What does it mean?
We are miles away from our donations. The donors send us all paperwork by mail, including an information sheet which they sign the form with a Power of Attorney giving us and the people we sell them to Power to Transfer the ownership and move the items.
Oftentimes the sheet is filled out by wives, widows, parents, etc. Some of these are people who have not used the boat or car in a long time and they are occasionally mistaken about years and models (normally on older items) and sometimes the mistakes are even on the titles of the items themselves. You can call us and ask us about that.
At other times the information sheet is filled out and the donors themselves have moved and the boat, trailers, cars, rv's, motorcycles, vans, trucks, sailboats, canoes, or mopeds are still in storage.
We describe "Where Is": It means that when you pick up the item that is where it is. We are not making a guarantee that the item is at a specific location. We will furnish you the address the donor gives us and you will get the item in the photos. We cannot promise you that the item has not been moved from one area to another (generally the distances are quite short.) You are buying something where it is.
If there is no item: If you make an effort to pick up the item after the auction (call the donor and pick up in 4 days) and the item is simply not there (towed off, stolen or missing) then we will not keep your funds. If you make arrangements to leave it there longer with the donor, the storage yard, or the marina, then you are doing so at your own risk; you are the new owner--the obligations for insuring and securing your item are yours, we will not assume them. We do not guarantee that if you leave your item at someone else's house, storage area, marina, storage yard, or slip, that they will keep it indefinitely. It is just like parking on the street. You take the risk that it can be moved.
"AS-IS" is a phrase taken from the UCC commercial code which governs sales in the United States. (It means, As it is) There is no guarantee that the item is in any condition whatsoever. It can beautiful on the outside and need work on the inside. The ad can describe "Donor says it is running" but the donor may not have used it for 3 years or longer. We do not claim or guarantee anything excepting the item is "AS-IS." Some items need no work at all, other items will need a lot of work put in. Those are the conditions you are assuming in an "AS-IS" sale. It is an online auction conducted under the rules of EBAY. The prices are low and you need to reserve funds for moving and repairs. To get the items into tip top shape most require some work. We publish the photos given us and you can see online the date they were developed.
Once the auction is over and you have paid, we will send you the original donor form so you can see the description the donor gave us. We do our best to disclose everything on the form, but we cannot guarantee that occasionally we won't miss a donor comment. Due to poor handwriting or perhaps a comment unseen on the back of the form we have missed a few. We list about 140 items per month and it is a fairly grueling task for our listing agent. Each listing takes about 15 minutes to upload and prepare as Ebay has about 4 fields that need to be filled out.
Regarding Title Changes of Ownership: Our donors claim to own the items they donate. Sometimes they are the original owners, sometimes they purchased them used. Each state has different rules and some states do not have titles. Some states (currently 50 states in the USA, all with different regulations) have no titles for trailers or titles for certain years, and then some of those states have registration-only rules. You can find out online what your state regulations are quite easily. Some states need titles for engines. The buyer needs to know the rules of their state.*
In the case of defaced, lost or missing titles we will pay for notary services, registered mail, and lost title fees if the item is not listed "Sold on Bill of Sale Only." If it is listed, "Sold on Bill of Sale Only," we are announcing to you that the item is donated with no title from the donor. This does not mean we will pay for your new title or pay for your boat registration as those are your responsibility. We will cover only the "lost title fee" of covering the title that the donor lost. The registered mail fees back and forth we will also reimburse. If the donor has made mistakes on the title we will furnish Statement of Error Forms or new Power of Attorney Forms for the donor to notarize giving you the right to apply for a missing document or make corrections to a document with an error. If the donor has not properly transferred the titles we will cover (within reason) their cost of doing so. While this is being done it is still your responsibility to safeguard and protect your purchase. it is best to get those issues settled prior to rebuilding an engine or putting additional work into the boat.
We do not claim ownership of the donations just the right to sell them granted by the donors who have claimed to be the rightful owner. We have been granted power of attorney by our donor and the right to sell/transfer their items and for the monies received to go to our charity. You are getting the item from our donors directly with the funds going to us.
In short, we will do the best job we can to insure that you can legally use your item and enjoy it for years to come.
Thank You,
Boat Angel Outreach Center Team
