General Power of Attorney India - Document and Procedures

I am going through the task of giving general power of attorney (GPA) to my dad in India. I live in Los Angeles, CA and my dad is in Chennai, India.

I was googling for what to write in it and found a few documents. Many of them had typos and required some editing. I have done some editing to the best GPA document I found on the web and posting it here. You can copy-paste and modify it for your needs :-).

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GENERAL POWER OF ATTORNEY

KNOW YE ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS THAT I,

<<Your name here>>, (age __) residing at

<<Your address here>>,

do hereby appoint and constitute

<<Your attorney's (dad/mom/whoever) name here>>, (age __)

(hereinafter called “Attorney”) and at present residing at

<<Your attorney's address>>,

to be my lawful Attorney in my name and on my behalf to do any one or all the following acts, deeds and things, namely:

1. To apply for a loan/s under various schemes of Any Financial Institution as also any further or additional loan/s to Any Financial Institution for such amount as the Attorney may deem fair and for that purpose to pay the processing fee/s and sign the loan application/s in my name and on my behalf and to furnish all the details and information required by Any Financial Institution and to give any statement, letter, clarification or any other writing required or necessary for availing of the said loan/s from Any Financial Institution and from time to time to follow up the said loan application/s and do such other things and deeds as may be necessary in relation thereto.
2. To accept the loan offer letter/s and sign the acceptance/s thereof in token of my acceptance of the terms and conditions therein contained and to pay on my behalf the administrative fees and any other charges including commitment charges leviable in respect of the said loan/s.
3. To request Any Financial Institution or agree with Any Financial Institution for any or modification in the loan amount/s, rate/s interest, period of repayment of loan/s or any other terms and conditions in relation to the loan/s at any time or from time to time.
4. To receive the disbursement of the said loan/s and for that purpose give effectual discharge and give all the necessary information and documents to assist the Technical and Legal Appraisal of the property/ies purchased / to be purchased with the help of the loan/s.
5. To mortgage any property/ies he/she may book / purchase on my behalf or which I might have booked / purchased (whether with or without Any Financial Institution assistance) with Any Financial Institution by deposit of Title Deeds as security for the repayment of the loan/s granted / to be granted by Any Financial Institution to me.
6. To deposit of my behalf the documents of title and to state on my behalf to any officer of Any Financial Institution that the said documents are being deposited for creating a security on the said property/ies by way of equitable mortgage of repayment of the said loan/s. The Attorney is fully authorised to make these statement and convey my intentions to create security on my said property/ies or any other property/ies or any other property/ies he/she may book/buy on my behalf.
7. He/She is further authorised to make any other statements necessary to create equitable mortgage by deposit of title deeds and also to execute any writings, undertaking, indemnities, etc. on my behalf in respect of mortgage of the said property/ies or the guaranteeing of the repayment of the said loan/s ant other writings whatsoever required in respect of the said transaction of the loan/s granted / to be granted to me or creation of the said security.
8. He/She is also authorised to execute ant loan/s agreement/s, promissory notes, letter/s of declaration and indemnity or such other documents as may be required by Any Financial Institution in respect of the said loan/s.
9. He/She is also authorised to execute in favour of Any Financial Institution an irrevocable Power Of Attorney authorizing Any Financial Institution to execute in its own favour or in favour of any other person, as Any Financial Institution in its sole discretion may decide, legal mortgage in any form including in the English form of the property/ies.
10. To buy land/s or property/ies and to book flat/s residential unit/s on my behalf and to execute Agreement/s for Sale for the same with any builder/seller and make payments to him thereof and to present such Agreement/s for registration before the appropriate Registrar / Sub Registrar of Assurance of any other authority in any place or places in India as may be necessary.
11. To admit execution of the Agreement/s for Sale before the said Registrar / Sub Registrar of Assurances or any other authority as may be required for the purpose.
12. To obtain possession of the flat/s unit/s as and when the same is ready for occupation.
13. To receive loan/s and all other documents including title documents on my behalf from Any Financial Institution and execute receipt/s therefore.
14. To sign forms, documents and papers required for the purpose of registration of Co-operative Housing Society or a Limited Company or an Association of Apartment Owners and become member thereof participating in all the meetings proceedings from time to time, obtain share certificates and/or other documents issued in my name hold the same as my Attorney and obtain possession of the flat/s.
15. To open and/or operate Bank Account in any Bank in India in any name both resident as well as non-resident. The account may be operated in Indian Currency or foreign currency to be remitted by me from time to time. He/She is authorised to do all such acts, deeds, and things including signing any papers/ documents as are necessary and incidental to the above AND that any act or statement or writing of my said Attorney in pursuance hereto shall be fully authorised and ratified by me.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have signed below on the date, month and year hereunder written.

___________________________

(Affix your photo)

Date: _____________

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I also gathered from Chandan's blog (and the comments therein) that two of your friends/colleagues need to sign and write their address in this document as witnesses. Their signature need not be done in front of notary public. Your signing has to be done in front of notary. The attorney (i.e. my dad) does not need to sign it.

After getting the document notarized, you have to send it to your secretary of state to get it "apostilled"  (means a special sign for certifying foreign documents). For CA residents, here is the link: http://www.sos.ca.gov/business/notary/authentication.htm

After getting this done, it is highly recommended to send it to the Indian consulate and get it attested by them. Details for the San Francisco Indian consulate are here: http://www.cgisf.org/contents/view/118

After all the above are done, your document is ready and can be sent to India to be used by your attorney.

Will update this post as I go through the process.

Wish me (and you) good luck!

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UPDATE

I got signatures of two of my friends with their names and addresses. Then took the 2-page GPA document to a notary public. He asked me for my ID and address proof, after which he notarized it for $10. I also took a passport photo in his office for $4/photo. I was a bit concerned that there won't be enough space on my 2 page document for him to notarize, but he attached a separate sheet.

Then I thought of mailing it to the Secretary of State (SoS) office in Sacramento for apostille. Instead I saw that there is an SoS office in downtown Los Angeles, so drove there on my way to work. Just had to take a token, fill out a simple form asking information about the document. The wait was just 30 min. (there were 10 people ahead of me). The fee was $26 and they accept credit card and personal check. They had attached 1 more sheet and placed their seal across the notary sheet and theirs.

Now I have mailed it, along with my Indian passport, to the Indian embassy in San Francisco for their attestation with a $23 money order.

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UPDATE

Unfortunately my application was returned by the embassy since I did not complete and send the Miscellaneous Services Form required by the embassy! I haven't re-applied so far! (But hope the post is still useful for others.)