Transfer of Ownership

To complete a transfer of ownership with the Society, the Society require either of the following:

 

1. To complete a transfer of ownership with the Society, the Society require you to complete a transfer of ownership form.  

• If it is a passport issued from 2020 onwards there is a transfer form in the back of the passport that needs to be completed fully by both the seller and the buyer. The Society needs both the passport and the transfer form to be sent to the office to complete the transfer.

• For all other styles of passport, the Society require the transfer box to be completed fully within the passport with the new owners details (name and address), the date of transfer and the sellers’ signature, and you may wish to submit a transfer of ownership form as well. This is recommended in order that we have your contact details, and should we need to get in touch with you we can do so promptly. You may also include your payment via the transfer form. If opting to use the transfer form as well, then providing the seller has signed the passport, you do not need them to sign the transfer form, but you should complete the other sections fully including the payment details, in order that payment accompanies the passport application.

 

      The transfer of ownership form can be downloaded from the Society website. 

 

2. If the previous owner has not signed the passport and the buyer does not have any written confirmation, such as a signed receipt of sale for the purchase, or way of contacting the seller by any other means to have the Transfer of Ownership Form signed, then a statutory declaration letter can be completed. DO NOT send the passport back to the seller for them to sign. Guidance can be downloaded from the Society website or requested from the office. The statutory declaration letter states that the buyer is now the legal owner of the horse, and the Society ask that you please fill in the details to the best of your knowledge. Please do not just download and sign the Statutory Declaration Guidance notes, the applicant must copy the example and write/type it out to the best of their knowledge, and then sign, date and print name at the bottom. The statutory declaration letter states that you are the legal owner of the horse, please fill in the details to the best of your knowledge. Please copy the example letter for the wording required and change the words in italics to your details as advised in the notes. 

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      The Statutory Declaration Guidance notes can be downloaded from the Society website. 

 

3. The fee for a transfer is £24.00 (member) or £36.00 (non-member). Payment must accompany the passport for the service. The transfer of ownership form includes a section where you can include you card details and we will take payment on processing the passport through our secure payment system. Alternatively, please call the office once the passport has been received and you can pay over the telephone. We return the passport by second class post, but if you would like the passport to be returned to you by Tracked 24 Delivery (tracked & signed – 2-3 working days) or Special (next day delivery by 1pm) for additional cost (see current price list) then please specify this when paying.

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The Society strongly recommends that all applications/documents/passports are sent by Signed For, Tracked, or Special Delivery and that customers pay the Society the same for the return of the completed passport(s). Alternatively, customers may include a pre-paid, self-addressed envelope for the return of the completed passport(s). 

By sending the application via recorded delivery, customers can track the package and ensure it has been delivered to the Society Office safely. Alternatively, customers can include a stamped addressed postcard which will be returned to confirm receipt of the package. The Society cannot answer calls asking whether a passport or application has been received; so please do not call. By sending the package via recorded delivery, receipt can be verified by inputting the tracking number to the Royal Mail Track & Trace website.

 

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Please ensure that you are sending the item(s) to the correct address. The Society moved premises in 2011 and as such, some passports produced before this date have an old address on the document. Please check the ‘Get In Touch’ page on the website for the correct address. The Society cannot take responsibility for passports or documents sent incorrectly to the old address. If a passport is posted to the incorrect address and lost, then a duplicate passport must be applied for by the customer at their cost.

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​The Society is often contacted by owners claiming that their animals have been stolen or an agreement breached.

Do not release a sold animal or it's passport to the buyer until full payment has been received. Please note, it is illegal to withhold the passport for an animal, and an equine must be transported with it's passport.

For the avoidance of doubt, the Society cannot get involved in legal disputes - this is a third party issue where the Society has no power to act. Similarly, we will then often get asked to place a 'hold' on the account of an animal that is involved in the dispute to stop any unagreed transfer of ownership requests from taking place. This is not possible. The Society can only place a hold on an animal record once in receipt of a valid crime reference number. In these cases, the Society may randomly check crime reference numbers supplied with the relevant police force in order to ascertain validity that the alleged crime relates to the equine in question. 

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For overseas transfers, it is possible to obtain an official Society Embossed Transfer of Ownership sticker, which is to be placed in the passport on the relevant page. This will be sent to the new owner on payment of the correct transfer of ownership fee, and submission of scans/photographs of the transfer of ownership section of the passport detailing the last recorded owner details, the signature of seller and the date of transfer. Where this information is not available, a Transfer of Ownership Form, receipt of sale or statutory declaration letter can be submitted as is outlined above. The sticker will be embossed with the Society logo and will include the name, address, and account number of the owner along with the name, UELN and microchip number of the pony and the Society’s EXPORT stamp and date of transfer. This method is a safer means of completing transfer of ownership for animals with Society passports that are resident overseas and outside of the U.K. only, in light of difficulties with posting equine passports overseas, particularly since Brexit.

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The Society works with a number of WPCS Daughter Societies to complete this service. Please contact your local WPCS Daughter Society in your country of domicile for further information on this service, or alternatively get in touch with the WPCS via and a member of staff can advise you on the necessary steps.