Mission / Vision

• The Registrar General's Department Mission Statement

• The Registrar General's Department Vision

• Objectives of the Registrar General's Department

1. Maintain an island wide network of Local District Registrars and Marriage Officers to ensure accurate and timely registration of all vital events.
2. Ensure that the public is fully informed of registration procedures to enable them to promptly and accurately give notice of all vital events to effect registration.
3. Provide a central national facility for effective authentication and safekeeping of public records so that there is a secure repository for all data, concerning the registration and recording of vital events (including adoptions, nauralisations and deed polls).
4. Provide access to certified copies of public documents to customers, in a timely fashion, on the payment of the appropriate fees.
5. Provide timely statistics and analyses, categorised according to international standards, to support demographic planning by Government.

Bill of Sale

  Bill of Sale


Historical Origin


The term “bill of sale” originally referred to any writing by which an absolute disposition of personality for value was effected or evidenced.  A common feature of such disposition is that the owner mortgagor remains in possession and exercises all the attendant rights of ownership, which may be so overwhelming as to induce a third party to accept the same chattel as a security for a grant, albeit without notice of the first mortgagee.

Contents of the Bill of Sale


In Jamaica, the Bills of Sale act was enacted on the 18^th June, 1867.   A Bills of Sale is a legal document that is created by a Financial Institution for an individual or a couple who meet the necessary requirements for a loan. This arrangement between the grantor (the individual or couple) and the grantee (the financial institution) must be recorded at the Registrar General’s Department (IRO) within thirty (30) days of execution.

The Bills of Sale is used to charge already owned chattels (goods, furniture) as security for a loan.

The document is comprised of the following:

• Names and address of parties involved
• The items for which the loan applies e.g.( motor vehicle)
• Loan amount
• Security type- a list of chattels
• Repayment date
• Percentage of interest rate
• Time period of the payment

This document is then signed by the grantor and the grantee in the presence of a Justice of the Peace who affixed his/her signature and seal.

A meeting of the committee of the financial institution is then convened where an approval for the loan in considered. A lien is therefore established upon the creation of the Bills of Sale.

On payment of debt by the grantor the financial institution would draft a document called the Power to Enter Satisfaction. The authority would be given to an agent from the said financial institution to enter satisfaction at the margin of the Bills of Sale stating that all monies borrowed have been paid.