About the project

The Singapore Academy of Law’s Law Reform Committee recommended the enactment of a new Powers of Attorney Act to reform the law relating to powers of attorney. Among the changes proposed were the following:

• An instrument creating a power of attorney conferring power on or authorising the donee to execute or deliver a deed on behalf of the donor should be executed as a deed.
• To facilitate proof of powers of attorney, a photocopy of a power of attorney which is certified as such by a solicitor, commissioner for oaths or notary public should be sufficient proof of the existence and contents of the power.
• A donee who acts in pursuance of any power of attorney at a time when it has been revoked should not by reason of the revocation incur any liability to the donor or to any other person if at the time he or she did not know that the power had been revoked. In certain circumstances, where the interest of a purchaser depends on whether a transaction between the donee and a third party was valid, there should be a conclusive presumption in favour of a purchaser that the third party did not know of the revocation. (In this case, a purchaser means a purchaser in good faith for valuable consideration, and includes a lessee, mortgagee or other person who for valuable consideration acquires an interest in property.)

Project status: Completed

• The report was published in September 2009.

Areas of law

◾ Agency law

Click on the image above to view the report

Last updated 29 May 2019