Tool 07 · Form requirements
Does this need a notary?
For companies and shareholders: what form a transaction needs in order to be valid at all — from a handshake to notarisation.
A form defect is the most expensive mistake and the easiest to avoid: a transaction lacking the prescribed form is as a rule void (§ 125 BGB) — however much both sides agreed. With share sales and side agreements this happens more often than one thinks. So ask before anyone signs: is an e-mail enough, does it need a signature, or a notary?
The levels. No form · text form (legible declaration, e-mail too, § 126b BGB) · written form (handwritten signature, § 126 BGB) · public certification (the notary certifies the signature, § 129 BGB) · notarial recording (the notary records the content, § 128 BGB). The higher level replaces the lower.
Not here: wills, marriage contracts and anything in family law. And form clauses in your own contract — such as „amendments only in writing" —, which apply in addition.
Choose the transaction. You see the form, what happens without it and whether a defect can still be cured.
Needed next: Transaction
Belongs to: Corporate & Transactions