I have rented a room in a house with multiple occupancy for

I have rented a room in a house with multiple occupancy for the last 6 years. In March of this year our Landlord sold the property with all of us as sitting tenants and the new Landlord appointed an agent to handle her affairs as she is often abroad. Since the changeover, we have spent the last months trying to agree the terms and conditions of the new AST. The agents had inserted all sorts of clauses (eg a referencing fee of £400 for each of us!). We finally had a meeting with all of the tenants, the Landlord and the agents where we agreed the terms of the AST (fingers crossed) )incidently: re the referencing fee: the landlord managed to get the agents to delete that clause by saying that she did not feel that we needed to be referenced since we had been in occupation for many years without a problem).
However, the agents are still insisting that we MUST sign the AST online despite the fact that we agreed at the meeting that we all wanted to sign a hard copy of the AST. The agents are completely inept with an aggressive attitude and have continued to email us an incorrect contract, on a daily basis even though we agreed the terms at our meeting.
My question today is "do we HAVE to sign online or do we have a choice?" I have looked this up on the internet and can only find reference to something to do with "deeds" which dates back to the 1920's and in fact says that online signing, although now widespread does not constitute a "deed" and the law on this needs to be updated but hasn't been so far.
Since the agent is only a 5 minute walk from the house there is no need for online signing.
Can you clarify the online signing issue please?
Regards
Dee