7634 Power of Attorney?

These question came through our support system - wondering if someone here can help.

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I wonder if you can help - I am being given conflicting information about Power of Attorney. My husband and I are in the process of buying a property in Italy and have completed Compromeso. In November, we are due to complete the purchase of the property but are being told in Italy that we need to have a Power of Attorney drawn up. The Notary I have spoken to in England says that as we plan to be there to complete the purchase, no Power of Attorney is necessary - please can you help.
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Category
Property Sales/Rental Advice

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 09/06/2007 - 09:37

As far as I know if you do not speak Italian well then even if you are there you need someone to act for you using the Power of Attorney to ensure that you fully understand the contract and all its details

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 09/06/2007 - 10:14

If you plan to be there, then all you need is a translator. Make sure you get a good one though and don't let the Notary rush the proccess. If you delegate Power of Attorney to someone, you are also ceding a lot of responsibility to them: for example, for noticing ommissions and errors in the deed of sale.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 09/06/2007 - 10:46

It is not compulsory to give power of attorney. There may be a special reason for your estate agent to ask for this, find out why they want it as they should explain exactly the reasons for this. And if you don’t know them that well and don’t have great trust in them don’t do it.
As Marc said translation is important, also try and get deed of sale translated to English so you fully understand what you’re buying

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 09/06/2007 - 10:59

marc is absolutely right and in fact this is one of those areas that leads to lots of problems and to my mind is one of the favoite scams used by unscrupulous selling people

[URL]http://www.italymag.co.uk/forums/property-sales-rental-advice/6828-just-read-some-blurb.html[/URL]

this is from a while back

however i was reading on another how to buy section of a site that the procura is also the way forward...

i find this exceedingly worrying because it allows for a final act to be signed that is different from the compromesso

it seems what these people are doing in many cases is getting people to sign the compromesso instead of a proposal but in reallity you should be signing neither of these in Italian and they are both powerful legal contracts

in fact most estate agents now get theres drawn up with the notary and they form an integral part of the sale reducing the notary costs at the final act stage... but the law still applies about being able to understand the contract and so therefore the compromesso needs a translator and should not be signed if only in italian... and you do not understand italian

we are doing a final act soon in Danish...we need two danish translators with italian as second language... one to translate and one to witness the act... much safer than giving the POA and i really do not understand why this POA situation is coming up so much these days ... unless in obvious cases where its not feasible to attend

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 09/06/2007 - 13:09

Regarding the translator.Is it acceptable to the notary for the buyer to bring along a fluent Italian speaker with no formal qualifications or must the person be a professional translator?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 09/06/2007 - 14:34

We have an Italian solicitor who is bi-lingual but we have also used a friend who is not formally qualified in anything but speaks both Italian and English who has done some of the translations for us which everyone has been fine about - I'm not sure though whether everyone is fine about it because we also have the solicitor. Certainly everyone was OK about him translating all the documentation (and he was a lot cheaper than using the solicitor to do all that!) but at the actual signing it was the solicitor who did all the translating of the formal processes.

I know having a solicitor is more expensive but to be honest for us it was worth it as she acts in our interests only and it's given us great peace of mind.

I'm not sure that's terribly helpful really ... the only time I have heard of power of attorney being used was for someone who needed to deal with the bank in her absence - but she used a trusted friend, so I would definitely say be wary of someone you don't know and trust being your power of attorney. If it's anything like the English role, it's a very powerful position.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 09/07/2007 - 02:25

a friend who speaks both languages is acceptable... the only difficulty is that the terms used are definitely of a legal complexiy beyond normal italian or english and the english version needs to be pretty exact in how it translates...

we have done translations in the past for clients as a first draft final act... and they do match up pretty closely but there is always some terms that do not come out right in english and i think that is the skill involved... its an interpretation of the meaning, which when put into english ahas the same legal significance... so our draughts if they have been required or there is time although not wrong when it comes to signing time are replaced by the more poffesional translation

the other problem is that a notary may well give you a final act before, although rarely, but he always reserves the right to change, often there are updates and reworking of the wording when he has all sellers and buyers present as bits and pieces are made clear... a good translator then has adapt their version... and often be able to use the PC in the office to draught it in the exact way...

however if you trust someone and they feel up to it ....the formal qualification is not required ...