What is a Pow­er of At­tor­ney?

A Pow­er of At­tor­ney is a le­gal doc­u­ment by which one per­son gives to an­oth­er per­son the pow­er or au­thor­i­ty to per­form cer­tain acts on his or her be­half. The per­son giv­ing the pow­er is called the 'donor' and the per­son ap­point­ed is called the 'at­tor­ney' or 'donee'. The acts of the donee bind the donor with­in the scope of the pow­er giv­en.

Pur­pose

The main pur­pose of a Pow­er of At­tor­ney is to al­low some­one to car­ry on your busi­ness af­fairs when you are un­able to do so. For ex­am­ple, when some­one has to go over­seas and wants some­one to take care of their busi­ness or trans­ac­tions here, he or she may cre­ate a Pow­er of At­tor­ney for this pur­pose. Al­so, a per­son who is phys­i­cal­ly in­ca­pable of car­ry­ing out his or her du­ties or af­fairs may cre­ate a Pow­er of At­tor­ney for car­ry­ing out his gen­er­al af­fairs or for par­tic­u­lar mat­ters.

Gen­er­al Pow­er of At­tor­ney

A gen­er­al Pow­er of At­tor­ney may be cre­at­ed for the pur­pose of man­ag­ing the gen­er­al af­fairs of the donor and can in­clude many things such as with­draw­ing and de­posit­ing mon­ey from a bank ac­count be­long­ing to the donor, pay­ing bills and re­ceiv­ing mon­ey due to the donor. A gen­er­al Pow­er of At­tor­ney may al­so be cre­at­ed for the donee to deal with land be­long­ing to the donor.

Spe­cial Pow­er of At­tor­ney

A spe­cial Pow­er of At­tor­ney may be cre­at­ed to give the donee the lim­it­ed au­thor­i­ty to deal with a spe­cif­ic af­fair or mat­ter of the donor eg to al­low the donee to con­vey land or ac­cept a con­veyance of land on be­half of the donor.

Cre­ation

A Pow­er of At­tor­ney must con­tain, among oth­er things:

The name and par­tic­u­lars of the donor;

The na­ture of the donor's in­ter­est in the land (if the pow­er re­lates to land);

The ex­tent of the au­thor­i­ty which the donor is giv­ing; and

The iden­ti­ty of the donee.

It must be reg­is­tered in the Land Reg­istry and must be:

�2 signed by the donor and wit­nessed by at least one wit­ness giv­ing his or her name, ad­dress and oc­cu­pa­tion;

�2 ex­e­cut­ed by a lawyer (the lawyer ex­plains, signs it and the par­ties and wit­ness­es do so in the at­tor­ney's pres­ence);

A Pow­er of At­tor­ney done abroad can­not sim­ply be used here with­out first be­ing reg­is­tered.

Re­vo­ca­tion

A Pow­er of At­tor­ney may be re­voked or can­celled on the death, un­sound­ness or bank­rupt­cy of the donor. This may be done by a Deed reg­is­tered and stat­ed to re­voke the Pow­er of At­tor­ney or by an en­try in writ­ing made by the Reg­is­trar Gen­er­al on the reg­is­tered doc­u­ment in her of­fice.

Con­clu­sion

You should con­sult with a lawyer be­fore mak­ing a Pow­er of At­tor­ney since you must be care­ful about which pow­ers you are giv­ing to an­oth­er per­son, the cir­cum­stances in which you give that pow­er, and for how long. En­sure that you read the Pow­er of At­tor­ney care­ful­ly and that its terms are ex­plained to you.

�2 This col­umn is not le­gal ad­vice. If you have a le­gal prob­lem, you should con­sult a le­gal ad­vis­er. Co-or­di­na­tor: Roshan Ram­char­i­tar