Stamps, seals and notaries — arranged at cost, and never faked
Some agreements need more than signatures before a court will look at them. The formality is declared on the agreement and has to be satisfied before it is sent or sealed. Arrange it yourself for free, or have a person at Rutba arrange it at cost.
· 2 min read
Signatures are not always enough. In many jurisdictions a certain kind of agreement needs stamp duty paid before it can be relied on in court, a company seal, or a notary’s certificate. Most signature software leaves that entirely to you and says nothing — so a perfectly signed agreement turns out, two years later, to be unenforceable for want of a stamp nobody mentioned.
A formality is declared on the agreement
In Rutba Sign, a formality is part of the agreement rather than advice beside it. It is declared, and it carries a stage: some formalities must be satisfied before the agreement is sent, others before it is sealed. An agreement cannot pass its gate with a formality outstanding.
The guided documents already know which formalities their jurisdiction profile expects, so an agreement drafted there arrives with its formalities declared. An uploaded PDF can have them declared by hand.
Two ways to satisfy one
| Arrange it yourself | Ask Rutba to arrange it | |
|---|---|---|
| Who does it | You, with your own notary, registrar or stamp office | A person at Rutba books it with a notary or registrar |
| What you file | The reference, as proof | Nothing — the reference is filed for you |
| What it costs | Free | $9 handling, plus their fee at cost |
| When you know the price | Not applicable | Quoted before anything is committed |
Arranging it yourself is free because what you are filing is evidence, and evidence is not what we charge for. The reference goes on the agreement’s record, where a court or a counterparty can find it.
If you ask us to arrange it, the third party’s fee is passed through unmarked — we add a flat handling charge and nothing on top of the notary’s price. Rounding, where there is any, goes to you, as it does everywhere else we bill.
We arrange, we record the reference, and we put it where a court can find it. We never stamp anything ourselves.
What Rutba never does
Rutba never notarises a document and never affixes a stamp or a seal. We are not a notary, and a signature platform that generated something shaped like a notarial certificate would be manufacturing exactly the kind of evidence it exists to make trustworthy.
See where formalities sit in an agreement’s life
The eight stages, from the first draft to the renewal, on the Rutba Sign site.
How an agreement lives
