Singapore legislation
Section 4
Section 4
Bill of sale to be void under certain circumstances unless attested and registered
(1)
Every bill of sale shall be duly attested and shall be registered under this Act within 3 clear days after the execution thereof, and shall truly set out the consideration for which it was given, otherwise the following consequences shall ensue:
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;
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 sheriff’s officers and other persons seizing any chattels comprised in that bill of sale in the execution of any process of any court authorising the seizure of the chattels of the person by whom or of whose chattels that 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 that bill of sale which at or after the time of filing the application for bankruptcy or liquidation or of the execution of such assignment or of executing such process, as the case may be, and after the expiration of such 3 days are in the possession or apparent possession of the person making that bill of sale or of any person against whom the process has issued under or in the execution of which that 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.