bona fide purchaser for value without notice

A bona fide purchaser for value without notice is a defence available to those who acquire title to property without actual notice, constructive or imputed notice of adverse title to the goods and for valuable consideration.

Bona Fide Purchaser

A bona fide purchaser is able to resist claims by persons having an interest in the subject property which are earlier in time, such as a person whose car was stolen, and subsequently purchased by a the bona fide purchaser for value without notice.

Notice and Knowledge

Purchasers are usually deemed to know (constructive notice) of any interest in property which is registered. Registration places purchasers on notice of the prior registered interest.

Tracing

As a general principle, where a person has a proprietary interest in property and is entitled to trace through assets to recover it, he may (a) recover the property by following the asset unless and until the asset passes into the hands of a bona fide purchaser for value without notice, and also (b) trace the value of his proprietary interest into identifiable substitutes for the original asset, unless the substitute has been provided by a bona fide purchaser for value without notice.

A bona fide purchaser is one of the bars to the remedy of restitution.