Auction : Legislation

AUCTION LEGISLATION

Sale of Land Act Regulations (2005)

• The auction information statement.
• The rules applying to auction.
• The mandatory announcement by the auctioneer.

Sale of Land Act Regulations (2005)

Sale of Land Amendment Regulation (2008)

New rules apply to bidding at public auctions of real estate conducted on or after Monday 20 June 2008.

• The auctioneer is prohibited from accepting late bids or offers after the property has been knocked down to the successful bidder.
• To ensure that people attending an auction are aware of the prohibition, the rule must be displayed for at least 30 minutes before the auction starts. This is set out in Rule 7 of the auction rules.
• The auctioneer must also announce to the crowd before the bidding starts that late bids and offers will not be accepted.
• Estate agents and agents' representatives attending the auction are prohibited from communicating to anyone any late offers they may hear.

State that rules of auction must be displayed for a minimum of 30 minutes prior to the auction.

An auctioneer is allowed to bid on behalf of a vendor to advance the bidding if:

• The rules allow for vendor bids.
• The rules are displayed for 30 minutes or more prior to the commencement of the auction.
• The auctioneer announces before the auction starts that vendor bids are permitted and the auctioneer announces at the time of making a vendor bid that it is a "vendor bid".

There are five scenarios for an auctioneer.

1. Vendor bidding and no co-owner bidding.
2. No vendor bidding and no CO-owner bidding.
3. Two co-owners, one CO-owner may bid plus vendor bids.
4. Two or more CO-owners, some but not all CO-owners may bid, plus vendor bids.
5. Two or more CO-owners, all CO-owners may bid, no vendor bids.

All relevant information and downloads as detailed above are available at Consumer Affairs Victoria (click on to the "Buying and Selling Property " - left hand index then select Auction and scroll down). The CAV site often features new Regulations on the right hand side under "Whats New".

Information displayed on the CAV website include:

Sale of Land Act Regulations (2005)

Which states which two documents must be displayed at least 30 minutes prior to the start of the auction ie:

• The Auction Information Statement.
• The Rules Applying to Auction.

The five relevant rules are available in PDF format downloadable from Consumer Affairs Victoria (click on to the "Buying and Selling Property " - left hand index then select Auction and scroll down). You can place your business card/company on them and laminate.

The mandatory announcement by the auctioneer is also available from Consumer Affairs Victoria (click on to the "Buying and Selling Property " - left hand index then select Auction and scroll down).