Can a Power of Attorney Be Used to Buy a Car?

Last updated: 18 June 2024

A Power of Attorney form can be used to grant a person permission to act on your behalf and can be as broad or as narrow as you wish. For example, it can grant the power to buy a car, a house or anything that a person wishes to purchase in their name.

Filling out a Power of Attorney form can be very useful when, for some reason, you cannot be present to make a purchase. Two common scenarios are when you have to go away for whatever reason, whether it’s a holiday or business trip, and need to finalize a purchase. You can still finalize the purchase by granting authority to another person to do it on your behalf. Other times, there may be a car or other item you would like to purchase in your name, but if you are out of state or out of the country, you can do this through someone else to whom you give authority to purchase that car on your behalf.

The scope of the power of attorney can be very specific or general. You need to be careful about limiting the authority: it should not be too limited, as it must allow the nominated person to carry out the required task problem free and limiting it may not permit them to do this.

Limits of a Power of Attorney …

Any person granted authority under a power of attorney does not need to have any type of qualification, with the exception of the requirement to be 18 years or older. This person can be anyone related or unrelated to you but should be someone trustworthy, and in most instances, this person will be a friend or a relative.

A power of attorney does not necessarily need to be created for a specific task, it can also be given for general purposes- for example to look after all property or financial affairs of a person. This typically occurs for reasons such as when you are going overseas, in the event you may be unable to look after your own affairs due to illness or simply not wanting to personally oversee certain of their own matters anymore.

There is no limit to the reasons or options for giving power of attorney to another person. This authority can be given, defined and revoked quite easily. In many instances, this authority will extinguish upon a certain task being carried out when the power is limited and confined to a certain act. In other instances, it will be extinguished by other actions, such as the person giving the power returning from a trip or a defined end date or by a defined event. In any event, they are always revocable at any time by the person granting the power.

About the Author: Vanessa Emilio

Vanessa Emilio (BA Hons, LLB, ACIS, AGIA) is the Founder and CEO of Legal123.com.au and Practice Director of Legal123 Pty Ltd. Vanessa is a qualified Australian lawyer with 20+ years experience in corporate, banking and trust law. Click for full bio of Vanessa Emilio or follow on LinkedIn.

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