John’s company operates in Bulgaria and needed to appoint an individual to act on its behalf in dealings with the Bulgarian tax authorities. I explained to John that when a company issues a power of attorney, it is important for me, in my role as a notary public, to establish that the individual signing on behalf of the UK company is duly authorised. I offered to assist John in preparing a board resolution that could be passed by the directors of the company to authorise John (himself a director) to sign the document on behalf of his company. When notarising a power of attorney for a company, I ask that I be present at the board meeting when the resolution is passed; or, else, witness the director(s) signing a written resolution.
We organised that I join the board meeting by video conference, so that I could hear the directors passing their resolution and witness the chairman of the meeting signing the record of the meeting. John came to meet me in person to sign the power of attorney on behalf of the company. We have agreed that, for his company’s future requirements, I will look at helping remotely, now that I have met John and have his details on record.