Sending someone: buying and collecting by proxy

In everyday speech both are “sending someone”, but legally they are two different roles. A messenger only carries out what you have already decided: they take the car, the keys and the papers, confirm receipt and drive off. An agent, by contrast, decides on the spot in your name — signs the contract, settles a question about a defect, accepts a price. Both are possible, but the second needs far wider authority, and whatever the person signs within that authority binds you.

That leads to the most important advice in this guide: decide yourself whatever can be decided in advance. You can agree the contract with the seller beforehand and sign it — each side signs, scans and sends their copy, and the originals are exchanged at collection. Then the person who travels only has to check, collect and sign for receipt, and their authorisation becomes short and unambiguous.

If the contract does have to be signed on site — because the seller insists, or because the condition can only be judged there — send someone whose judgement you trust and draw the limits on paper. How to check a car from a distance — video call, independent garage, reasons to walk away — is covered in the guide on buying a car you have never seen. This one is about the authorisation and everything that depends on it.

A power of attorney for buying a car is not a general power of attorney but a list. The more precisely it says what the authorised person may do, the less discussion there is on site — with the seller, who wants to know whether a deal with them is binding, and with the authority, which wants to know whether it may accept an application in your name. Wording such as “in all matters” reassures nobody; if anything, it makes officials suspicious.

The car is identified by its VIN, not by make and colour. Add both people with full name, date of birth, address and ID number, the seller's name and address, place and date, and a period for which the authorisation is valid. A power of attorney without an end date runs until you revoke it, and once it has left your hands you cannot know where copies are lying around.

The contract then names you as the buyer, with a note that you are represented: the authorised person's name and the date of the authorisation. They sign with their own name and a note such as “on behalf of”, never with yours. The authorisation should list these points:

Between private individuals, a power of attorney for buying a car needs no particular form in many countries; a signature is enough. Authorities are often stricter. A registration office, a road traffic office or a customs office decides for itself what it accepts for an application in your name: its own form, a written authorisation with a copy of your ID, or a signature certified by a notary or a public office.

Certification only confirms that the signature is yours, not what the text says. If the document is to be used in another country, an apostille may also be required, confirming that the certification comes from an authorised office. Whether that is needed is known only to the office that will finally accept the document. Ask them in advance, ideally in writing, and attach their answer to the authorisation.

Language is the second stumbling block. A power of attorney in German is of little use to an office in Poland or France. The safest option is a bilingual version in two columns, in your language and in that of the country where it will be presented. Some offices still require a certified translation; that, too, belongs on the list of questions to ask beforehand.

And ID: the authorised person carries their own in the original. Of yours they usually need a copy, though some authorities want to see the original. Write on the copy what it is for — “only for presentation in the purchase of the vehicle with VIN …” — and it is useless for anything else.

The person you send should not carry money, neither cash nor a cheque, and should not pay from their own account for you to reimburse later. Cash carried across a border has to be declared, or disclosed when asked, above a legal threshold; it can be lost or stolen, and it turns a favour into a risk nobody insures. A payment from their account blurs who actually bought the car — on the invoice, at customs and in any dispute.

The clean way: you pay yourself, from your account to an account in the seller's name — ideally while the authorised person is on site. They call you and confirm that car, VIN and papers match; you trigger the payment, as an instant transfer where both banks offer one; the seller sees it arrive in their own banking app. Only then do keys and papers change hands. That keeps the rule of “money and car at the same time” intact, even though you are not there.

For the seller this set-up is unusual, and they have reason to be careful: a supposed envoy with a payment receipt on their phone is a well-known scam pattern. So announce the arrangement early, give the person's name and ID number, send the authorisation ahead as a scan, and accept that the keys will only be handed over once the money is definitively in their account. A seller who insists on that is not being suspicious but careful.

And for the person on site: they pay nothing that has not been agreed with you in advance — no transport, handling or registration fee that suddenly falls due. If a new demand appears, they call you before anything happens.

At the handover, the authorised person is your eyes. So give them not only the authorisation but a list of what to check: the VIN on the car and in the papers, the mileage, the number of keys and whether they work, whether the papers are complete, the condition all round. Whatever they miss, nobody catches, and once they drive off it is your problem.

They sign the handover record on your behalf, with their own name and a note that they act under the authorisation of the stated date. A copy of the authorisation stays with the seller. That documents for both sides who handed over and received what — and gives the seller proof that the car went to the right person.

They send you photos and scans from the yard before setting off. If something is wrong — part of the papers missing, one key fewer than agreed, a warning light that was not in the listing — you decide on the phone whether the car still comes along. The person on site should not have to decide that alone; that is why you set them limits. What comes back with them:

Authorisations fail most often at the authorities — not because representation is forbidden, but because every office has its own forms, its own formal requirements and its own list of documents. Many registration offices provide their own authorisation form. If there is one, use it rather than a home-made one; it contains exactly the details the counter will ask for.

In the selling country it is usually about deregistration and plates for the transfer. Both are often handled by the seller or by the person collecting, and both depend on insurance that covers exactly this journey. Clarify beforehand in whose name the plates and insurance run and whether the insurance covers anyone who drives the car. The options are described in the guide on transferring a car.

In the destination country another person can apply for registration for you if the authority allows representation, as most do. Some documents you still have to sign yourself — a direct debit mandate, for example, if vehicle tax is collected from your account, or declarations tied to you personally. Ask the responsible office before the appointment which sheets it needs from you in person, and send them along signed.

And finally, the end of the authorisation: one with an end date and a VIN cannot be used for anything else, even if copies stay on file with authorities or the seller. Ask for the original back once the car is registered in your name, and keep it with the purchase documents — later it explains why the handover record bears someone else's name rather than yours.