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Significant Increase in Number of Recorded Bills of Sale

September 24, 2007

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The Registrar General’s Department (RGD) has reported a significant increase in the number of bills of sale recorded at its Island Record Office (IRO), with more than 9,800 submissions during the 2006/07 financial year, compared with 5,895 for the 2005/06 financial year.
A bill of sale is a legal document made by a seller to a purchaser, which includes the date, locality, and the particular sum of money for which the item was sold.
Speaking with JIS News, IRO Manager, Desmond Davis explained that “the current trend suggests that our economy is vibrant as more persons are taking chances and are investing in some form of goods or another.”
A review of the statistics also shows that figures for the 2007/08 financial year could surpass last year’s count.
“So far, we are at 6,016 bills of sale and these are coming from right across the island, so we have really pulled forward by quite an amount. We need only a little over 3,000 to catch up on what we did last year and we are just some six months into the [financial] year,” he pointed out.
According to Mr. Davis, it is usually companies or lending institutions that submit bills of sale; however, individuals may also draw up bills of sale amongst themselves. This, he said, might occur if an individual wants to sell an item, for example a motor vehicle to another person, who would be paying over an extended period.
Explaining the procedures involved in recording a bill of sale, Mr. Davis pointed out that a bill of sale could be recorded at any of the RGD’s nine regional offices.
“While we have a central processing system, the idea is to prevent people from leaving their particular area to go into another area. We want them to save time and money and ensure that they use their time in more productive ways,” he told JIS News.
Continuing, he stated that persons would be required to pay a deed receipt fee of $200 and a recording fee of $110 per legal sheet. “A legal sheet consists of 160 words. So, you would normally attach to these documents what we call a Declaration of Counting, which tells you the number of legal sheets that these documents contain,” he explained.
Customers have the option of using the regular service which will take four to six weeks, the seven day service or the next day service.
“For the seven day service, customers will be required to pay an additional $500 and an additional $1,500 for the next day service. Persons wishing to utilize the next day service should ensure that payment is made before 11:00 a.m.,” he said, adding that it was important that persons provide their correct address, as a copy of the document would be delivered to the customer through the RGD’s courier service.
According to Mr. Davis, when a bill of sale is drawn up and is signed before a Justice of the Peace (JP), that document must be lodged within 30 days of its execution in order to avoid incurring additional stamp duties.
It is also a requirement by law that an entry of satisfaction is entered in the margin of the document at the end of the payment of monies, as it relates to a bill of sale, to indicate that payment is complete.
“If this is not done, it can affect you later on if you want to resell the item and it is checked and it shows that the satisfaction is not entered, it will suggest that the debt is not satisfied,” he stressed.
In the meantime, Mr. Davis noted that bills of sale are often used to conduct Asset Lien Verifications, that is, to check if the item is being used as security for repayment of a loan or other claim. A lien on an item affects the ability to transfer ownership.
“Sometimes a person is buying a vehicle and they want to check if there is a lien on it. They could come in and request a search at a cost of $200 per hour. At the end of the search we will be able to say whether or not there is a lien on the vehicle and who has the lien on it,” he explained.
The IRO was established under the Act of Parliament in 1879. According to the Record Office Act, public records, including rolls, writs, books, proceedings, statutes, decrees, wills, warrants, and accounts should be registered at the IRO.
Deeds and writings, including wills, conveyances, charters, bonds, bills of sale, patents, certificates, letter patent, specifications, petitions, declarations, disclaimers, memoranda, powers of attorney, crop and other accounts, inventories and all other legal instruments used to grant a right must also be registered at the RGD.

Last Updated: September 24, 2007

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