Who may call an auction in Tasmania, and the bidding rules that apply

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Kooky

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Tasmania has a licence called "general auctioneer", and the first surprise for anyone arriving from another state is what it does not cover. Under the Property Agents and Land Transactions Act 2016, a general auctioneering business is one where the property auctioned does not include land. A house, a farm or a block of units goes under the hammer by a different route: a public auction of land may only be conducted by a licensed real estate agent, or by someone that agent employs or contracts, as part of the agency's business.

So the question "who may call a property auction in Tasmania?" has two answers, depending on what "property" means on the day. This guide sets out both, then follows the Act through the rules that apply once the bidding starts: vendor bids, dummy bids, the conditions of sale, collusion between bidders and what a buyer must hand over when the hammer falls. It then covers what the Property Agents Board, the state's regulator, publishes about qualifications, fees, continuing professional development, its Code of Conduct and discipline. It describes the position as read in October 2026.

Penalty unit value as published by the Property Agents Board for 2026-27; Property Agents and Land Transactions Act 2016 (Tas), sections 69 and 71.

The texts this guide reads

Three documents carry the rules. The first is the Property Agents and Land Transactions Act 2016, read here in the consolidated version on the Tasmanian Legislation site. That version shows Royal Assent on 21 December 2016 and carries amendment notes up to an Act numbered 7 of 2025, applied from 1 July 2025. The second is the Board's Code of Conduct, version 4, which the Board says has been in effect since 1 January 2022, when version 3 expired. The third is the set of pages the Board publishes for the trade.

The Board describes itself as the statutory authority regulating real estate and property practices across Tasmania, and says it works under the Act, the Property Agents and Land Transactions Regulations 2017 and the Code. Section 5 of the Act gives it five members: a Chair who is an Australian lawyer of at least five years' standing, two property agents with at least five years' experience each (one nominated by the body representing the majority of agents, one by the Minister) and two people who are not agents, nominated by the Minister.

One limit should be stated plainly. The consolidated Act was read for this guide from its opening sections through Part 6, on auctions, and Part 7, on conduct, as far as section 111. Later provisions were not read, and nothing here should be taken as describing them.

Two kinds of auction, two rules on who may conduct them

Section 3 of the Act defines a general auctioneer as a person who holds a valid general auctioneer licence, and a general auctioneering business as auctioneering where the property auctioned does not include land. Section 15 lets the Board issue four licences and no others: real estate agent, property manager, general auctioneer and property representative. There is no separate licence in the Act for a "real estate auctioneer".

Section 59 then draws the line. Under subsection (1), nobody may carry on a general auctioneering business, or hold themselves out as ready to, unless they are a general auctioneer entered in Part 3 of the Board's Register or a real estate agent entered in Part 1. The maximum penalty is a fine of 1,000 penalty units. Under subsection (2), nobody may conduct a public auction of land unless they are a real estate agent entered in Part 1 of the Register, or a person employed or contracted by such an agent, and the auction is part of that agent's real estate agency business. The maximum penalty there is 50 penalty units.

Two consequences follow. A real estate agent's licence is the wider one: it allows both land auctions and general auctioneering. A general auctioneer's licence alone does not allow its holder to conduct a public auction of land, unless the holder is employed or contracted by a real estate agent and the auction belongs to that agency's business. Consumer Affairs Tasmania, the state's consumer regulator, puts the practical result in one line on its property auctions page: auctions are "usually conducted by a real estate agent acting as an auctioneer".

The general auctioneer licence and its qualifications

Section 18 of the Act sets two tests for any licence: the applicant must have the relevant qualifications and must be a fit and proper person. Section 27 then lists the ways a person may qualify as a general auctioneer. The Act gives five:

1. The applicant's name was in Part 3 of the Register, the general auctioneers' part, at some time in the five years before applying.
2. The applicant holds the qualification the Board has determined under section 28A.
3. The Board is satisfied, by examination or inquiry, that the applicant has sufficient knowledge and experience.
4. The applicant is a company with a director who holds a general auctioneer licence.
5. The applicant is authorised in another state or territory and has been employed full-time for at least two of the five years before applying, to the Board's satisfaction. This route is not open to companies.

