ACT home auctions: one seller bid, no cooling-off and the seller's reports

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Kooky

Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.

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A home auction in the Australian Capital Territory looks, from the footpath, like an auction anywhere else in Australia: a crowd, a numbered paddle, a hammer. What sits underneath is particular to the territory, and most of it is found in one statute. The Civil Law (Sale of Residential Property) Act 2003 decides which papers must exist before a home may be offered at all, who pays for the inspection reports among them, and which buyers get a cooling-off period. Its Part 4, on public auctions (auctions that have been publicly advertised, in the words of section 24), then sets the rules of the auction itself: who may bid, what must be on display, how many bids may be made for the seller, and what happens to anyone who bids falsely.

This guide follows the sale in the order a bidder meets it: the documents and reports that must be ready before the campaign starts, registration, the conditions on display, the seller bid, the fall of the hammer, and the penalties that stand behind the rules. It describes the position as read in October 2026, from the Act and its regulation as republished on the ACT legislation register, together with the Agents Act 2003 and the Agents Regulation 2003, which license the people who run the sale. Where those texts do not answer a question, the guide says so instead of filling the gap.

Civil Law (Sale of Residential Property) Act 2003, sections 30, 32 and 25, Republication No 32, effective 1 November 2025.

Which laws apply, and who holds the hammer

The Civil Law (Sale of Residential Property) Act 2003 applies to "residential property" as its section 8 defines it: vacant land on which one or more residences may be built under the territory lease, land with one or two residences built or under construction, or a unit. Land or units of more than 3 hectares, retirement villages and developers' holding leases are among the exclusions. The version read for this guide is Republication No 32, effective 1 November 2025. The detail the Act leaves to regulation is in the Civil Law (Sale of Residential Property) Regulation 2004, read in Republication No 21, effective 23 February 2026.

The Agents Act 2003 supplies the licences. It treats calling an auction as its own licensed activity: section 11 says a land auctioneer service includes acting as an auctioneer of land, rural land included, while section 8 describes the service of a real estate agent as selling land "other than by auction". Under section 21 it is an offence to carry on business as a land auctioneer, or to pretend to be one, without a licence, with a maximum penalty of 100 penalty units. The offence is one of strict liability, meaning the prosecution does not have to prove intent. Under section 18 of the Agents Regulation 2003, a licensed land auctioneer who advertises an auction must include their name and licence number. The version of the Agents Act read is Republication No 45, effective 6 December 2025.

The papers that must exist before the home is offered

In the territory the seller's homework comes first. Section 9 of the Civil Law (Sale of Residential Property) Act lists the "required documents". The first is a copy of the proposed contract, complete except for the buyer's and the lawyer's details, the price, the contract date and the description of any furnishings included. Then come the title papers: a copy of the Crown lease, a current certified extract from the land titles register showing every interest that affects the property, the deposited plan, a copy of any encumbrance shown on the register, a statement in the prescribed form about any encumbrance not shown on it, and the lease conveyancing inquiry documents.

For each residence on the land the list continues with the building conveyancing inquiry documents, any energy efficiency rating statement, a building and compliance inspection report and, if the residence is occupied, a pest inspection report. A copy of each current asbestos assessment report is required if one exists; if there is none, or the seller cannot find one after taking reasonable steps, the seller supplies asbestos advice instead. Prescribed documents are added where the premises have a regulated swimming pool. A unit brings its own set, including the registered units plan and a unit title sale certificate dated no earlier than 3 months before the property was first advertised, offered or listed.

Section 10 of the Act turns the list into a duty. A seller commits an offence if all the required documents are not available for inspection by a prospective buyer at all reasonable times when an offer to buy may be made. The maximum penalty is 10 penalty units and the offence is strict liability.

