A power of attorney is a document that authorizes a certain person to represent the interests of another person or organization in front of someone. The power of attorney for the right to drive a car is the official permission of the car owner for all the actions listed in the power of attorney: driving a car, going through MOT, insurance of it as property, up to the sale. According to the law, transactions requiring notarization are allowed to be carried out only by a notarized power of attorney. All possible transactions with the machine (sale, insurance, etc.) do not belong to this category. Therefore, until recently, ordinary handwritten power of attorney was widely used to transfer the rights of the owner to another person.
What was this document popular in Russia? A handwritten power of attorney for a car could be issued on a special form indicating the name and passport details of the principal and the authorized person, as well as the make and number of the car, year of manufacture, color, serial numbers of the engine, body and chassis, PTS number, or simply written on the plain piece of paper. Of course, such a document could not contain any seals, the case was limited to signatures of the parties.
Despite the fact that, strictly speaking, this document had dubious legal force (when traveling abroad it turned into a meaningless piece of paper) and could easily be tampered with, it was extremely popular among the people. A handwritten power of attorney was used even when selling a car - instead of renewing the car to a new owner and registering a deal, they simply wrote out a power of attorney (sometimes it was called general, but the essence of the matter did not change). The problems started later - if the new owner got into an accident causing damage to third parties, or turned out to be implicated in criminal matters. Most often, the official "former" owner had to pay damages.
In November 2012, in Russia, Government Decision No. 1156 introduced some amendments and changes to the SDA. A handwritten power of attorney for driving a car has been canceled. Now, in addition to the driver’s license and vehicle registration certificate, the car driver is required to have only a compulsory motor liability insurance policy. Moreover, it can be inscribed in this policy, or the policy can be without limiting the circle of persons who are allowed to drive a car.
In addition, there are still some changes regarding powers of attorney. To pick up the car from the penalty parking, now you need to come to its owner (or do it by proxy, notarized). The same applies to transactions with a car - sale, registration or removal. A handwritten power of attorney in these cases is no longer valid, only notarized. Also, only by notarized power of attorney can you go abroad in a strange car.
It is not entirely clear from the new document how inspectors will identify hijackers if, for example, the name of the driver of the car is not even present in the insurance policy? And who to punish for an accident? Obviously, a mechanism for resolving such issues has yet to be developed.
If the car is involved in freight transportation, then the driver, among other things, must also have a power of attorney for the carriage of goods. This document is often overlooked. If he is absent, it will be very difficult for the driver to prove to the inspector who stopped him that the cargo was not stolen. Most often, the car is detained along with the cargo until the circumstances are clarified. To confirm the legitimacy of the situation, you have to call the owner of the cargo in place, this leads to a loss of time and material losses, especially if the cargo is perishable.
Thus, in the absence of documents confirming ownership of the goods, a power of attorney is required for its transportation. Organizations involved in the transportation of goods, usually draw up such powers of attorney on the forms of form M-2a with registration in the book of registration of powers of attorney. At the same time, the power of attorney must be filled out in full and contain a sample of the signature of the person on whom it was written out. The power of attorney may be revoked at any time. In case of refusal, it must be immediately returned to the principal.