Purchase of a property - The necessary authorisation

If you wish to proceed to the purchase of an estate property, it's advisable to appoint a Greek representative to help you through all the stages till completion, which mainly include applying for a Greek tax number and opening a bank account in a Greek bank, to be used to move your funds related to the purchase through it. Since you are going to need a legal counsellor's services to check on the property you wish to buy anyway, it would be better to appoint a lawyer for your overall representation so that you have a safe and complete legal aid.

The way

The authorisation to your representative is provided through a legal document, a power of attorney (p.o.a.) or letter of attorney, which is a written authorisation to represent or act on your behalf in your private affairs, hereto in your purchase project. The person authorising the other to act is the principal, grantor, or donor (of the power) and the one authorised to act is the agent, the attorney, the proxy.

The competent authority

If you happen to be in Greece when the decision for the purchase is reached, a p.o.a. can be signed at a public notary's office in the presence of a translator. If the person to be appointed as your proxy speaks your language, he could equally be appearing before the notary to translate the content of the p.o.a to you. Note that all notarial acts should by law be written in Greek language, therefore it wouldn't t be possible for you to sign a document in your native language.

If you are not in Greece, you could:

-either sign a p.o.a at the closest Greek authority in your country (embassy or consulate) which would also be in Greek so an interpreter should be present. Usually in this case the appropriate draft text from a notary public or a lawyer in Greece is submitted to the consulate in electronic format or sent by e-mail.

-either sign a p.o.a. at a notary close to your residence. In that case the p.o.a will be written in your language but it has to bear the Apostille seal by your country's competent authority.

The cost

The cost in either options is roughly 60-100 euros depending on the number of pages.

Validity

The p.o.a is valid till its revocation by the principal. As a rule, the  p.o.a isn't revoked by the principal, since after the purchase is completed and the aim of the document is achieved, practically it can be used no more. On the contrary, depending on the powers granted to the proxy it's more often useful to keep it in force in case the proxy's services are needed in the future.

© 2015 broosco. All rights reserved.

• buyer