The agent carries a parallel and heavier duty. Under section 89A of the Agents Act, an agent who offers residential property for sale commits an offence if the required documents are not all available at the agent's place of business for a prospective buyer to inspect at all reasonable times. The maximum is 50 penalty units, and the same applies to an assistant property agent employed by the agent. The section spells out what "offers" means, and it is wide: indicating that a property is for sale or is to be auctioned, inviting offers, or showing the property to a prospective buyer.

The reports: content, age, independence and cost

In the ACT the seller has to put the two inspection reports in the file, so every bidder can read the same inspection before the auction. The regulation says what each must contain. Under its section 7, a building and compliance inspection report is completed under Australian Standard AS 4349.1, with modifications the section lists. It must state prominently the date of the inspection and the date the report was prepared, and give the preparer's professional indemnity policy number and expiry date or attach a certificate of currency. For any structure it includes the approved plans, building approvals, building permits and certificates of occupancy where they exist, with a statement on whether the structure substantially complies with the approved plans and whether an approval was needed. A pest inspection report, under section 10, is completed under AS 4349.3 and carries the same statements of dates and insurance.

Two clocks run on a report. The Act limits how old the inspection may be when the campaign opens: it must have been carried out not earlier than 3 months before the day the property was first advertised, offered for sale or listed by an agent. The regulation then limits how long a buyer may lean on it: the report cannot be relied on for a contract entered into more than 180 days after the inspection, and the report itself must say when reliance is permitted. A seller who obtained two or more reports in the 6 months before the first advertisement must provide each of them, so an earlier report cannot simply be left out of the file.

There are exemptions. Under section 9(2) of the Act, the building conveyancing inquiry documents and the building report are not required for a class A unit, for a residence that has never been occupied or sold as a dwelling, or for a residence still to be erected or developed before completion. The pest report is not required for a class A unit. A document is also not required where the seller cannot obtain it after taking all reasonable steps.

Independence is written into the Act. Under section 9(3) the person who prepares a report must not be a family member of the seller, the agent or the lawyer, a member of a firm they belong to, or a business in which they have a right to share profits. Section 11 of the regulation requires the preparer to hold professional indemnity insurance with a limit of at least A$500,000, unless the minister determines another amount. Section 19 of the Act makes the preparer liable to compensate a buyer who suffers loss because a report was false or misleading in a material particular or was prepared without reasonable skill and care.

The energy rating has rules of its own. Section 22 makes it an offence, with a maximum of 5 penalty units, to publish an advertisement for the sale of premises that does not state the energy efficiency rating of the habitable part. Section 23 requires the seller to give the prospective buyer a copy of the rating statement before the contract is made, and the buyer certifies receipt in writing. If the seller does not comply, the seller must pay the buyer 0.5% of the purchase price.

The seller orders and pays for the whole file up front. What happens afterwards is fixed by section 18 of the Civil Law (Sale of Residential Property) Act: on completion, the seller may recover from the buyer the cost of the first building and compliance inspection report, or the only one, and the cost of the first pest inspection report, or the only one. The cost does not include anything paid for an additional service, such as faster delivery.

Only the first report of each kind can be recovered, so a seller who commissions a second one carries its cost, and the money moves at completion, so a bidder who does not win pays nothing for reports they read. Section 18 names those two reports and no other required document, and the Act read for this guide sets no dollar cap on the recoverable cost.

Registering to bid: the bidders record

Section 25 of the Act requires the seller's agent, before residential property is offered at a public auction, to make a record of the people who can bid. The Act calls it the bidders record. For each person it holds their name and address, the details of the proof of identity the agent sighted, whether the person is bidding for themselves or for someone else, the name and address of that principal if there is one, and an identifying bidder number given by the agent for the auction.

Proof of identity is defined. Section 24 names an Australian driver licence or an Australian passport, or another proof prescribed by regulation. Section 13 of the regulation adds a card or document showing the person's name and address issued by the territory, by the Commonwealth or a state government or statutory authority, or by an authorised deposit-taking institution; its examples are a rates notice, a bank statement and a tax assessment notice. A foreign passport or foreign driver licence showing the person's name is accepted together with a card or document from a different body showing the name and address.