The Board's qualifications page says what the second route means today. The determined qualification has three parts, and all three are required: the Diploma of Property (Agency Management), course code CPP51122, and two units of competency, CPPREP4505 "Value goods, chattels, plant and equipment" and CPPREP4509 "Auction goods, chattels or equipment". The page presents the third route, satisfying the Board "by examination or inquiry" of sufficient knowledge and experience of general auctioneering business, as an alternative to that qualification.

The two extra units are about goods, not land, which fits the licence. For the land side, the same page asks a real estate agent for the same diploma plus full-time work as a property manager or property representative for at least two of the five years immediately before the application.

A licence does not run indefinitely. Section 21 limits it to a period not exceeding 12 months, set by the Board. Section 22 asks for the renewal application at least 60 days before expiry; the Board may accept a late one at its discretion, with a late fee, and the existing licence continues until the renewal is decided.

What the licence costs in 2026-27

The Board's fees and charges page lists the amounts that apply from 1 July 2026. It prices general auctioneers exactly as it prices real estate agents and property managers, with a higher fee for a holder who carries on a business.

The page does not say whether the assessment fee is charged in addition to the licence fee on a first application. As a worked example on the assumption that both are payable, a first-time general auctioneer who carries on a business would pay the assessment fee plus the licence fee, A$713.44 in all for 2026-27. That total is this guide's own addition and rests on that assumption; the Board does not publish it. The page states that the assessment fee is not refundable.

Continuing professional development

Training does not stop at the licence. Section 20A of the Act requires a licence holder to complete the courses or training the Board approves, to the standard the Board sets, and to give the Board the information it asks for about them. Each duty carries a maximum fine of 50 penalty units.

The Board's continuing professional development page explains how that works in practice, and the first thing it says is that there is no single number for everyone. The points a person must earn are written as a condition on that person's own licence. The page gives two examples of such conditions: eight points by 30 April 2024, of which six are industry specific and at least two come from an external provider, and ten points by 30 June 2022. Since 1 July 2022, the page says, the requirement must be met by 30 April each year. It gives no separate figure for general auctioneers.

The other rules on the page are these:

• An activity must be approved by the Board in advance; training that was not approved cannot be claimed.
• An activity that is not specific to the industry earns a maximum of two points, whatever its length.
• An activity cannot be repeated to earn points in a later licence year.
• Evidence such as statements of attainment or attendance records should be kept for at least two years, and the Board runs random audits each year.
• An exemption or extension may be requested in writing for extenuating circumstances. The page states that "financial hardship, workload, age or remote location are not adequate grounds for an exemption".

A person who does not comply may not be re-licensed, or may have further conditions added, according to the page, which also cites section 20(5) of the Act: contravening a licence condition carries a fine of up to 50 penalty units. When the page was read in October 2026 it carried a notice that submissions through the Board's portal were paused while the Board restructures how continuing professional development is approved and submitted.

Before the first bid: conditions of sale and the notice

Two duties fall on the person running the auction before anyone bids, and both are dated.

The first concerns the conditions of sale for land. Section 71 forbids a real estate agent from conducting a public auction of land unless a copy of the conditions has been available for public inspection for a reasonable time beforehand. The section then says what will count. The duty is treated as breached unless the conditions were available at least seven days before the auction, the fact that they were available was published in a way likely to reach the people expected to attend, and the conditions were displayed at the venue immediately before the auction. The maximum penalty is 50 penalty units.

The second is a notice of the rules themselves. Section 79 says a general auctioneer or real estate agent must not conduct an auction until notice has been given of the relevant and material parts of six sections: section 67 on owner bids, 69 on dummy bids, 70 on falsely acknowledging a bid, 76 on bidding agreements, 77 on collusive practices and 78 on the successful bidder's details. The notice must be in the manner and form the Board approves, and the maximum penalty is again 50 penalty units. The Board publishes the notice for each financial year; the one current in October 2026 is titled Auction Notice 2026-2027, version 1.

