LendRight is a Canada-built service for documenting family and friend loans: it drafts a province-aware agreement, both parties e-sign, and the final document is sealed with a SHA-256 fingerprint on a Certificate of Completion that anyone can verify later. Drafting is free — the $29 applies only when you finalize.
Most people lending money to family don't want a law firm, and they don't trust a random Word file they found online. They want the middle thing that's never quite existed: a clear agreement, built for where they actually live, that both people sign in minutes — and that holds up later because it's more than a piece of paper. That's what LendRight is. This page explains exactly what it does, how the signing and verification work under the hood, and why a sealed, independently checkable agreement protects you in ways a free template simply can't.
What LendRight actually is — and isn't
LendRight is document automation built for one job: documenting a personal loan between people who already know each other. You and the other person arrange the loan — the amount, the timing, whether there's interest — and LendRight turns that into a clear, signed, province-aware agreement. It isn't a marketplace, it doesn't move money, and it doesn't lend anything itself.
It's also, deliberately, not a law firm. Using it doesn't create a lawyer-client relationship and it isn't legal advice. What it gives you instead is the thing most ordinary loans actually need: a complete, correctly-built agreement, signed with proof, that you can rely on if memories ever drift or things go quiet. For a genuinely complex situation — security against a home, a business borrower, an estate or separation — a lawyer is the right call, and our 60-second lawyer check will tell you honestly when that's you.
How it works, start to finish
The whole flow is built so the lender can do everything alone, and the borrower never needs an account.
- 1. Answer plain questions. Who's lending, who's borrowing, how much, paid back how, any interest. No legal jargon, no blank "governing law" field to research — LendRight fills that in from your province.
- 2. Preview the full agreement, free. You see the complete document before paying anything. Drafting and previewing cost nothing.
- 3. Finalise and send one secure link. The flat $29 applies only when you choose to certify and sign. The agreement is sealed and a tokenised link goes to the borrower — no account, no app.
- 4. Both sign from their phones. Each person confirms they're signing electronically and that this is a loan, not a gift, then signs. Nothing is binding until both have signed.
- 5. Everyone gets the sealed record. The moment the second signature lands, the agreement locks, a Certificate of Completion is generated, and both the lender and borrower are emailed the final PDF and the certificate.
If you'd rather work out fair numbers first, the loan interest calculator shows monthly payments and total interest within Canada's legal limits before you draft.
The part most tools skip: proof you can verify
Here's the difference that doesn't show up on a pricing page. A downloaded template gives you a document. LendRight gives you a document plus the evidence around it — and that evidence is the whole point of writing a loan down in the first place. Three things make a LendRight agreement more than a PDF.
1. A SHA-256 seal on the exact document
When your final agreement is sealed, LendRight runs the exact bytes of that PDF through SHA-256, a standard cryptographic hash function. It produces a unique 64-character fingerprint of that precise file. Change a single character, comma, or pixel and the fingerprint changes completely — so the hash is a tamper-evident seal. That fingerprint is frozen at the moment of signing and recorded, so there is always one true, provable version of your agreement. No template hands you that.
2. A Certificate of Completion
The instant both people sign, LendRight automatically generates a separate Certificate of Completion — a branded PDF that is the audit trail for the signing. It records the agreement reference, the amount and governing law, and for each signer: the exact date and time they signed (in UTC), the IP address captured at signing, an honest verification line, and their e-signature and loan-not-gift consent. At the bottom it carries the agreement's full SHA-256 fingerprint and a QR code to the verification page. It's generated once and never edited — a fixed record of what happened.
3. Independent verification anyone can run
Every certificate points to verify.trylendright.com. Anyone holding the certificate — you, the other person, or a third party like a court or an accountant — can go there (or scan the QR code), enter the agreement reference number, and select the final signed agreement PDF from their device. The browser calculates the file's SHA-256 fingerprint locally — only the reference and fingerprint are sent, never the PDF itself — and an exact match means the selected file is byte-for-byte identical to the final agreement LendRight recorded. If even one character differs, it won't match. (If you don’t have the file, a weaker fallback lets you type the printed fingerprint instead, which checks the certificate record only.)
