A Power of Attorney form is used to allow someone to act on your behalf as if you had done the act yourself. You can choose or nominate a person to do this for you, for either general or for specific acts. Commonly, it is used to deal with real estate, financial affairs and assets but can be given for something very specific such as buying a used car.
There are many instances when a power of attorney form is used. Frequently, they are used when a person goes overseas and needs to have some sort of transaction or act completed or done on their behalf while they are away, whether the transaction is buying a car or whether it is more general such as looking after one’s affairs for them.
Another situation where creating a power of attorney can be particularly useful is when you want to make a purchase in a place that you cannot be and you get someone else to make the purchase in your name, you can give authority to that person to complete a specific task or purchase for you. Another very common situation is when a person becomes ill and cannot leave the hospital, they will assign their authority to someone else to pay bills and take care of other matters while they are sick and unable to do so themselves.
More general uses of a Power of Attorney
While the above are typical situations where a power of attorney is used, and while there is actually no requirement for a person who is ill, incapacitated or out of the country to have one, it may be given and the authority granted at any time and it is a good measure to have in place to assist your everyday life, particularly if you travel frequently.
The power to act on your behalf can also be given for simple matters, such as picking up your mail when you are away or paying bills for you, and the authority can be given to anyone that is at least 18 years old but should be someone who is trustworthy.
In most cases, as illustrated above, a power of attorney is created for a specific purpose or duration. The scope can be as broad or as narrow as the person giving the authority would like. The power given to the nominated person can be extinguished in a number of ways: once the act that they have power to do is carried out or the power or authority to act will be extinguished on a certain nominated date. Lastly, it may be extinguished if the person assigning the power, revokes it. Overall it can be quite useful in many situations and make everyday life easier and more productive.
We’ve written an extremely easy-to-use Power of Attorney Form. It has a minimal number of inputs, is written in plain English with no legal jargon and comes as an easy PDF form. Get the Legal123:
