In our favorite American TV series, there is often an episode when a person pretending to be a courier or a bystander gives the hero a weighty package and informs him that he has received a summons. The hero's face changes: he understands that there is nowhere to go, he received a summons. Leo Messi, to tell Barcelona the bad news, used a special Spanish technology for delivering messages called "burofax" (in fact, having become interested in Leo's case, we decided to touch on this topic).
In Russia, there are also cases when it is necessary not only to send a document, but also to record the fact of its sending and receiving. For example, if you need to notify the employer of dismissal, inform the company about the termination of the contract, or send a claim to the manufacturer about the quality of the goods. In such cases, the law provides for the use of legally relevant messages.
You can find many myths about legally significant correspondence on the Internet - like “I will not open a letter with a summons, so I will not receive it, and nothing will happen to me” or “sending a registered letter electronically is unreliable”. In this article, we have collected answers to the most popular questions that relate to the exchange of legally significant messages in Russia, so that you know exactly why, when and how to use them correctly.
What are legally relevant messages
The Civil Code of the Russian Federation classifies different formats of information transfer as legally significant messages, but they all pursue one goal - to convey information that has legal weight. In other words, so that you can use this fact in court and convincingly prove that my counterparty did receive my message. Such messages perform two main functions: they serve as the basis for the appearance, change or termination of rights and obligations, and also determine the date of the onset of legal consequences.
What are they like?
There are many types of legally significant messages - lawyers have come up with and use a lot of different formats: statements, appeals, notifications, requirements, permits, and others. It is more correct to sort them according to the purposes for which they are used.
Informative messages notify about the change of requisites, general director, address, allow you to officially request information, statutory documents to verify the counterparty.
Regulatory messages are needed for the exchange of contracts, acts, additional agreements, as well as for notification of the termination of the contract.
There are legal messages: pre-trial claims related to default or poor quality of goods, as well as claims for payment of debts and the like.
It is important that these messages are both paper and electronic. Their main property is that the legal consequences most definitely occur at the time of delivery. The biggest myth is connected with this.
If I do not accept the letter from the postman or do not open it in my personal account, is it considered that I did not receive it?
If the postman came and did not find you, or you refused to receive it, a note is still put on the notice that you were notified. The same will happen if you choose not to open the email notification. But this alignment is not in your interests. Because in fact you did not read the letter, but from the point of view of the law, you are formally notified and begin to bear responsibility. Such a norm is established by the Civil Code. In paragraph 1 of Art. 165.1 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federationit is written that the shipment is considered delivered even in those cases when it was received by the addressee, but due to circumstances depending on him (this is important!), it was not delivered or he did not get acquainted with it. This means that if you indicated the wrong address, do not live where the letter came or do not pick it up at the branch, it is still considered that you received it. In summary: the addressee is responsible for receiving and not receiving legally significant messages.
Likewise, the court does not accept the broken mailbox argument. It is believed that the recipient himself has to worry about the safety of the boxes.
In order not to miss letters and notifications about them, you can enable electronic delivery in the Mail mobile application... To do this, go to the "More" section, select "Settings" there and turn on the slider in the "Gosmail" section.
This service helps out if you do not live at the place of registration or move frequently, but at the same time want to be aware of all important messages. After connecting, you will receive letters wherever you are and will be able to answer them from your personal account.
If the recipient does not enter his personal account to receive the EZP, then as soon as the storage period expires, the letter will be assigned the status "returned due to the expiration of the storage period." As with paper letters, this status means that the sender has notified you.
How to send legally relevant messages
Legal consequences for the recipient arise at the time of delivery, so it is
in the interests of the sender to convey the message in such a way as to obtain proof that the addressee has accepted it. If the case comes to litigation, then the most reliable confirmation of service will be written, rather than oral notice.
There are four ways to convey a legally relevant message.
