If an agreement (whether it be signed under hand or as a deed in counterpart) is completed and then subsequently lost in the post and never received by the other contracting party, would the rules against Backdating documents (Fraud Act 2006 & Theft Act 1968) preclude the signing party re-executing an IDENTICAL copy of the counterpart document again and dating it the same date as the original copy?

It is assumed that this query relates to a general commercial transaction between businesses and does not relate to real property.

Where a simple contract or deed has been validly executed, despite the physical contract being ‘lost’, the agreement, which the lost document evidences, remains in full force and effect between the parties—as such any purported replication of its terms or replacement contract must account for this.

The date of a contract is evidence as to when it was executed. It is important to distinguish between ‘backdating’ a contract (the practice of executing a contract but marking it with a date prior to its actual date of execution), and executing a contract with retrospective