extra visit or the redesign, when the wall is opened and something else is found.

Each is a PDF with a client’s agreement on it. If you can save it as a PDF, or photograph the paper copy, it can be sent for signature.

The arguments usually start in three places: an appointment that began on a phone call, scope that grew in meetings, and a sign-off where nobody is sure whether the client meant Rev B or Rev C.

Get a fee proposal signed online

You keep writing the proposal the way you do now. Pixasign gets the yes.

1. Write a proposal somebody can say yes to. What you will do, what you will not, the stages, the fee and whether it includes VAT, how expenses are charged, how extra work is priced, and how long the offer stands.
2. Save it as a PDF. Word and Excel both do it from Save As. Or photograph a paper copy.
3. Upload it. Put the signature and date boxes where the client signs, and type their name and email address.
4. Send it. The client signs on whatever device they have.
5. Keep the sealed PDF and its evidence certificate. Download them whenever you like.

A signature proves the client agreed to the document in front of them. If the document is vague, the signature is worth less. So spell out the scope, then get it signed.

Terms of engagement for a survey

Get the terms agreed before you visit. Put them in the same PDF as the instruction letter, so the client signs the scope, the fee and the terms together. A signed cover page that points to terms in another file leaves room to argue about which terms.

One document can have up to 20 people signing it, however many pages it has. A couple instructing you together each get their own private link and fields. You can set a signing order, or turn it off and send to everyone at once, which is usually faster.

Each person is recorded separately on the evidence certificate: when their link was opened, when they signed, from what IP address and approximate location, and on what device. Clients never pay and never need an account.

Sign-off for drawings and design stages

Sign-off is a question about versions as much as signatures. Which drawings did the client approve?

• Put the revision on the sheet. Letter and date, in the title block.
• Send the sheets as one PDF with a front page saying what is approved: the stage, the revision, the sheets.
• Get the signature on that PDF, not on a note that refers to a folder.
• Send each new revision as a new document.

A sign-off records what the client accepted. It does not say the design is right, and it says nothing about planning or building regulations.

Variations and changes

The original fee is rarely where the argument is. It is the second scheme, the redesign, the extra site visit. Write each change as a short note of its own: what changes, what it costs, what it does to the programme. Send it before you do the work.

Each note counts as one document. Our guide to getting a quote signed online covers the same habit for trades. The page for tradespeople and builders shows the contractor’s side.

What you are left holding afterwards

A sealed PDF, and the evidence certificate that comes with it. The seal carries a timestamp from DigiCert, an independent timestamp authority. It is applied once, after the last signature, and that time does not come from us. The time of each earlier step is recorded by our server. The events on the certificate are hash-chained.

The seal and its timestamp are inside the PDF. Anyone can check a document free at pixasign.co.uk/check: no account, no sign-in, no card. Anyone includes the client’s solicitor, or the practice that takes the job on after you. It tells you whether Pixasign sealed the file and whether it has changed since, and it decides that from Pixasign’s own records. See also our guide to electronic signature evidence in the UK.

What a signature does not do

• It does not fix a vague document. See the fee proposal checklist above.
• It does not answer to anyone else’s rules. Your professional body, insurer or solicitor may have views on what an appointment must contain. We make no claim about them.
• It is not a qualified electronic signature. Pixasign does not offer those. Our guide on simple, advanced and qualified signatures explains the levels.

Deeds and witnessing are out

Deeds are out. Where a deed has to be witnessed, the Law Commission’s 2019 report concluded that the witness must be physically present, even where the signatures are electronic. Pixasign does not do witnessing. So if a collateral warranty, an appointment or anything else is to be executed as a deed, or needs a witness, do not use Pixasign for it.

Whether a document must be a deed, or carries any other formality, is a question for whoever drafts it, not for a software supplier. Notices that must be served on someone are a separate question from signing. See also: is an electronic signature legally binding in the UK?

If you already have a signature box

You may already have a way for clients to accept online, inside a booking system or an accounts package. If it suits you, use it. Three things are worth checking about it.

• Can you download the signed file and keep it, or does it only exist inside the system?
• Does it record when the client signed, and from what device?
• Could somebody else check that the file has not changed since it was signed?

If the answer to the last one is no, it is harder to show later that the file is the one they signed. That is the gap a sealed document fills, for the fee letter, sign-off or change you write yourself. Our guide to signing a PDF online in the UK goes through the options.

What it costs

Pixasign is free for 1 user and 3 documents a month, with no card, and no time limit. Paid plans are one flat monthly price with unlimited users: £19 a month inc VAT for 50 documents, £59 inc VAT for 200 and £99 inc VAT for 500. Unlimited users means no charge per user: an account starts with room for 200 active people, and we raise that free on request. No overage, no set-up fee.

It is monthly, with no minimum term. The director, the technologist and the office manager can all send. We compare the two ways of charging in per-user against flat-fee pricing.

Your own account needs two-factor sign-in with an authenticator app. Documents are stored in Nuremberg, Germany, with backups in Reykjavík, Iceland, both in the EEA. Card payments are handled by Stripe.

Questions

Can a client sign a fee proposal online?

Yes. Save the proposal as a PDF, upload it, place a signature box and send it. The client gets an email, opens the link on a phone or computer and signs, with no app and no account. You get the sealed PDF and an evidence certificate.

Can I get terms of engagement signed before a survey?

Yes. Put the terms in the same PDF as your instruction letter and send it before you visit. Add each client as a signer, and each gets their own private link. What the terms must say is a question for whoever drafts them.

Is an electronically signed appointment legally binding?

The Law Commission’s 2019 report, Electronic execution of documents, concluded that an electronic signature is capable of being used to execute a document where the signer intends to authenticate it and any formalities for that document are met. Section 7 of the Electronic Communications Act 2000 makes an electronic signature admissible in evidence on whether a communication is authentic. Deeds are different and are out here. This is not legal advice.

Can the client sign off a particular drawing revision?

They can sign a PDF that contains that revision. Send each new revision as its own document, and the sealed file is the exact set they approved. Change a byte the seal covers and it breaks; anything added later shows as a change at pixasign.co.uk/check.

What happens to our signed documents if we stop paying?

Nothing is deleted. The plan runs to the end of the month you paid for, then the account goes back to Free: 3 documents a month, and everything already signed stays there to open and download. Downloaded copies keep their seal and timestamp, which are inside the PDF.