Deed Poll

A deed poll (plural: deeds poll) is a legal document binding only to a single person or several persons acting jointly to express an active intention. It is, strictly speaking, not a contract because it binds only one party and expresses an intention instead of a promise.

The most common use is a name change through a deed of change of name (often referred to simply as a deed poll). Deeds poll are used for this purpose in countries including the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore. In the United Kingdom a deed poll can also be used to change a child's name, as long as everyone with parental responsibility for the child consents to it and the child himself does not object to it. The child's parents execute the deed poll on the child's behalf. In some other jurisdictions, a person may simply start using a new name without any formal legal process. The usual requirements are that the new name must be used exclusively and that the change was not made with intent to defraud. In Australia, name change was formerly accomplished by deed poll but now is done by completing a Change of Name form.

Another common use is to partition land into different sections. For example, a piece of land may be partitioned (or carved out) by a deed poll into Section A and the Remaining Portion thereof. This form of deed poll is commonly used in Hong Kong.