The most reliable way is to send it by registered mail with acknowledgment of receipt. A registered letter can be sent both on paper and electronically (by the way, this is the only possible option for electronic interaction). In addition to it, there are three more ways to transfer documents on paper:
- hand over personally;
- deliver by courier;
- send by a valuable letter with an inventory and a receipt confirmation.
How to properly serve legally significant notices in person?
Obviously, you should not transfer documents "from hand to hand" without a signature. It will be impossible to prove such service in court. The signature must be obtained on the second copy of the document: the mark must contain the name and initials of the recipient, signature, date of receipt and the text “document received”. It is only necessary to transmit the notice to the person to whom it is addressed, or to his authorized representative.
If a person does not want to accept the document and put a mark, then there are other ways to serve the notification. This will require two living witnesses. In their presence, you can leave one copy to the recipient and make a refusal mark on the sender's copy. In this case, you need to take the data from the witnesses - full name, place of registration, passport details, contact numbers and ask them to sign under the refusal mark.
If a legally significant message is delivered by a courier, then the same rules apply as for a personal transfer: it is important to record in writing either the fact of transfer or refusal to deliver.
This method does not guarantee that the court will accept the refusal mark as sufficient evidence, but the chances of this, subject to the rules of service, are high.
But nevertheless, sending a registered letter remains a more reliable way, since it is easier to fix the fact of sending through the Mail than to go personally to the second party and look for witnesses in case of refusal.
The task of a registered letter is to confirm that the addressee received an important document: an agreement, invoice, act or claim. Therefore, registered shipments have a tracking number for tracking and they are handed to the recipient personally under the signature or to a representative by proxy. If the addressee is not there, they will send him a notification that the letter is waiting in the mail. Unlike a regular letter, the moment the message is transmitted is the official evidence that the addressee has received information from the sender.
Here we have already talked about what a certified letter is and how it works, and now we will discuss in detail the aspect of legal significance.
How to capture the content of a paper letter?
To prevent the recipient from telling them that you sent them blank sheets of paper instead of an important document, you can create an inventory of the content. But you cannot send a certified letter with a list of attachments, so a valuable letter is drawn up to confirm the content. Valuable and registered letters are similar - they have a track number and are handed over personally to the addressee's hands with signature.
To draw up a valuable letter with an inventory, take a free form form 107 from the post office or fill it out in your personal account on the website pochta.ru .
You need to enter a list of documents, their number and declared value in it. For example “Pre-trial claim - 1 piece - 100 rubles”. For documents without evaluation, a dash is put in the "Declared value" column.
Fill out the form carefully - you cannot correct anything in it. Take your documents with you in duplicate - you will send the first one, and the second one will remain with you. Give the letter with papers to the employee of the department in an open form. He will check the contents of the envelope with what is indicated on the form and sign and seal.
How to send a certified letter
When sending via Mail, you can choose the type of shipment - on paper or electronically, through the service of Electronic registered letters .
When filling out a paper registered letter, the Post employee will issue a receipt with a unique tracking number and an imprint of a calendar stamp confirming the date the documents were sent.
When you send a registered email, the sender - a government agency, company, or individual - uploads the letters electronically into the postal system . If the recipient has e-delivery enabled, we will send him the message online, and if not, we will print it in hybrid printing centers and deliver it on paper.
Will my letter be read in the printing shop?
No. The confidentiality of correspondence is ensured by both printing technologies and internal rules. The process of printing and packaging registered emails is designed so that a person does not have access to the content. Printing and converting in hybrid printing centers are automated. And for the employees of the shop, the labor contract stipulates criminal liability for access to the contents of the letter.
How to start receiving and sending registered letters in electronic form?
By default, registered letters and notifications about them arrive in the mailbox. But you can connect electronic receipt, and then registered letters will appear in your personal account zakaznoe.pochta.ru , in the mobile application of the Russian Post and on State services.
