Power of Attorney

[pookie]

doh  - not the brightest button am I  

[mercury]

Lets hope that you dont have a money grabbing family because Turksih law is that some of the estate belongs to the children. Cant remember what percentage.

[julesbob0303]

If you give POA to your estate agent when you buy in Turkey, do you need to do anything AFTER the purchase, or is that person automatically removed from your account after a certain period of time?

[Scunner]

Unless you specified a date for it to lapse, it normally doesn't. It isn't the big worry some people think as someone holding your PoA to purchase a property cannot hold PoA to sell it too. So this means they can only buy another property for you, which you must admit would be rather nice.

[Dutchie]

But be careful since some notaries have used PoA versions in the past where the standard text did include selling as well.
In the PoA you can also specify a certain property that your estate agent can buy instead of random property.

Personally I don't see the need of a PoA for buying. Just fly over to pick up the Tapu.
PoA for water and electricity subscriptions is useful though since it will save you several trips and many hours.

[julesbob0303]

But, as your POA, they are able to access your bank account (for money transfers etc).  Does that mean they can take money out of your account at any time, unless you have them taken off as POA?  We bought our apartment almost 5 years ago through a very reputable agent and have had no problems at all.  We had the tapu after only 3 months and cannot fault the agent.  They have always been excellent with both their help and advice.

However, we have never cancelled the POA - does that mean they can still access our bank account?

[SteveJ]

Jules - I had the same concern so to be on the safe side I opened up a new account and transferred everything except £5 from the POA'd account into it. Four years later and the fiver is still there.  

[saoirse]

quote:Originally posted by Scunner

I understand - it's something I've mentioned before. Basically giving someone power of attorney to sell on your behalf so they can sign all the contract and paperwork "as you" - normally because you are back in the UK but in this suggested case you are away on a cloud. I had this idea and basically with wills being problematic, and sometimes long and drawn out, the idea to appoint a power of attorney to clear up your business in the event of your death is probably highly illegal, but attractive all the same.


It goes without saying (though not to some I am sure) that you better had trust your PoA 10000%. The idea I had was for husband and wife to give each other PoA then it
doesn't matter who dies first, you have it covered. Lovely topic this!

Scunner this is cool/ underhand/crafty thinking- I love it!

However is there a time limit on a POA.? The idea of the big birl and me holding POA for each other instead of a messy will process intrigues me.

[Scunner]

There is only a time limit if you ask for one to be specified. It is a decent work around as far as I see things - having seen Turkish wills cause great problems for non-nationals in what are obviously testing and difficult times already.

Jules: Yes if you gave PoA for access to your bank account, your authorised attorney could still take money from your account. I haven't heard of that happening to be honest but it is something to think about. In more recent times it became "yesterday's problem" as estate agents stopped using customer accounts with PoA access as a method of transferring money from buyer to seller/builder. The reason is interesting - searching who has power of attorney for who for bank accounts made it very easy for the taxman to find property sales that agents had 'forgotten' to put through the books!

[saoirse]

Is there a solicitor in Fethiye area you could recommend for us to take out POA for each other? Thanks.