Powers of Attorney

A Power of Attorney is a document where a person gives another person the power to do things and sign documents that the person giving the power of attorney would be entitled to do. A Power of Attorney is only valid while the donor is alive and can be revoked or cancelled at any time by the donor provided that the donor has the legal capacity to do so. This type of Power of Attorney is a general Power of Attorney and will cease to have effect if the donor loses his or her mental or physical capacity to give instructions to the attorney.

Other types of Powers of Attorney are:

• Enduring Power of Attorney. This is a permanent arrangement which will allow the attorney to do things and sign documents and make financial and legal decisions for you even though you lose your mental or physical capacity to give the attorney instructions. This can be revoked if you have capacity but because of permanent nature of the appointment you should that the person you appoint will be capable of looking after your affairs and is some one that you trust.

• Limited Power of Attorney. This is limited to certain events e.g signing all documents related to your sale of a property if you are going to be overseas at the time of the sale.

• Corporate Power of Attorney. This is where a company appoints one or more people to sign documents or do other things on behalf of the company.

If you’d like to know more, please contact Alexandra Tzavellas either by email atzavellas@harrisco.com.au or Telephone; (02) 9261 8533