You misplaced a contract, now what?
Picture it:
- You have misplaced an important contract.
- You’ve looked high and low.
- You’ve searched through every drive and cloud platform.
- You still can’t find it.
Now, what do you do? Is the contract still valid? How do I stop this from happening?
We’ll answer these questions and more.
Q1: “Should the other party provide you with a copy of the contract?”
You can always request a copy of a contract from the adjoining party. There is a formal process for how to do this. Here are step-by-step instructions on how to formally request a copy of a contract from the other party:
Step 1: Determine who (the name of the party) has the contract.
Step 2: Obtain the contact information of the other party.
Step 3: Choose your means of communication: email, phone, or letter.
Step 4: Include all of the necessary information within your request: names of all parties, the contract’s content, and specify that you want a signed copy.
Step 5: Explain why you are requesting a copy.
Step 6: Place your request.
Step 7: Track your request. You should receive a response within ten business days.
Step 8: Follow-up on your request.
NOTE: If you have not received a response within ten business delays, write a formal demand letter. The demand letter will need explicit instructions on how to meet your request and include a deadline. There should also be consequences in your letter regarding what will happen if your demand is not met.
If, after all this, you do not receive a response, you should seek legal counsel.
Q2: “Is the contract still valid even though I don’t have a copy?”
The misplaced contract makes it tougher to prove in court, but not impossible. If you have other means to verify the contract’s existence, this will hold up in the court of law.
Emails, text messages, invoices, memos, and other written materials can help prove the existence of the signed agreement.
You will also need to give oral testimony in court on the agreement.
Q3: “I lost the paper version of the contract. Is my numeric scan still valid?”
Yes, having a scanned version of the signed contract still binds the agreement as valid. Courts have time and again upheld such cases, such as the case Feldberg vs. Coxall, where the courts permitted written emails as proof to enforce a contractual agreement.
In today’s world of advanced technology, we must use scanned documents and e-signatures. For this reason, nearly all 50 states have laws and precedents in place that allow the use of scanned signatures on documents.
Q4: “How do I prevent losing contracts in the future?”
Creating and storing multiple copies of each contract is not a realistic solution. Instead, your business needs to invest in digital copies of every contract.
Keeping digital copies ensures contracts will never go missing and allows your team to extract contracts as needed.
It’s also important to consolidate the platforms in which your digital copies are stored. When you have multiple platforms, that’s when things fall through the cracks and ultimately defeats the purpose of preventing misplaced contracts altogether.
Zendoc is a contract automation platform that integrates into your existing platforms and can read even the poorest of scanned documents. Zendoc will securely store all of your documents in one central location for easy extraction. You’ll never misplace a contract again!
About Zendoc
Zendoc is a full-service AI-powered contract automation system that not only organizes all of your agreements into a single database but keeps you up-to-date on what you need to do to extract as much value from your contracts as possible. You don’t have to worry about forgetting your obligations because you don’t have to remember them in the first place.
We offer a 14-day free trial demo so you can experience relief from the pain of managing your contracts. Try us today!
