What to check before a party signs under a power of attorney
When a party to a deed or contract appoints an attorney to sign on their behalf, the pre-completion check shifts. Verifying the signatory's own ID is not enough. The power of attorney itself needs to be read and verified — and that review has a specific sequence.
The power of attorney is a standalone document
A power of attorney is not a supporting exhibit. It is the document that establishes whether this person has any authority to act at all, and within what limits. Before the matter proceeds, read it fully — not just the recitals at the opening and the execution clause at the end.
There are four things to verify, and the order matters.
1. Currency
The first question is whether the power of attorney is still in force at the date of the transaction. Some powers have a stated expiry date. Others are expressed to be indefinite but may have been revoked since they were granted. Revocation will not always appear on the face of the document.
What to check:
- Does the power have an expiry date? Has it already passed?
- Is there any indication that the power may have been revoked?
In some conveyancing practices, a statutory declaration of non-revocation is part of the standard completion bundle. If that is a requirement in the matter at hand and it is missing, the gap needs to be addressed before exchange or completion — not treated as a formality to catch up on later.
2. Scope of authority
The power sets out what the attorney is authorised to do. Not all powers are general. Some are limited to a specific transaction — selling a named property, accepting an offer within a defined range, signing documents in a particular matter. Others confer broad authority over the donor's entire affairs.
The question to answer before proceeding is whether the power, as drafted, is wide enough to cover what is being signed.
If the matter is a transfer of land and the power only authorises the attorney to grant a licence or a lease, the attorney has no authority for this particular transaction. That is not a technicality — it is a defect that goes to the validity of the deed.
What to check:
- Do the powers granted cover the specific transaction being completed?
- Are there any restrictions or conditions in the power that affect what is being executed?
3. Identity of the attorney
Once currency and scope are confirmed, verify that the person presenting to sign is actually the person named as attorney in the document.
Cross-reference the name and identification details in the power of attorney against the attorney's ID. Partial matches are common: a middle name that appears in the power but not on the passport, or a given name that is abbreviated in one document and spelled out in the other. Apply the same standard you would use for any other signatory on the matter.
What to check:
- Does the name of the attorney in the power match their ID document exactly?
- Do the identification details — number, date of issue, date of birth where relevant — correspond?
4. Consistency with the matter file
The last step is consistency: do the donor's details in the power of attorney match the details that appear in the contract, the transfer, and the title register?
If the donor is the seller, the name and identification details of the donor in the power should be identical to what appears in the transfer deed. If the title register shows a different spelling, or a name appears with an additional middle name in the power but not on the register, that discrepancy needs to be resolved before the matter proceeds.
What to check:
- Do the donor's details in the power of attorney match those in the transfer or contract?
- Are there any differences between the power and the title register or other documents in the file?
When to hold the matter
If any of the four checks above reveals an unresolved issue, the right approach is to hold the matter until it is clarified. The situations that warrant a pause include:
- A power that does not cover the specific transaction being completed.
- An identity discrepancy for the attorney that cannot be explained by the documents in the file.
- A power without a clear date, or one where there is no evidence of continued currency.
- Donor details that do not match the transaction documents or the title register.
Proceeding with a known discrepancy on the file is a different kind of problem from proceeding without having spotted it. Neither is a comfortable position. Resolve it before exchange or completion.
Recording the review
When a power of attorney forms part of the matter file, record that the review was done and what it found. This is not administrative overhead. It is the minimum audit trail that allows the file to demonstrate, if a question arises later, that the check was carried out — and that the matter did not proceed on the basis of a power no one had actually read.
If your practice uses a document management or verification tool, the power of attorney review should sit within the standard pre-completion workflow as a named step, not something that depends on whoever is handling the file that day remembering to do it.
If you'd like support with document review and verification in your practice, VerifyAct has tools built for that.