Selling a property in Italy requires more than knowing the market well enough. It also implies being able to comply with the requirements of the legal procedure, together with the negotiation, drafting and conclusion of all necessary documents. Appointing an expert in the field to represent you in this process is the way to ensure successful deal closing in a time and cost effective manner. The power of attorney is a formal unilateral act by the power of which one person, named principal, attributes to another person, the representative, the power to represent them. In order to produce legal effect, the power of attorney for the sale and purchase of real estate properties shall be executed in writing and authenticated by a public notary.

Depending on the limits of representation that can be granted through a given power of attorney act, it can be classified as general or special. A general power of attorney provides the representative with the power to execute a number of legal actions with various third parties on behalf of the principal. Such an act is advisable when appointing a person to take care of all legal affairs of the principal, on a variety of matters, or for a series of actions. A special power of attorney, on the other hand, concerns the realization of a specific action or the signing of a specific deed with a given third party in the sphere of property purchase, for example. In this case, the power of attorney shall have legal effect only regarding the specified deed or action. The limits of each power of attorney are to be specifically individualized by each such act and they may concern the type of legal actions, which the representative is to realize on behalf of the principal; the third parties, with whom the representative may enter into legal relationships; or the conditions, to which these relationships shall be subjected.

If the representative realizes legal actions, exceeding the rights attributed via the power of attorney, the representative shall be liable for any consequences caused by such legal actions. In this case, the principal may later decide to ratify the actions, completed by the representative in excess of their power of representation. Such a ratification will have a retroactive effect, that is – the legal consequences shall occur as if no violation or excess of the power of representation has taken place. Any amendments to the power of representation granted shall be duly communicated to the third parties in order to produce legal effect in regards to them.

Looking specifically at property purchase, a power of attorney can be issued for the negotiation and signing of all required documents. This includes, first of all, a preliminary contract, which shall indicate the negotiated full price of the property and the conditions that need to be met before realization of the deal. A deposit payment, to be realized by the purchaser, might also be envisaged. All preliminary contracts are subject to registration by the real estate agent. Following the signing of the preliminary contract and the realization of all conditions for deal closing, a final deed is to be signed by the parties. This final document needs to be realized in front of a public notary, whose role is to read the contract to the parties, ensure they both understand it and agree to it, and then authenticate it, once it has been signed by them. All of these steps require the physical presence of the purchaser, or alternatively, the presence of a duly appointed representative, who can not only save the time and money needed by the represented person for transportation (especially if they are a foreigner), but can also serve to overcome any barriers, related to understanding the language and legal effects. Finally, a representative may be appointed to manage a specially dedicated bank account, a so-called escrow account, designated to facilitate payments, related to the purchase deal and subject to the conditions of its closing.