Harlan County Power of Attorney (Limited, Purchase of Real Estate) Form

A Kentucky buyer who cannot be at the closing table can still close. This limited power of attorney, drawn under the Kentucky Uniform Power of Attorney Act in KRS Chapter 457, names one agent to complete the purchase of one described parcel of Kentucky real estate in the principal's name, and it reaches nothing beyond that purchase.

Authority that begins and ends with one purchase

The grant in this special power of attorney is itemized around a single transaction. The agent may sign the purchase contract, pay the purchase price and closing costs from the principal's funds, sign the note, mortgage, and other loan documents that finance the purchase, accept the deed in the principal's name, and sign the settlement statement, affidavits, and title paperwork that close a Kentucky real estate purchase. A closing paragraph then draws the line: no authority over any other property of the principal, no authority to sell, lease, or encumber the property once the purchase is complete, no gifts, and no express grant of any act KRS 457.245(1) reserves to a specific grant, such as creating or changing rights of survivorship.

Durability follows from the statute. KRS 457.040 makes a Kentucky power of attorney durable unless it says otherwise, and this form says so plainly: the principal's later incapacity does not end it. It is effective when executed under KRS 457.090.

An instrument that retires itself

KRS 457.100(1)(f) terminates a power of attorney that states a specific purpose once that purpose is accomplished. This form states the purpose and adds two more ending points: a termination date the principal enters, and the other events KRS 457.100 names, including the principal's death and a written revocation. A successor agent, permitted by KRS 457.110, may be named to step in if the first agent resigns, dies, becomes incapacitated, or declines to serve, with the same authority.

One signature, one notary certificate

Only the principal signs. KRS 457.050 places the signature with the principal and makes it presumed genuine when acknowledged before a notary public or other officer authorized to take acknowledgments; the two-witness rule of the 2018 enactment was removed in 2020. The form carries one signature block and one acknowledgment certificate in the KRS 423.160 short form, with lines for the notary's commission number and expiration date because KRS 423.370 makes the official stamp optional in Kentucky. The agent signs nothing.

Why a purchase power of attorney gets recorded

The seller signs the deed, so a buyer's agent might seem to have nothing to record. The mortgage is the reason. Under KRS 382.370, where the conveyance made under a power of attorney is one the law requires to be recorded to be valid against creditors and purchasers, the power must be lodged for record in like manner, and a purchase-money mortgage signed by the agent is exactly that conveyance. The Fayette County Clerk and other Kentucky county clerks publish the matching intake rule: the power of attorney is filed with the deed or mortgage signed under it, or is already on file in that county. The form is laid out for that filing, with the top three inches of the first page left open for the clerk's recording information and return address and preparer blocks at the end. KRS 64.012 lists a power of attorney among the instruments the clerk records, and no transfer tax attaches to it.

The configuration this form recites

The form recites exactly one principal, a natural person acting in the principal's own right, one agent, one optional successor agent, and one parcel identified by county, legal description, street address, and parcel number. A buyer traveling or deployed on the closing date, a spouse authorizing the other spouse to sign for both at closing, and a parent authorizing an adult child to close on a home bought in the parent's name present the single-principal purchase pattern this instrument recites. Two buyers who each need an agent each execute a separate instrument; a power of attorney over property the principal already owns or over finances generally recites a different grant.

The package includes the fillable form with a non-recorded instructions cover page, a completed example filled in for a realistic Fayette County purchase, and the guide that walks through each numbered section, signing under KRS 457.050, and recording under KRS 382.370. This description and the guide describe the form and the governing Kentucky statutes in general terms; they are not legal advice.