Are we required to sell used equipment to internal departments?

Ideally, departments should make every effort to sell or dispose of used equipment (capital asset) internally.

The purpose of the University’s disposal policy is to ensure:

There are no disposals of assets when these assets could be put to good use elsewhere within the University
Fair Market Value is received for disposals
The allocation of proceeds for disposals are addressed

However, if no internal buyers are available, or an external buyer is offering substantially more the selling department can proceed with an external sale.

Ideally, departments should make every effort to find another home for assets within the U of T community. If the difference is price is rather small, it may be worthwhile to ask the internal department if they’d be willing to match the offer of the external supplier (even though they only require a component). This way, your department is at least giving the first right of refusal to an internal department.

Last Updated: September 2, 2020