BILLS OF SALE ACT 1950

Bills of Sale LAWS OF MALAYSIA REPRINT Act 268 BILLS OF SALE ACT 1950 Incorporating all amendments up to 1 January 2006 PUBLISHED BY THE COMMISSIONER OF LAW REVISION, MALAYSIA UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE REVISION OF LAWS ACT 1968 IN COLLABORATION WITH PERCETAKAN NASIONAL MALAYSIA BHD 2006 1 2 BILLS OF SALE ACT 1950 First enacted Revised ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 1950 (F.M. Ordinance No. 30 of 1950) 1982 (Act 268 w.e.f. 6 May 1982) PREVIOUS REPRINT First Reprint ... ... ... ... ... 2001 3 LAWS OF MALAYSIA Act 268 BILLS OF SALE ACT 1950 ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS Section 1. Short title 2. Application of Act 3. Interpretation 4. Bill of sale to be void under certain circumstances unless attested and registered 5. Bill of sale to be accompanied by schedule of property 6. Bill of sale given by way of security void in certain cases 7. Bill of sale not to protect chattels against rates 8. Possession to be taken under bill of sale under certain circumstances only 9. Sales by public auction 10. Mode of registering bills of sale 11. Priority given by registration 12. Transfers need not be attested 13. Renewal of registration 14. Form of register 15. Rectification of register 16. Entry and satisfaction 17. Inspection of register and office copies 18. Particulars to be forwarded for record in Kuala Lumpur 19. Declarations 20. Assistant Registrars 21. Fees 22. Rules 4 Laws of Malaysia Section 23. Repeal and saving FIRST SCHEDULE SECOND SCHEDULE THIRD SCHEDULE FOURTH SCHEDULE FIFTH SCHEDULE SIXTH SCHEDULE ACT 268 Bills of Sale 5 LAWS OF MALAYSIA Act 268 BILLS OF SALE ACT 1950 An Act relating to Bills of Sale. [1 January 1959, L.N. 374/1958] Short title 1. (1) This Act may be cited as the Bills of Sale Act 1950. (2) This Act shall apply to *Peninsular Malaysia only. Application of Act 2. This Act shall apply to every bill of sale, whether the same is absolute or subject or not subject to any trust, whereby the holder or grantee has power, either with or without notice and immediately or at any future time, to seize or take possession of any personal chattels comprised in or made subject to such bill of sale, but shall not, except as in this Act expressly mentioned, apply to any mortgages, charges or debentures issued by any incorporated company and secured upon the stock or goods, chattels and effects of such company. Interpretation 3. (1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires— “bill of sale” includes bills of sale, assignments, transfers, declarations of trust without transfer, inventories of goods with receipt thereto attached, or receipts for purchase money of goods, and other assurances of personal chattels, and also powers of attorney, authorities or licences to take possession of personal chattels as security for any debt, and also any agreement, whether *NOTE—All references to “West Malaysia” shall be construed as reference to “Peninsular Malaysia”– see the Interpretation (Amendment) Act 1997 [Act A996], subsection 5(2). 6 Laws of Malaysia ACT 268 intended or not to be followed by the execution of any other instrument, by which a right in equity to any personal chattels or to any charge or security thereon is conferred, but does not include the following documents— (a) assignments for the benefit of the creditors of the person making or giving the same; (b) ante-nuptial marriage settlements; (c) transfers or assignments of any ship or vessel or share thereof; (d) transfers of goods in the ordinary course of business of any trade or calling; (e) bills of sale of goods in foreign ports or at sea; (f) bills of lading, warehouse-keepers’ certificates, warrants or orders for the delivery of goods, or any other documents used in the ordinary course of business as proof of the possession or control of goods or authorizing or purporting to authorize, either by endorsement or by delivery, the possessor of such documents to transfer or receive goods thereby represented; “bill of sale” also includes, as regards any personal chattels which may be seized or taken thereunder, every attornment, instrument or agreement whereby a power of distress is given or agreed to be given by any person to any other person by way of security for any debt or advance, and whereby any rent is reserved or made payable as a mode of providing for the payment of interest on such debt or advance or otherwise for the purpose of such security only, but does not include or extend to any mortgage or charge of any estate or interest in any land which the mortgagee or chargee being in possession demises to the mortgagor or chargor as his tenant at a fair and reasonable rent; “bill of sale” also includes agreements for the hire of personal chattels entered into for the purpose of securing the repayment to the lessor of such chattels of money advanced by him to the hirer; and the hirer shall in every such case be deemed to be the grantor of the bill of sale and the lessor shall be deemed to be the grantee thereof; Bills of Sale 7 “factory or workshop” means any premies on which any manual labour is exercised by way of trade or for purposes of gain in or incidental to the following purposes or any of them— (a) the making of any article or part of an article; or (b) the altering, repairing, ornamenting or finishing of any article; or (c) the adapting for sale of any article; “Peninsular Malaysia” has the meaning assigned thereto in section 3 of the Interpretation Acts 1948 and 1967 [Act 388], and includes the Federal Territory. “personal chattels” means goods, furniture and other articles capable of complete transfer by delivery, and trade machinery as hereinafter defined, and, when separately assigned or charged, fixtures and growing crops; but does not include chattel interests in real estate, nor fixtures, except trade machinery as herein after defined, when assigned together with any land or building to which