Signing by Power of Attorney in a Claremont Escrow

Sometimes the person whose name is on the deed cannot be in the room. A seller is deployed. A buyer is hospitalized. An owner has moved out of state and the signing lands in a week they are unreachable. The instrument that solves this is a POWER OF ATTORNEY, and it works well in a California escrow - as long as it is prepared early, prepared correctly, and approved by every party that has to rely on it.

The part people get wrong is assuming the document is a private arrangement between family members. It is not. In a real estate closing, a power of attorney is a document that escrow, the title insurer, and the lender must each independently accept. Any one of them can decline it. That is why this belongs at the front of the calendar, alongside the other third-party items the opening-week guide pushes to day one.

What the document actually does

A power of attorney names a PRINCIPAL - the person who owns the interest - and an ATTORNEY-IN-FACT, the person authorized to act for them. The attorney-in-fact is not a lawyer and does not need to be. They are simply the person who will sign.

Two distinctions matter in a closing.

The first is scope. A general power of attorney grants broad authority; a SPECIFIC or limited power of attorney grants authority for a defined act. For a home sale or purchase, the specific form is usually preferred by everyone involved, because it names the property, names the transaction, and leaves no interpretive gap. Title companies and lenders read these documents narrowly. Authority that is not clearly granted is authority they will assume is absent.

The second is durability. A DURABLE power of attorney survives the principal's incapacity; a non-durable one does not. Since one common reason for using the instrument is that the principal may become unavailable or unwell, durability is normally the point.

Both forms share a hard limit: a power of attorney terminates on the principal's death. It is not a substitute for a trust or a will, and an attorney-in-fact cannot use it to close a sale for someone who has died. That situation moves into an entirely different process, which the guide to death or divorce mid-escrow walks through.

The three approvals

ESCROW must accept it, because the escrow officer is following written instructions and needs to know the signature they receive binds the party. Escrow will want the original or a certified copy, and will want it in the file before signing is scheduled - not on signing day.

TITLE must accept it, because the title insurer is being asked to insure a conveyance signed by someone other than the record owner. Title underwriters have specific requirements, and they are the most exacting party in this chain. Common requirements include a recorded original, recent execution, and language explicitly authorizing the sale, encumbrance, or purchase of real property. Some underwriters ask that the attorney-in-fact confirm the principal is alive and has not revoked the authority at the time of signing.

THE LENDER must accept it if there is a loan, and lenders apply their own overlay on top of everything above. Some loan programs restrict who may serve as attorney-in-fact, or require the principal to sign certain loan documents personally regardless. This is a lender question, and it should be asked in writing before the appraisal is ordered, not after documents are drawn.

The practical rule: send the draft power of attorney to escrow, title, and the lender at the same time, and ask each for written approval of that specific document. A power of attorney approved by two of three is a power of attorney that will fail on signing day.

Execution and recording

A power of attorney used to convey California real property is notarized, and in most sale and purchase closings it is RECORDED in the county where the property sits, typically alongside the deed. Recording is what puts the authority into the public chain, so the recorded conveyance stands on a recorded grant of authority.

Notarization is where remote principals get stuck. A California notary requires the signer's physical presence and acceptable identification. If the principal is in another state, a notary there can generally perform the act, and title will usually accept it. If the principal is outside the country, the path runs through a consular officer or an apostilled foreign notarization - a longer road covered in the escrow glossary entries on notarization and in the overseas-closing guide.

How the attorney-in-fact signs

The signature form matters. The attorney-in-fact does not sign the principal's name alone and does not sign only their own. They sign in a form that shows both parties and the capacity - the principal's name, by the attorney-in-fact, as attorney-in-fact. Escrow and title will supply the exact wording they require, and it should be used verbatim. A correctly authorized signature in the wrong format is a document that comes back for re-execution, and re-execution on closing week is how a clean file misses its recording date.

The money side

Authority to sign is not the same as authority over funds, and the two should be thought about separately.

On a purchase, the buyer's funds still have to arrive from an acceptable source, and escrow will still verify who is sending them. On a sale, PROCEEDS GO WHERE THE SELLER DIRECTS IN WRITING, and escrow will not accept a casual instruction. Where an attorney-in-fact directs proceeds, escrow will scrutinize that instruction closely, which is appropriate rather than obstructive - it protects the absent principal.

Wherever money moves in this arrangement, verify wiring instructions by telephone using a number you obtained independently - from the escrow company's published listing or a card you were handed in person - never a number printed in an email. A transaction where one party is out of contact and communication runs through intermediaries is precisely the pattern wire fraud looks for. The deposit guide covers the verification habit in detail, and it applies with more force here, not less.

Getting it right

Draft it with an attorney rather than from a form. Send it to escrow, title, and the lender together, and collect written approval from all three. Get it notarized and, where required, recorded. Use the exact signature block escrow supplies. Do all of that in the first week rather than the last, because every party in this chain answers on their own schedule.

Preparation and interpretation of the document are legal questions for an attorney. Whether escrow will accept a particular form is a question for the escrow officer. Whether the loan program permits it is a question for the lender.

The escrow guide maps the surrounding sequence, and the escrow instructions guide explains why the written file governs everything that happens at the closing table. This is general information, not legal advice.

Anthony Grynchal has been licensed in California since November 2009.