The original POA papers for MIL were accidentally thrown away by another person. This was not discovered until we were all gathered at closing for the house sale. The closing could not continue. The buyers have there loan rate locked until Thursday. Please advise!
I hope the process works out well for you; it's so unfortunate that the buyers backed out - who knows - in 3 months they might still be looking.
If the realtor screws around or doesn't cooperate, I would go above the realtor to the owner of that particular franchise of the real estate company, and/or advise that their failure to cooperate to work out the deal will not only cost them their commission, but might affect their future business....something vague that lets them know that if they don't help to work out the deal, their reputation could be tarnished, but don't actually threaten them with ruining their reputation. You can just infer that you're very disappointed in their lack of desire to find a solution and are sorry you retained them in the first place.
Maggie Marshall is a former realtor. She might have some ideas on how to encourage their cooperation, but I suspect the real problem is with the title company.
I would also suggest to the realtor that they consider another title company for their future business. Companies that don't work to resolve issues shouldn't be automatically given a realtor's business.
If this happened at a commercial level, my position to the title company would be:
This deal needs to close, we need to find a solution, so how can we do it given that the original DPOA is missing? Our client will be very unhappy if the deal doesn't close by xxxx date.
I've found that branches of national title companies have more sophisticated and knowledgeable staff than smaller, local ones.
I would ask the law firm if it can prepare a duplicate original, something that attests to the fact that the original blue backed one (which by the way is an old tradition that isn't used any more by the estate planning law firms for which I worked a few decades ago), certifying that the duplicate original is in fact an identical copy of the destroyed original. As Mincemeat suggests, an Affidavit attesting to that fact might be appropriate for the attorney who prepared the original POA, or one of his/her partners.
Also ask the attorney if they prepared conformed copies. I've used those when I had to. They're duplicate signed originals, marked "conformed" to identify them from the original which the person who executed the POA keeps.
I would also get the real estate agent on board and explain that if the title company (probably chosen by them) which isn't cooperative can't be found, the agent is going to lose his or her commission. That ought to light a fire under the agent.
Then I would draft an extension to the purchase agreement, or perhaps a rider or addendum, executed by you/your family as seller as well as the purchaser, and the realtor (not just the realtor but his/her company) setting forth the terms of the POA issue, and agreeing that:
(a) not being able to comply with the title company's demands is NOT an event of default under any of the purchase documentation, and that
(b) the time for closing is being extended due to issues arising from the destroyed POA, and
(c) neither seller or purchaser are in default due to inability to comply with the title company's demands, and
(d) seller is working on alternate means to address the destroyed document issue.
Good luck; this could be a deal killer but in my experience competent and experienced title reps would find a way to work this out instead of insisting on the seeing the original blue-backed document.