Section 74 closes a possible gap: an auction condition that is contrary to Part 6, or that tries to restrict or modify it, is void. The published conditions cannot be used to write the bidding rules out of the sale.

Vendor bids, dummy bids and the passed-in price

The starting point in section 67 is a prohibition. At a public auction of land, the owner must not bid or cause anyone else to bid, nobody may bid on the owner's behalf, and the auctioneer must not accept a bid from a person the auctioneer knows is bidding in breach of that rule. Procuring someone to make such a bid is a separate offence. Each carries a maximum of 500 penalty units.

The section is drafted to be hard to step around. It is no defence that the bidder was outside Tasmania. A bid can count as made for the owner even if the owner did not ask for it or know of it, and evidence that the bidder meant to benefit the owner is evidence that the bid was on the owner's behalf. There is one defence: where the land has several owners, one of them was bidding in good faith to acquire a greater interest, and the auctioneer was told so before the auction started.

Section 68 is the exception that makes a vendor bid lawful, and it has three conditions that must all be met. The conditions of the auction must permit the auctioneer to bid for the owner. Before bidding starts, the auctioneer must declare aloud that they do. And immediately before or while making the bid, the auctioneer must say audibly that it is made for the owner. The auctioneer must place the bid personally. Saying "vendor bid" is enough; naming the owner without saying that the person is the owner is not.

Section 68 as read sets no limit on how many vendor bids the auctioneer may make. The control is disclosure, not a count.

Dummy bidding is dealt with in two short sections. Under section 69, an auctioneer must not appear to acknowledge a bid that was not made. Under section 70, any person at a public auction must not falsely claim to have made a bid or falsely acknowledge one. Both carry up to 500 penalty units. Consumer Affairs Tasmania describes a dummy bid for consumers as either a false bid made up by the auctioneer or a bid the auctioneer accepts from someone in the crowd who is not a genuine bidder.

Section 72 follows the vendor bid out of the auction room. Where land is passed in and the last bid before the auction stopped was the auctioneer's vendor bid, three things become offences, each with a maximum of 500 penalty units: stating the amount of that bid when marketing the land without also saying it was a bid for the owner; giving the amount to someone else for publication without saying so; and publishing, in a report of auction results, that the land passed in at that figure without saying so. Calling it a "vendor bid" is sufficient. A person who was not at the auction and relied on someone who claimed to know what happened has a defence.

What the rules ask of bidders

The Act speaks to the crowd as well as to the rostrum. Section 76 deals with dealers, defined as people who in the normal course of business attend auctions to buy property for resale. A dealer must not give or offer a gift or payment to induce someone to stay out of the bidding, and nobody may accept or seek one for doing so. Section 77 deals with the "unlawful promise": a promise that, if the promisor is the successful bidder, the other person may take over the purchase at the auction price, or that ownership will be settled between them by some specified method. Using such a promise to induce another person to abstain, to bid only to a limited extent or otherwise to restrict free and open competition is an offence, and so is acting on one. All of these carry up to 500 penalty units, and they apply to private as well as public auctions.

Section 78 sets the one administrative duty of a winning bidder. As soon as practicable after the bid is accepted, the successful bidder must give the auctioneer their own name and address, or those of the person for whom they bid. The duty falls away if the details were given before the auction. The maximum penalty is 50 penalty units.

That is as close as the Act, in the Part read for this guide, comes to registering bidders. Part 6 as read contains no bidders' register and no rule on reserve prices. Consumer Affairs Tasmania's page says only that bidders "will be identified on request". Whether an individual agency asks bidders to register under its own conditions of sale is a matter for those conditions.

On cooling-off, the consumer regulator is direct: at an auction "there is no cooling off period", and a buyer cannot make the contract subject to conditions such as obtaining finance. By bidding, the page says, a person accepts the terms of the contract on display before the auction. It adds that a buyer may make an offer before the auction if the seller has agreed to consider pre-auction offers. That page was last updated on 9 July 2020 and does not name the Act.

