Nathan was a sole director of a company and gave a personal Power of Attorney to his friend Charles before leaving on a month long wilderness holiday.

The company was in the process of buying a small rental property. Nathan was scheduled to leave three days before the bank could produce the mortgage documents.  Whilst he felt it would have been better for him to sign the documents himself, Nathan was reassured that Charles as his Attorney would be able to sign them on his behalf.

Unfortunately, though the appointment was valid for Nathan’s personal matters, Charles did not have the authority to sign the mortgage documents on behalf of the company.  Nathan had to be tracked down on his trip, and make a detour to a town where the mortgage documents could be emailed to him to sign and return.  This would have been avoided if Nathan had taken advice about what was required before he went overseas.

There are two options for dealing with this situation:

  1. The company can appoint the person as its attorney; or
  2. Charles can be appointed as an alternate Director of the company (only if the company’s constitution allows this).