MCA Bill of Sale

[AllanG]

Hi,

I'm hoping to sell my boat privately, and was wondering if it is normal practice to pass previous copies of the MCA Bill of Sale documents to the new owner, or just the original sales invoice?

Also, can I use the MCA Bill of Sale document myself, or is there a better formal sale document I can use (RYA)?

Many thanks in advance!

Allan

 

[jfm]

Hi,

I'm hoping to sell my boat privately, and was wondering if it is normal practice to pass previous copies of the MCA Bill of Sale documents to the new owner, or just the original sales invoice?

Also, can I use the MCA Bill of Sale document myself, or is there a better formal sale document I can use (RYA)?

Many thanks in advance!

Allan

Normal practice is to give originals (not copies) of previous BoS to new owner, so that complete chain of ownership documentation stays with the boat

The mca BoS is the best one to use generally. Note, it is merely an instrument of transfer not a contract. If you want to have a written contract containing written t+cs then youy need to write that or adapt the rya model. The BoS can never do that job and isn't meant to

 

[Nautibusiness]

Daftly a boat can be sold with nothing more than an invoice written on the back of a fag packet.

But, good practise will see the following supplied to the purchaser from the vendor:

1) If the boat is post 1985 an original purchase invoice that details the boat, including hull number, and show a vat element within the invoice giving a total inclusive of VAT. Ideally this invoice will also be marked as paid, but this is not often the case.

2) If the boat is post June 16th 1998 then the boat MUST be (the only true legal requirement) CE Marked. This will include a CE plate on the boat and with luck the "Declaration of Conformity" or CE Certificate will not have been lost.
Exceptions to the CE rule would, for example, be a home built boat which I believe must have been owned by the builder for a minimum of 5 years or a boat that is used for commercial fishing or maybe charter in which case different "codings" will be required. These can be in addition to CE marking, but in some cases can be instead of. If the boat is subsequently sold in to the leisure market and it had its coding instead of CE marking then it will need to be CE marked accordingly.

3) Not always provided, but an essential requirement if you go down the secured finance route is a Builders Certificate or Statement of Origin.
This ultimately forms the very first part of the "Chain of Title" that you will often hear referred to.

4) An MCA Bill of Sale is the most recognised format for a Bill of Sale, but one can be drawn up to a different format if you wish. That said, why would you when it is available to download free of charge from the MCAs website?
A Bill of Sale should ideally be provided (often it isn't, if not, the VAT invoice is even more important and this will then be used as first title to the first owner) from the supplying dealer to the first owner.
There should be another bill of sale for each subsequent owner.
All the bills of sale, the VAT invoice (in lieu of a first bill of sale) and the Builders Certificate collectively form what would be known as Chain of Title. Complete chain of title would be all of the above.

Try your best to get / provide at least the last five years worth and we have already discussed the importance of the Original VAT invoice in a previous thread.
In addition, service history, manuals and other related paperwork is always useful to pass on.
The vendor should always do his best to supply original documents for the chain of title, if he must, he can keep copies for his records. If originals have been lost then try and get copies stamped as "certified true copies" by the original dealer or manufacturer.

Best of luck