To start receiving emails electronically, register at zakaznoe.pochta.ru , enable email delivery in the settings and specify where letters can be sent to you: registration, residence and work addresses. In addition to the current ones, indicate the past addresses. If some sender has your old address in the database, the letter will still reach you.
After connecting, messages will begin to arrive and are stored electronically in your personal account, where they can be read at any time. Through the EZP, it is already possible to receive fines from the traffic police, decisions from the Federal Bailiff Service, summons from justices of the peace and other departments.
Alerts about new registered letters can be received by e-mail, SMS and via push notifications. To do this, enter your mobile phone number and email in the settings of your personal account.
Electronic receipt can be turned off at any time, and then registered letters will again arrive on paper. Connecting to the service and receiving letters is free. Sending one registered email costs 64 rubles 80 kopecks.
To send an electronic registered letter from your personal account zakaznoe.pochta.ru you need to follow these steps:
- Log in to your personal account zakaznoe.pochta.ru after authorization.
- Click on the "New letter" button and choose who to send it to - an organization or an individual.
- Fill in the full name or name / TIN / PSRN, if the letter is addressed to the organization.
- Enter the address of the recipient and the sender.
- Attach a PDF file of no more than 5 pages, weighing up to 1 MB. The file can contain both text and images or photographs.
- Click "Pay and Send".
Is it possible to send a legally significant letter other than the Russian Post?
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A letter sent in electronic form through the EZP service is saved in the archive in pdf format, where it can always be found, viewed and, if necessary, printed to confirm the content.
Also, registered emails are signed with an enhanced qualified signature, which acts as a guarantee that nothing has been changed in them and that the message was created by the person who sent it.
Such letters are sent through secure data transmission channels in accordance with the requirement of the Federal Law "On Personal Data" . The Russian Post is responsible for the confidentiality of correspondence in accordance with Article 63 on the secrecy of communications of the Federal Law ( 126-FZ ). Clients receive a notification of the letter on the site and in the way they chose when connecting.
?
The shelf life of a paper registered letter in the Russian Post is 30 days. The countdown starts from the next working day after his arrival. When the deadline expires, the letter is returned to the sender, who pays the cost of this postage. If the sender also does not take the envelope within 30 days, then the letter is sent for temporary storage and destroyed after 6 months.
If the postal item arrived at the post office on October 1, then the storage period will start counting from October 2 (provided that this day in a particular office is a worker), and will end on October 31. The letter will be sent back on November 1.
The addressee can extend the shelf life of a registered letter up to 60 days. To do this, you need to write an application in free form or on a special order application form, which is issued by mail.
An electronic registered letter is stored in the archive of the personal account zakaznoe.pochta.ru indefinitely. But there are deadlines for the delivery of an e-mail: for a regular one - 30 days, for judicial and administrative - 7 days.
How is the fact of delivery of the letter confirmed?
For confirmation of delivery, paper registered letters have the statuses “delivered for delivery to the department” and “delivered”. In the electronic system, they correspond to the statuses “delivered for delivery electronically” and “delivered”.
After switching to electronic delivery, a personal account on the website zakaznoe.pochta.ru or in a mobile application becomes an analogue of a mailbox. Therefore, for e-mail messages, the delivery mark is put down at the moment when the user enters his personal account.
What to do if a certified letter is lost?
In general, letters are lost incredibly rarely. To exclude the human factor from the exchange of legally significant letters, it is better to send them through the EZP service. Then the letter will definitely not be lost due to problems like an opened mailbox. Well, if you sent a certified letter on paper and it got lost, you should write a request for search or a claim for an undelivered letter.
What if the recipient does not want to accept a registered email but requires a paper one?
EZP are part of written correspondence - that is, they exist in the legal field on a par with ordinary paper and registered letters. This is confirmed by Chapter 6 of the Rules for the provision of postal services, approved by order of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of Russia dated July 31, 2014 No. 234. Clause 10 .
