709.015 Power of attorney; authority of agent when principal listed as missing. - Florida Statutes

709.015 Power of attorney; authority of agent when principal listed as missing.

   (1) The acts of an agent under a power of attorney or other authority shall be as valid and as binding on the principal or her or his estate as if the principal were alive and competent if, in connection with any activity pertaining to hostilities in which the United States is then engaged, the principal is officially listed or reported by a branch of the United States Armed Forces in a missing status as defined in 37 U.S.C. s. 551 or 5 U.S.C. s. 5561, regardless of whether the principal is then dead, alive, or incompetent.

   (2) If the exercise of the power of attorney requires the execution and delivery of a recordable instrument, the power of attorney shall be executed with the same formalities as required of the instrument itself and recorded pursuant to the laws of Florida.

   (3) Upon request of the person dealing with the agent, the agent shall make an affidavit that she or he has not received notice, and has no knowledge, that the principal is incompetent. In the absence of fraud, the affidavit shall be conclusively presumed to establish the agent’s lack of notice or knowledge of the principal’s incompetence.

   (4) Homestead property held as tenants by the entireties shall not be conveyed by a power of attorney regulated by this section until 1 year following the first official report or listing of the principal as missing or missing in action. An affidavit of an officer of the armed forces having maintenance and control of the records pertaining to those missing or missing in action that the principal has been in that status for a given period shall be a conclusive presumption of that fact.

   (5) This section applies to powers of attorney heretofore and hereafter executed.

History. s. 1, ch. 70-33; s. 794, ch. 97-102.