A guarantee demand refers to an electronic signing you barely remember
Preserve electronic execution and document-version evidence for advice on a personal guarantee demand.
Corporate Recovery Partners
01 / 06
The signature page is familiar but incomplete
Imagine a director receives a supplier's personal guarantee demand with one electronically signed page attached. The director remembers opening a link years earlier but cannot recall the complete terms. Do not conclude that the demand is valid or invalid from that memory. Ask for the full document and take the demand promptly to a lawyer for review.
Moneysmart's loan-guarantee guidance stresses reading the contract and obtaining independent advice about the risks. A supplier guarantee needs assessment of its own terms and circumstances; the loan guide does not decide its enforceability. Use the same practical discipline of obtaining the actual documents rather than relying on a remembered form title or the creditor's description.
Search the email account used at the time for the invitation, completion message and attachments. Save the original messages where possible, including dates and sender details. Keep the downloaded file unchanged. If the link has expired, record that fact rather than attempting to reconstruct what was signed from the supplier's current online terms.
Ask the creditor for the executed document, referenced schedules and any available completion or audit record. Identify missing pages or mismatched version dates for the lawyer. Do not accuse anyone of alteration merely because the copy is incomplete. In the hypothetical example, the relevant question is what material formed part of the transaction and what the records show about it.
Write a factual note about who sent the link, what was discussed and who accessed the account, marking uncertainty clearly. Give the lawyer any evidence relevant to those facts. Do not alter a signature image or manufacture a replacement record. Questions about electronic execution, authority and the effect of missing information need proper assessment, not assumptions based on appearance.
Provide the documents already available to the lawyer while requesting the rest. Ask what response is necessary before further records arrive. CRP can help organise the commercial account behind the demand. The immediate aim is a reliable signing file and informed response, rather than delay caused by waiting for perfect recollection of an old online transaction.