The duty to check is the agent's, under section 26. An agent commits an offence by entering a person as a bidder on their own behalf without having sighted proof of identity. Where someone bids for another person, the agent must have sighted the bidder's written authority stating the principal's name and address before entering the principal's details. Both offences are strict liability, and a third covers entering details the agent knows to be false or is reckless about. Each carries a maximum of 50 penalty units. The Agents Regulation adds a rule for professional representatives: under its section 8.29, a buyer's agent must not keep bidding once the bids pass the principal's maximum or agreed price unless the principal, or someone they authorise, expressly consents.

The record is kept for 3 years and it is confidential. Under section 27 an agent who discloses information from it, or uses it for a purpose unrelated to the auction, commits an offence with a maximum of 50 penalty units, unless a territory law authorises or requires the disclosure. The regulation limits who writes in it: only the seller's agent or an employee acting for the agent may make an entry, and anyone else who does faces a maximum of 10 penalty units. Its section 14 also requires the record to be in English, allows it to be kept electronically, and adds the particulars of the event: the date and place of the auction, the property, the seller, the agent's and the auctioneer's names and licence numbers, and at the end either the successful bidder and the sale price or, if the home did not sell, the highest bid accepted, leaving out any seller bid.

On the day, the number is what counts. Section 28 makes it an offence for the auctioneer to take a bid from a person who is not displaying their bidder number, or to take a bid without audibly acknowledging that number, with a maximum of 50 penalty units. The section then settles the two questions this raises. An auctioneer who refuses a bid for that reason incurs no liability for refusing it. And a bid taken in breach of the section is still valid for all purposes: the offence is the auctioneer's, and the sale stands.

The conditions on display for 30 minutes

Every public auction of residential property in the territory runs on the same base. Section 31A of the Act says it must be conducted under the standard auction conditions prescribed by regulation, and section 32 allows the seller to add other conditions only if they are not inconsistent with the standard ones. The auctioneer commits a strict liability offence, with a maximum of 50 penalty units, by beginning the auction when the conditions have not been displayed at the place of the auction for at least 30 minutes beforehand.

The standard conditions are short, and they are set out in schedule 1 of the regulation. Each bidder must be entered on the bidders record. The auctioneer may refuse any bid, decides the amount by which bidding advances, may refer a bid to the seller at any time before the auction ends, and may withdraw the property from sale at any time. If a bid is disputed, the auctioneer may put the property up again at the last undisputed bid or start the bidding afresh, and is the sole arbiter, whose decision is final. The sale is subject to a reserve price unless the auctioneer announces otherwise. The highest recorded bidder is the buyer, subject to that reserve.

One seller bid at most, and the ban on dummy bidding

A seller bid is a bid made by the auctioneer for the seller. The first of the standard conditions is a choice between two printed alternatives, one of which must be deleted: either no bids may be made for the seller, or the auctioneer may make one bid for the seller at any time during the auction. A territory auction may therefore have no seller bid at all, and a bidder learns which from the conditions on display.

Where the bid is allowed, section 30 of the Act attaches three requirements. The auction conditions must permit it. Before bidding begins, the auctioneer must declare orally at the auction that the conditions permit it. And immediately before making the bid, or as it is made, the auctioneer must tell the bidders audibly that it is for the seller; the Act's own example is saying "seller bid". Naming the seller is not enough: if a name is used, the auctioneer must say that the person named is the seller.

The limit carries through to the advertising afterwards. Section 33 applies where an auction ends without a sale and the last bid was the auctioneer's bid for the seller. In marketing the property, the seller or the agent must not state the amount of that last bid without also stating that it was a bid for the seller; the maximum penalty is 100 penalty units. A person who passes the figure on for publication, and a publisher of auction results, each face a maximum of 50 penalty units for leaving the label off. Describing the amount as a "seller bid" is enough to comply.

