Have you ever heard about the Power of Attorney (PoA)?
Once you have chosen the perfect home for you, maybe through virtual tours and video conference calls with your real estate agent or directly with the vendor, you can also purchase it from abroad through the PoA.
It can be issued for many matters, such as buy or sell properties, inheritance, to establish a new company etc. and in any case you can’t travel to Italy and needs a legal representative who manages dealings on your behalf in the bel paese. It allows you to simplify and accelerate the entire purchasing process.
It is a document that is legally binding and through which a person gives another one the right to act on his/her behalf for the stipulated task(s) or responsibility(s) that are outlined within the PoA for one or more affairs. So it should be granted to a person who you trust or an Italian attorney to represent you for the formalities required by the Italian law during the purchase of a property in Italy.
Two types of PoA
There are two different kinds of PoA depending on what power(s) you want to give to your representative in Italy:
- General Power of Attorney: it gives broad powers to the person you chose to act on your behalf, enabling he or she to handle every aspect of the purchasing processmand not only this single affair.
- Special Power of Attorney: it allows you to limit the PoA to a specific need(s). This is the case in which you only need someone to sign a specific document such as the Final Deed, open a bank account for example or to take out a mortgage for example and cannot be present.
Both the general and the special PoA expire at the death or mental incapacity of the person who issued it, or in case of conflict of interest with the representative. In any case, the buyer can also decide to assign an expiry date to the PoA or to revoke it whenever he wants.
How do you get a Power of Attorney?
We’ve asked Manlio Gervasi – attorney at c_legal, a law firm specialized in real estate and administrative law – and he said that the PoA can be issued abroad.
“You can sign it in the country where the buyer resides or is located. In any case, the procedure can vary from one country to another and it also depends on if the specific nation takes part or not in International treaties or other bilateral treaties with Italy.”
“The PoA is in the language of the buyer” – continues Manlio Gervasi – “When we discuss the needs of the clients by phone, and we chose the correct procedure in consideration of their location, we issue the International PoA with all the information here in Italy. Then we send it via email to the clients so they can sign it with the presence of a notary. Once the procedure abroad is completed accordingly to our indication with Apostille or legalization through Italian Consulate, they send it back to us through a courier with the original signatures and we carry out the necessary steps to provide legal effect here in Italy. The entire process can take from 2/4 weeks up to 4/6 weeks.”
Do you think this is not possible? Many overseas buyers have already done this in this time of uncertainty. They have found their perfect Italian retreat and closed the deal with the help of the real estate agencies advertising their properties for sale on Gate-away.com.