The verification page is designed to be safe to use and to give away nothing: it only ever deals with the reference and the hash — never names, emails, amounts, or terms — a successful check returns only non-personal facts, and the lookup is rate-limited and returns one identical "not verified" answer for any non-match, so reference numbers can't be guessed. The QR code encodes only the verify URL, so scanning it leaks nothing.
How both people end up with proof
This matters more than it sounds. When the agreement completes, LendRight emails both the lender and the borrower the sealed agreement and the Certificate of Completion together. The links are short-lived and signed rather than public URLs, so the documents stay private — but the result is that each party independently holds the same evidence. Nobody has to trust the other to "still have the copy." If a question ever arises, either person can produce an identical, verifiable record.
What this protects you against
Almost every family-loan dispute comes down to one of three things — and the seal-plus-certificate model answers each:
- "That wasn't the deal." The sealed PDF and its frozen fingerprint mean there's one provable version of the terms. An altered copy fails verification.
- "I thought it was a gift." Each signer explicitly consents that it's a loan, not a gift, and that consent is recorded on the certificate.
- "I don't have anything in writing." Both people hold a signed agreement plus a timestamped record of who signed, when, and how — the strongest evidence you can bring to small claims court.
LendRight vs. a free template, honestly
Free templates have a place. If you're confident adapting a document to Canadian law yourself and you just want a starting structure, a template can work. But for a loan between people you care about, the gaps are exactly where disputes live. Here's the straight comparison.
| Free template / form site | LendRight | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for Canada? | Usually US-built (state usury, "governing law… state of") | Canada-only, province-aware by default |
| Signing | Print & sign by hand, or unverified typed names | Both parties e-sign from their phones |
| Tamper-evidence | None — a Word file can be edited by anyone | SHA-256 seal on the exact final document |
| Record of signing | None | Certificate of Completion (who, when, how, consent) |
| Independent check | None | Public verification at verify.trylendright.com |
| Who holds proof | Whoever kept the file | Both parties emailed identical sealed copies |
| Cost | Free (but you do the legal homework) | Free to draft; flat $29 to finalise, no subscription |
For a fuller look at named providers, see our LawDepot vs NetLawman vs eForms vs LendRight comparison.
The honest summary: a template is a document. LendRight is a document plus the proof that makes it worth having. That proof — the seal, the certificate, and the public way to check both — is the part template sellers generally don't offer, and it's the reason an enforceable family loan stops being a matter of whose memory you believe.
Who LendRight is for
- A parent lending an adult child a down-payment top-up, tuition, or a car — wanting it clearly a loan, not a gift.
- Friends or siblings settling a few thousand dollars without it turning into a quiet standoff months later.
- Anyone in different cities who needs both signatures without printing, scanning, or mailing.
- People who want a record that survives — one that a court, an accountant, or the other person can independently confirm is genuine.
If your loan is secured against a home, involves a business borrower, or is tied to tax planning, an estate, or a separation, start with the lawyer check first — those are the cases where professional advice comes before any document.
Want the mechanics behind that seal? Our deep dive on document integrity and the SHA-256 seal shows exactly how the fingerprint is generated and how anyone can confirm a copy is genuine.
Write it down properly — and prove it
Free to draft, a flat $29 to finalise. Both people e-sign from their phones, the final document is sealed, and you both get a Certificate of Completion anyone can verify.
Create my family loan agreement →Still deciding whether the money is a gift or a loan?
Try the 60-second Gift-or-Loan tool →This article is general information, not legal or tax advice, and LendRight is not a law firm. LendRight provides self-help document automation and a verifiable signing record; it does not guarantee any agreement will be enforced by a court. For complex, secured, or high-value loans, confirm with a licensed lawyer in your province before acting.
We write plain-language guides on lending between family and friends in Canada, reviewed against current provincial and CRA rules. LendRight is not a law firm — this is general information, not legal advice.