But there is a nuance - if written communication is stipulated in the contract and certainly on paper, with a live signature and a seal, then the recipient has the right not to accept the letter in electronic format, even when it is a completely legal EZP.
How the exchange of legally significant emails for B2B works
If you need to send a lot of letters to clients, it is enough to upload a file with a message to your personal account once, and Mail will take care of sending. For those who receive letters electronically, they will come to their personal account, and we will print the paper ones, pack them and deliver them live. Large legal entities are already connecting their information systems to the EZP service and sending letters in electronic format, because this significantly saves the delivery budget.
A business can not only send letters electronically, but also receive them. For example, large companies associated with logistics and auto business receive thousands of letters from the traffic police every day. Imagine all this in paper form - printing, delivery, each envelope needs to be opened and the data entered into your system. And thanks to the integration with EZP, such a volume of letters is received and processed in electronic form, which is much easier and more convenient.
And what should legal entities do if their legal and actual addresses are different?
Better, of course, that they match. But if the addresses are still different, and the letters come to a legal address, where you usually do not happen, then you should insure yourself with special rules in the contract: first, indicate that all official correspondence should be sent only to a specific address (postal), second, add e-mail to the address block for such correspondence.
Is email correspondence legally binding?
In order for e-mail to be recognized as a legal channel for exchanging documents with legal force, several prerequisites must be met.
It is necessary to directly describe in the contract that you correspond by e-mail, and indicate the address in the contract. Of course, this rule will have to be followed. When a certain email is specified in the contract, it is impossible not only to send documents to some other address (even in the same corporate domain), but also to use other electronic means of communication not provided for by the contract. If the address of the secretary is specified in the contract, and you sent requests or invoices to the director's email or whatsapp, then the court does not recognize such messages as legally significant.
When email correspondence is written into the contract, the arbitration courts can be loyal to it. In judicial practice, many cases have already been described when the court recognized the legality of the exchange of documents by e-mail.
How is a registered email different from an email?
To use email for business correspondence, you must first agree about this with partners. But it is permissible to send registered e-mails of "Russian Post" without approval: they are always legally significant and you can safely refer to them in business and legal disputes. Correspondence through the service of electronic registered letters, unlike e-mail, works on the basis of legislative acts specifically regulating such a postal service, therefore it is more reliable than regular email.
In addition, EZP implies the presence of a third party - Mail, which confirms the fact of sending and receiving. In the case of an email, the recipient may say that he did not receive anything and you will not be able to prove otherwise. And if you hire a notary and confirm the fact of sending, it will be difficult to provide the court with evidence that the letter was delivered to someone else's email inbox.
So, the priority still remains with the traditional mailings. This means that for business correspondence, it is better to insure yourself and correctly formulate the provisions of the agreement on how and where you will send notifications, including by e-mail.
Outcome
The volume of paper correspondence is gradually decreasing, in 2019 it fell by 3%. This is due to the fact that senders switch to other, more convenient communication channels for them - to e-mail, to State services. We see this trend and that's why we created zakaznoe.pochta.ru - a convenient email communication tool that speeds up the exchange of letters, reduces sending costs and is a more reliable and reliable source in case of disputes.
With a total of 450 million letter post per year, registered emails accounted for 73 million in 2019, and we expect an increase to 110 million in 2020.
With EZP, the sender has new advantages - simplified letter design, long-term storage, access to the archive. And today only this format meets the legal requirements that apply to legally significant paper shipments.
The EZP service has already covered almost all of Russia - 80 regions are connected to it and only 5 are left for full coverage. Now we are working on the friendliness of the service - we want to make it simpler, increase the volume of sent files, we are working to ensure that users receive letters where they conveniently. For example, by the end of 2020, registered letters will appear in Sberbank Online.
We also plan to increase the coverage of EWP so that more clients, senders and recipients, especially government agencies, connect to the service. This will allow people to more easily exchange letters not only with each other, but also with the FIU, tax, traffic police and other services.