Revoking Power of Attorney

Hi,  I wonder if anyone can offer us any advice from experience or from legal knowledge regarding the following.

When we bought a property in spain in 2006 and gave our solicitor power of attorney.  We didn't revoke it as we thought we may need it in the future.  Something has happened today that has made us realise that we should revoke it as soon as possible.  Is there any way to do this without going to spain? I have just googled it and it seems that we could be in a very dangerous position financially as the solicitor can do anything.

We were thinking as we are coming over in Oct that maybe we could go into a notary and revoke it then if not before? can you do this at any notary office?

Any advice will be gratefully received.

We gave our solicitor power of attorney when we bought our property as well (as many do, I suspect, when purchasing a Spanish home whilst living in UK). We changed solicitor last year and it was straightforward to do so

If you are coming to Spain in October, the simplest way is to go a Notary in Spain with a copy of the Power of Attorney you want to revoke.  It should take the Notary's office around 20 minutes to prepare the document for you to sign revoking the Power.

We had a similar situation a few years ago and I wrote to the solicitor telling them that due to a change in circumstance I was revoking the POA, then when I was next in Spain I visited their office and asked for the document back.  They seemed a bit offended, but as you say a full POA is a powerful document and this removes any uncertainty.

I'm not sure this is necessarily the correct procedure, others may be able to provide a fuller answer.

Casperruby - I believe you will find that many POAs do not have a time limit.  But on the basis they ramble on a bit in Spanish I agree that getting the document back seems the most pragmatic thing to do.

Hi,  I wonder if anyone can offer us any advice from experience or from legal knowledge regarding the following.

When we bought a property in spain in 2006 and gave our solicitor power of attorney.  We didn't revoke it as we thought we may need it in the future.  Something has happened today that has made us realise that we should revoke it as soon as possible.  Is there any way to do this without going to spain? I have just googled it and it seems that we could be in a very dangerous position financially as the solicitor can do anything.

We were thinking as we are coming over in Oct that maybe we could go into a notary and revoke it then if not before? can you do this at any notary office?

Any advice will be gratefully received.

Ask Maria on this forum, send her a private e-mail. She is the one who would know.

You want to buy sausages go to the butcher.

I always advise clients to be very specific when they take out a PoA, naming exactly what they want the lawyer to do, eg sign for a specific property, open bank account, apply for NIE.  That way you don´t end up with this kind of problem.

Have to say, although i commented on what hubby and I did, Baz is right! Maria is very helpful on this website so hopefully she will be happy to advise you

Thank you for all your coments. 

We will sort it out and I am worried about upsetting the other solicitor but it needs to be sorted out.  We were in a mess after we bought the house unexpected health problems and I thought that we would have sold it by now thats why we didnt revoke it.  We were really stupid!

I will contact Maria too and ask her advice.

Nicky xx

Official revoking of a POA needs to be done by a Notary.

You can start by sending a redistered letter or fax to those lawyers stating on your will for them not to use the POA in any case and announcing you are proceeding for formal revoking of it.

No big deal.

Kindest,

Maria

Hi Maria

Thanks for your reply.  I have contacted the solicitor but they have not replied  to our request to  go in when we are over to sort things out. I am a little worried as they haven't got back to us.

Can we go to the Notary where we have the house or do we have to go where we initially set it up with solicitor which is a long drive away?

If we notifiy solicitor that we no longer wish for them to act for us, can we do it without them being involved in revoking it?

I really do appreciate your advice.

Kind regards

Nicola
 

Nicola:

Answers below in bold green ( same text as your message):

Hi Maria

Thanks for your reply.  I have contacted the solicitor but they have not replied  to our request to  go in when we are over to sort things out. I am a little worried as they haven't got back to us.

Can we go to the Notary where we have the house or do we have to go where we initially set it up with solicitor which is a long drive away? You can revoke it at any Notary. Just bring the Power to him. He will be in charge of sending the revoking to the first one.

If we notifiy solicitor that we no longer wish for them to act for us, can we do it without them being involved in revoking it? Notifying the solicitor through a registered letter or fax, would be enough for any future action using your POA to be deemed illegal, but that is not preventive enough. When you do it through a Notary, it gets official and registered. therefore safety is higher.

I really do appreciate your advice.

Kind regards

Nicola

Hi Maria

Thank you for your reply, it is very helpful.

Kind regards

Nicola

Hi Jontym,

I'm not an expert, but I'm certainly not a fan of the Spanish legal system, to me it's largely dysfunctional.  But the exception is the use of Notaries, which I've found very simple, cheap and reliable.  They seem to be totally independent and there is no unnecessary formality - you just tell them what you want and it's done.

We gave POA to our solicitor is Spain when purchasing a house over there at the end of last year. When I popped into his office last month, to collect some documents (deeds and invoice for his service) the original POA was retained by him. I didn't give it much thought until I returned to the UK. The POA doesn't have an end date on it, so I should probably ask for it back and have it revoked. I have never heard of a solicitor using a POA without the owners consent though. Does this kind of thing happen often?

I would be pretty certain that just recovering the copy of the POA (poder) would not  result in it being revoked.

  I know that the  copia simple  of an escritura is not required if one wants to sell a property. It is only a copynever the original  

A POA is probably the same.  

So I would think you would need a legal contract to withdraw it

Thanks for your reply, johnzx.