they are affixed, nor growing crops when assigned together with any interest in the land on which they grow, nor shares or interests in the stocks, funds or securities of any government, or in the capital or property of incorporated or joint-stock companies, nor things in action; “Registrar” and “Assistant Registrar” mean respectively the Registrar and an Assistant Registrar of the High Court; “trade machinery” means the machinery used in or attached to any factory or workshop exclusive of— (a) the fixed motive powers, such as the water-wheels and steam-engines, and the steam boilers, donkey-engines, and other fixed appurtenances of such motive powers; (b) the fixed power machinery such as the shafts, wheels, drums and their fixed appurtenances which transmit the action of the motive powers to the other machinery, fixed and loose; and (c) the pipes for steam, gas and water in the factory or workshop; 8 Laws of Malaysia ACT 268 (2) No fixtures or growing crops shall be deemed to be “separately assigned or charged” by reason only that they are assigned by separate words, or that power is given to sever them from the land or building to which they are affixed or from the land on which they grow, without otherwise taking possession of or dealing with such land or building if by the same instrument any interest in the land or building to which such fixtures are affixed or in the land on which such crops grow is also conveyed to the same person or persons. Bill of sale to be void under certain circumstances unless attested and registered 4. (1) Every bill of sale shall be attested and registered under this Act within seven clear days after the execution thereof, or, if it is executed in any place out of Peninsular Malaysia, then within seven clear days after the time at which it would, in the ordinary course of post, arrive in Peninsular Malaysia if posted immediately after the execution thereof, and shall truly set forth the consideration for which it was given, otherwise the following consequences shall ensue— (a) in the case of a bill of sale made or given by way of security for the payment of money by the grantor thereof, such bill of sale shall be void in respect of the personal chattels comprised therein; and (b) in the case of any other bill of sale it shall, as against all trustees or assignees of the estate of the person whose chattels or any of them are comprised in such bill of sale under the law of bankruptcy or liquidation or under any assignment for the benefit of the creditors of such person, and also as against all bailiffs, sheriffs and other persons seizing any chattels comprised in such bill of sale in the execution of any process of any court authorizing the seizure of the chattels of the person by whom or of whose chattels such bill has been made, and also as against every person on whose behalf such process shall have been issued, be deemed fraudulent and void so far as regards the property in or right to the possession of any chattels comprised in such bill of sale which at or after the time of filing the petition for bankruptcy or liquidation or of the execution of such assignment or of executing Bills of Sale 9 such process, as the case may be, and after the expiration of seven days after the execution of such bill of sale are in the possession or apparent possession of the person making such bill of sale or of any person against whom the process has issued under or in the execution of which such bill has been made or given as the case may be. (2) Personal chattels shall be deemed to be in the “apparent possession” of the person making or giving a bill of sale so long as they remain or are in or upon any house, warehouse, shop, building, vessel, works, yard, land or other premises occupied by him, or are used and enjoyed by him in any place whatsoever, notwithstanding that formal possession thereof may have been taken or given by or to any other person. (3) Personal chattels comprised in a valid bill of sale which is duly attested and registered under this Act shall not, so long as such bill of sale continues to be duly registered under this Act be deemed to be in the possession, order or disposition of the grantor of the bill of sale within the meaning of the law of bankruptcy. (4) Subsection (3) shall not apply to personal chattels in the possession, order or disposition of the grantor in his trade or business. Bill of sale to be accompanied by schedule of property 5. (1) Every bill of sale shall have annexed thereto or written thereon a schedule containing an inventory of the personal chattels comprised in the bill of sale, and such bill of sale, save as hereinafter mentioned, shall have effect only in respect of the personal chattels specifically described in such schedule and shall be void in respect of any personal chattels not so specifically described. (2) Save as hereinafter mentioned, every bill of sale shall be void except as against the grantor in respect of any personal chattels specifically described in the schedule thereto of which the grantor was not the true owner at the time of the execution of the bill of sale. (3) Nothing in this section shall render a bill of sale void in respect of any of the following things— (a) any growing crops separately assigned or charged where such crops were actually growing at the time when the bill of sale was executed; 10 Laws of Malaysia ACT 268 (b) any fixtures separately assigned or charged and any plant or trade machinery where such fixtures, plant or trade machinery are used in, attached to, or brought upon any land, plantation, factory, workshop, warehouse or other place in substitution for any of the like fixtures, plant or trade machinery specifically described in the schedule to such bill of sale. Bill of sale given by way of security void in certain cases 6. Subject and without prejudice to the other provisions of this Act for invalidating bills of sale, every bill of sale made or given by way of security