New South Wales Consolidated Acts

WAREHOUSEMEN'S LIENS ACT 1935 - SECT 6

6 Power to sell goods

(1) In addition to all other remedies provided by law for the enforcement of liens or for the recovery of warehouseman’s charges a warehouseman may sell by public auction, in the manner provided in this section, any goods upon which he or she has a lien for charges which have become due.

(2) The warehouseman shall give written notice of his or her intention to sell:

(a) to the person liable as debtor for the charges for which the lien exists, and

(b) to the owner of the goods, including any person who has served upon the warehouseman a prescribed notice of his or her claim to be the owner of the goods or of some interest therein, and

(c) to the grantee of the goods under any security instrument registered under the Security Interests in Goods Act 2005 at the date of the deposit of the goods.

(3) The notice may be given personally or by registered post.

(4) The notice shall contain:

(a) a brief description of the goods, and

(b) a statement showing the location of the warehouse where the goods are stored, the date of their deposit with the warehouseman, and the name of the person by whom they were deposited, and

(c) an itemized statement of the warehouseman’s charges showing the sum due at the time of the notice, and

(d) a demand that the amount of the charges as stated in the notice and such further charges as may accrue shall be paid on or before a day mentioned, not less than one month from the delivery of the notice if it is personally delivered, or from the time when the notice should reach its destination according to the due course of post if it is sent by post, and

(e) a statement that unless the charges are paid within the time mentioned the goods will be advertised for sale and sold by public auction at a time and place specified in the notice.

(5) Where the charges are not paid on or before the day mentioned in the notice, an advertisement of the sale, describing the goods to be sold, and stating the time and place of the sale, shall be published at least once a week for two consecutive weeks in a newspaper circulating in the locality where the sale is to be held, and in one metropolitan daily newspaper.
The sale shall be held not less than fourteen days from the date of the first publication of the advertisement.

(6) The Local Court may, on the application of the owner, made in the manner prescribed, at any time after the service of the notice by order, stay further proceedings under this section, for such period and on such terms as it deems just, and any proceedings under this section taken after due service of such order on the warehouseman, and during the period specified in the order, shall be illegal.

(7) Nothing in this section authorises:

(a) the sale of goods deposited prior to the commencement of the Warehousemen’s Liens (Amendment) Act 1989 , unless at least some part of the charges in arrears relates to a period more than 12 months before the date on which the notice of intention to sell the goods is given, or

(b) the sale of goods deposited after the commencement of that Act, unless at least some part of the charges in arrears relates to a period more than 6 months before the date on which the notice of intention to sell the goods is given.