Anything on the seller's side beyond that one announced bid is what section 29 calls dummy bidding. A seller must not bid at a public auction of their own property or arrange for someone else to bid for them. A person must not bid for the seller. Each offence carries a maximum of 100 penalty units and is strict liability. The section closes the obvious gaps: a bid may be treated as made for the seller even if the seller did not ask for it or know of it, evidence that the bidder meant to benefit the seller is evidence that the bid was made for the seller, and it does not matter that the bidder was outside the territory or outside Australia.

The auctioneer answers separately under section 31. Accepting a bid the auctioneer knows was made by or for the seller, and acknowledging a bid when no bid was made, each carry a maximum of 100 penalty units. Bidders have a rule of their own in section 34: a person who intends to bid, or who acts for one, commits an offence by intentionally preventing someone else from bidding, with a maximum of 50 penalty units.

Reserve, passed in, and the fall of the hammer

Under the standard conditions the sale is subject to a reserve unless the auctioneer announces otherwise, and the highest recorded bidder is the buyer subject to it. If the property is passed in below the reserve, the eleventh condition says the seller must first negotiate with the highest bidder. When the hammer falls on a sale, the twelfth requires the buyer to sign the contract and pay the deposit immediately. The standard conditions do not state a deposit percentage; the figure is a matter for the contract in the seller's file.

Because the required documents are deemed by section 11 of the Act to form part of the contract, the file a bidder read before the auction becomes part of what they signed. The same section gives a buyer who discovers certain breaches before completion, such as an undisclosed encumbrance, an unapproved structure or a material error in the description of the property, the choice of rescinding or of completing and claiming damages.

No cooling-off, including the same evening

A buyer by private treaty in the territory has a cooling-off period. Section 12 of the Act starts it when the contract is made and ends it at 5 pm on the fifth working day after the day it begins. Within it the buyer may rescind by signed written notice for any reason, and under section 15 forfeits 0.25% of the purchase price to the seller, taken from the deposit, with the balance returned.

Section 12(2) removes that period in five cases: the buyer is a corporation; the property is sold by tender; the property is sold by auction; the buyer waives the period under section 13; or the contract is made on the same day as the property was offered for sale by auction but passed in, and the buyer was recorded in the bidders record as a bidder or as a person for whom a bidder was bidding.

The penalties in dollars: worked examples

The Acts express penalties in penalty units. The republication notices read for this guide, the latest dated 23 February 2026, give the value of one unit as A$160 for an individual and A$810 for a corporation. The table multiplies each maximum by those two values. The figures are maximums computed for illustration; a court sets the actual penalty, and the unit value can change.

Two percentages in the Act can be worked the same way. Take, as an assumption, a home sold for A$900,000. A private-treaty buyer who rescinded during cooling-off would forfeit 0.25% of that price, A$2,250. A seller who failed to hand over the energy efficiency rating statement before the contract would owe the buyer 0.5% of the price, A$4,500. The first sum cannot arise at a hammer sale, because a buyer at auction has no cooling-off period to use.

What the texts read do not settle

Three points are left open. The Agents Act 2003 could be read only as far as section 89A; its contents list shows no auction division, and the auction rules above come from the Civil Law (Sale of Residential Property) Act, but the later sections of the Agents Act were not read. Access Canberra's consumer guide Reality Check, an undated third edition with some figures marked as at September 2015, lists further steps, among them a set of announcements before the first bid and an inspection period for on-site auctions; apart from the seller bid declaration, those were not found in the Act or the regulation and are not stated here as rules. And no text read sets the size of the deposit at auction.

In the territory the seller pays for the inspections before the campaign, the bidders record is checked before the first bid, and the hammer is final: no cooling-off follows it.

Kooky, from Shaka

Kooky edits Agents Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for real estate professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.

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