A purchaser is not left to the criminal law alone. Under section 73, a purchaser at a public auction who suffers loss or damage because someone failed to comply with Part 6 may claim compensation from that person. The section as read does not set a method of assessment or a time limit.

The penalties in dollars

The Act expresses its fines in penalty units. The Board's penalty and infringement page gives the value of one unit for 2026-27 as A$213.00, set under the Penalty Units and Other Penalties Act 1987, adjusted each year for movements in the consumer price index and published in the Gazette before 1 June for the following financial year. The Board itself works one example: 50 penalty units is A$10,650.00.

These are ceilings, not tariffs, and apart from the Board's own example of 50 units the dollar amounts in the chart are this guide's arithmetic, not figures in the Act. The Board's page notes that for a penalty of this kind it must start legal proceedings to have the fine imposed.

The Code of Conduct

Section 84 of the Act requires the Board to establish a Code of Conduct, keep it under review, consult on it and make it public. The Board's page gives the Code's object as increasing "the accountability of property agents to clients and customers". Version 4 has five parts: preliminary matters, supervision of employees, duties to clients and customers, conduct, and professionalism.

The Code names general auctioneers where it deals with supervision. Clause 6 puts real estate agents, property managers and general auctioneers under a duty to supervise diligently the people who work for them and to see that they comply with the Act, the regulations and the Code. Tasks may be delegated; responsibility may not. When the Board notifies a conduct complaint, the managing agent must be told within seven days.

The duties to clients and customers are general ones. A client is a person with whom the property agent has a contractual relationship authorising the agent to act; a customer is a person who deals with the agent in the course of business and is neither a client nor a colleague. Under clause 8, the agent's "first responsibility is to serve the interests of a client", while acting fairly, honestly and reasonably towards customers. Clause 12 forbids acting where the agent's interests conflict with the client's and acting for both sides of the same sale or lease, and it bars initially advertising a property below the price the client will accept.

The Code, as read, has no clause of its own on how bids are taken at an auction. Those rules sit in Part 6 of the Act. What the Code adds is the link to discipline. Clause 4 says a contravention of the Act, the regulations or the Code may constitute unsatisfactory professional conduct or professional misconduct. Section 85 of the Act draws the line carefully: a breach of the Code does not by itself create disciplinary liability, but it may be relied on as evidence.

The Act, as read, limits the vendor bid by who may make it and what must be said aloud, not by how many there are.

Complaints and discipline

Section 83 defines the two grades of misconduct. Unsatisfactory professional conduct is conduct that falls short of the competence and diligence a reasonable member of the public is entitled to expect. Professional misconduct includes unsatisfactory conduct that is substantial or consistent, and conduct showing that the person is not fit and proper.

A complaint is made to the Board in writing and lodged with its executive officer, under section 87. Section 88 sets a two-year horizon: a complaint made more than two years after the conduct cannot be dealt with unless the Board finds that doing so would cause no injustice or that the public interest favours it. The Board may also investigate on its own initiative. Its powers include appointing an investigator, issuing written notices and suspending a licence on an interim basis in the public interest. Failing to comply with an investigative notice is itself professional misconduct under section 97.

After investigating, the Board has three courses under section 100. It may dismiss the complaint. It may deal with a minor matter itself under section 101, where its powers stop at a caution, a reprimand or accepting an undertaking. Or it may apply to the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. It must refer a matter there if the property agent asks, if an undertaking is not honoured, or if the conduct proves to be more than minor.

The heavier sanctions belong to the Tribunal. Under section 110 it may suspend or cancel a licence, prohibit a person from business activity, impose conditions, require specified actions, caution or reprimand, order supervision or training, and impose a fine of up to 750 penalty units, which is paid to the Board. Once a complaint has been referred to the Tribunal, the complainant can no longer withdraw 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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