Superbike Factory customers caught in ownership battle over motorcycles

The Superbike Factory collapse has taken another turn, with the company's administrators revealing that a third-party funder is claiming ownership of motorcycles that customers believe are theirs.

It is a significant development, especially since the administrators, KR8, are not simply accepting the funder's claim. Instead, they say they are examining competing claims over the bikes and have asked the funder to provide the contractual and legal documentation supporting its position.

The latest customer communication, dated August 6 and sent to us by a customer who wished to remain anonymous, covers two groups affected by the collapse. The first is people who paid for a motorcycle but never received it, while the second covers people who handed a motorcycle to Superbike Factory to sell but never received the money before the administrators were called in. In both cases, the administrators say the ownership of the motorcycles is now the key issue.

For customers who paid for a bike but never received it, the administrators state that, based on the information currently available to them, the motorcycles “do not appear to be the property” of Superbike Factory Limited.

That suggests the bikes are not simply being treated as assets belonging to the failed company, and therefore are not available to be sold as part of the administration process. Instead, the administrators say they are taking a neutral position on ownership and are relying on the contractual evidence available to them.

The complication is that an unnamed third-party funder claims that it holds title to the motorcycles. The administrators say they are in discussions with the funder about that claim, but that there are potentially competing claims between customers and the funder. As a result, they currently cannot authorise the release of any of the motorcycles until the ownership question has been resolved. And it looks as though some of the bikes have already been retained by the funder.

That might sound alarming for customers, but there is an important qualification. The funder has given the administrators an undertaking that it will not attempt to dispose of any of the motorcycles while the ownership position remains unresolved. That basically means the bikes are held in stasis while all the legal gobbledegook is figured out.

It has also agreed to safely store and insure the bikes it is holding, which, if you are in either group of affected customers, will be welcome relief. The administrators say this is significant because Superbike Factory itself does not have sufficient funds to guarantee the same level of storage and insurance. The majority of the motorcycles, however, remain under the control of the administrators.

The same ownership dispute applies to motorcycles in the second category, which covers people who handed their bikes to Superbike Factory to be sold but were never paid. Again, the funder is asserting title and ownership. But as before, the administrators say they have requested the supporting legal and contractual documentation.

Until that evidence has been considered, the administrators say they cannot release the motorcycles to either party.

There is one phrase in the latest update that perhaps sums up the situation better than anything else. The administrators say that their current intention is to ensure that the motorcycles are made available to their “rightful legal owners”. Exactly who those rightful legal owners are is the question that now needs answering, and it’s important to note that the update has been incredibly carefully worded, so as not to throw any uncertainty or false hope into the equation.

At no point does KR8 say that the third-party funder owns the motorcycles, nor does it confirm that customers or sellers do. They are maintaining a neutral position while the competing claims are investigated.

For customers who have already spent months waiting for their motorcycles, that means another period of prolonged uncertainty. What the latest update does at least establish is that the motorcycles themselves have not simply disappeared into the ether. Most remain under the control of the administrators, while those held by the funder are subject to an undertaking not to dispose of them while the ownership dispute is resolved.

We expect another update from KR8 this week.

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