How does a power of attorney work in Indonesia?

A power of attorney is a genuinely useful instrument for transacting from abroad, and it is also the paperwork most often used to prop up arrangements that do not work.

What it is

A surat kuasa — a document by which you authorise another person to act on your behalf, within defined limits.

Executed before a notary for anything consequential. A notarial power of attorney carries evidential weight that a private document does not, and land office and banking matters generally require one.

Where the document is executed abroad, it usually needs legalisation — apostille, since Indonesia is a party to the Hague Convention, or consular legalisation where it is not — and a sworn translation before an Indonesian authority will accept it.

The legitimate uses

Transacting while you are not in Indonesia. Signing a deed, completing a purchase, attending at the land office. Common and entirely proper.

Company matters. Authorising someone to lodge filings, attend to OSS, deal with the tax office.

Property management. Authorising a manager to deal with utilities, staff matters and day-to-day administration.

Emergencies. Authorising someone to act if you are ill or unreachable.

Permit applications on leased land, where the landowner grants you a power of attorney so you can lodge PBG and other applications without needing their signature at every step. This one is genuinely important and belongs in any lease where you intend to build.

The illegitimate use

A power of attorney is a standard component of a nominee arrangement: land in an Indonesian person's name, with a stack of side documents — a loan agreement, a mortgage over the land, a statement of trust, and an irrevocable power of attorney letting you sell or transfer it.

The theory is that the power of attorney gives you practical control over land you cannot lawfully own.

It does not work. A power of attorney cannot authorise what the law prohibits. Indonesian courts have consistently treated arrangements designed to circumvent the foreign ownership restriction as void, and Perda Bali 4/2026 prohibits facilitating them.

A void arrangement does not become enforceable because there is a lot of paperwork supporting it. The paperwork is evidence of the intention that makes it void.

The practical risks even where it is lawful

Scope. A broad power of attorney is a broad authority. Draft it narrowly — specific transaction, specific property, specific acts, specific period.

Revocation. Understand how to revoke it, and do so when it is no longer needed. Powers of attorney left outstanding for years are a live exposure.

Duration. Put an expiry date in. An open-ended authority is a problem waiting.

Who you give it to. Obvious and worth saying. Someone with authority to deal with your property can deal with your property.

"Irrevocable" powers. Frequently used in nominee structures precisely because the arrangement depends on you not being able to withdraw. An irrevocable power of attorney over land should prompt the question of why irrevocability is needed.

How to use one properly

Have your own notary draft it, not the counterparty's.

Limit it to the specific transaction or function.

Put in an expiry date.

Specify exactly what the attorney may and may not do — particularly whether they may receive funds, which is usually where you want a limit.

Get a sworn translation and read it.

Keep a copy, and know how to revoke.

Revoke it when the purpose is served.

If someone proposes one as part of a structure

Ask what the power of attorney is doing that the underlying arrangement cannot do on its own.

If the honest answer is "it gives you control over land you cannot own", the structure is void and the document is evidence of it. Walk.

If the answer is "it lets your notary complete the transaction while you are in Sydney", that is exactly what the instrument is for.