Help centre · Documents and evidence
Are electronic signatures valid in Australia?
Last checked
For most documents, yes. Australian law has accepted electronic signatures since 1999, for contracts between businesses and between private people alike. A few kinds of document have their own signing rules, and those are the ones to check before you send.
What the Electronic Transactions Act requires
Under section 10 of the Electronic Transactions Act 1999 (Cth), when a Commonwealth law requires a signature, an electronic one counts if the method:
- identifies the person and shows their intention about what they are signing;
- is as reliable as is appropriate for the purpose, or is shown in fact to have done both of those things; and
- is one the person receiving the signature consents to. Consent can be inferred from conduct, such as sending the document back signed. If the signature goes to a Commonwealth agency, the method has to meet that agency’s requirements instead.
Each state and territory has its own Act on the same model, for signatures that its own laws require:
- New South Wales: Electronic Transactions Act 2000
- Victoria: Electronic Transactions (Victoria) Act 2000
- Queensland: Electronic Transactions (Queensland) Act 2001
- Western Australia: Electronic Transactions Act 2011
- South Australia: Electronic Communications Act 2000 (formerly the Electronic Transactions Act 2000)
- Tasmania: Electronic Transactions Act 2000
- Australian Capital Territory: Electronic Transactions Act 2001
- Northern Territory: Electronic Transactions (Northern Territory) Act 2000
Some laws are excluded from these Acts, which is where the exceptions below come from.
Most contracts need no signature at all to be binding: what matters is that the parties agreed. A signature is evidence of who agreed and to what, and the Acts also say a transaction is not invalid just because it happened electronically.
Companies
Since 2022 the Corporations Act lets a company sign any document electronically, deeds included, under section 110A. That covers signing under section 127 by two directors (or a director and the secretary), and directors signing a circulating resolution under section 248A. The directors can sign separate copies, by different methods. The Electronic Transactions Acts don’t apply here, so the other party’s consent to electronic signing isn’t needed.
Personal agreements and leases
An agreement between private people, such as a flatmate agreement, a loan between friends or a private sale, can generally be signed electronically: the Electronic Transactions Acts apply to private transactions as well as business ones.
Residential tenancy agreements can be signed electronically when both parties consent. The NSW standard form says so above its signature blocks, citing section 9 of the Electronic Transactions Act 2000 (NSW), and has no witness block. Signing the lease doesn’t lodge the bond: that goes to your state or territory bond authority.
Documents with their own rules
- Deeds signed by individuals: allowed electronically in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and, since January 2026, South Australia. NSW and SA still require a witness who is not a party. In Western Australia, Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory, sign a deed on paper in front of a witness.
- Wills: a will has to be signed and witnessed the way that state’s wills law requires, and signing on an e-signature platform doesn’t meet those rules. Victoria alone has a set procedure for signing and witnessing a will over video, with a lawyer or justice of the peace as a special witness.
- Powers of attorney, especially enduring ones: each state has its own form and witnessing rules, usually with a qualified witness such as a lawyer or JP. Most states don’t allow them to be signed on an e-signature platform.
- Statutory declarations: since 1 January 2024, a Commonwealth declaration can be signed electronically and witnessed in person or by video, or made through myGov with a Digital ID and no witness. State and territory declarations follow their own rules.
- Land: contracts for the sale of land can generally be signed electronically, but transfers and mortgages are lodged by a lawyer or conveyancer through an electronic lodgment network such as PEXA. That is mandatory for most dealings in NSW, Victoria, SA and WA.
- Court documents follow the rules of the court they are filed in.
These rules differ between states and have changed often in recent years, so check the date this summary was last checked, at the top.
What Refrendo records
The certificate and audit trail are the evidence a signature is judged on. Refrendo records how each person was identified, the exact consent wording they agreed to as they saw it, when they signed, and SHA-256 fingerprints of the original and the final PDF. Identification means control of the email address the request went to, plus an access code when the sender asks for one; a code sent to the email address of someone who started a public form; or a signed-in Refrendo session. It doesn’t mean checking identity documents.
This is general information, not legal advice. If a document is important or unusual, check with your lawyer before sending it for electronic signature.
Still stuck?
Email support@refrendo.com.au and a person will reply.