Western Australia's auctioneer licence: magistrates, classes and bids

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Kooky

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Western Australia licenses its auctioneers in a courtroom. Under the Auction Sales Act 1973, a licence to call bids is granted "on the order of a magistrate, and not otherwise", after an application lodged with a Magistrates Court registrar and a hearing at which the police may object. The same licence covers a house in the suburbs, a pen of sheep and a pallet of second-hand furniture, because the Act is about the act of selling by auction, not about what is sold.

That design raises practical questions for anyone who works around property auctions in the state. Who has to hold the licence when an agency runs the sale? How long does it take to get one, and what does it cost? What does the Act say about a vendor bidding on their own home? This guide follows the Act section by section, in the consolidated version in force from 5 April 2023, then sets it beside what Consumer Protection, the state's fair trading regulator, tells buyers and sellers about real estate auctions. It closes with the regulator's published plan to end licensing altogether.

Auction Sales Act 1973 (WA), sections 7 and 11, in the version in force from 5 April 2023; fee as listed by the Australian Business Licence and Information Service for 2025-26.

Which text of the Act this guide reads

The section numbers and dollar penalties below come from the consolidated version of the Auction Sales Act 1973 published on the Western Australian Legislation site, which that site's title page lists as in force from 5 April 2023 and marks as current. The title page shows the Act as number 73 of 1973, assented to on 6 December 1973, sitting in the portfolio of the Minister for Commerce and administered by the Department of Local Government, Industry Regulation and Safety. It carries no note of a repeal.

The Act's own table of amendments shows that the last change came from the Directors' Liability Reform Act 2023, which commenced on 5 April 2023.

What counts as an auction, and who must be licensed

Section 4 defines a sale by auction broadly. It covers selling property by outcry, by dutch auction, by the fall of a hammer, by lot or parcel, or by any other mode in which the highest, the lowest or any bidder becomes the purchaser. An auctioneer is any person who sells or offers property for sale by way of auction, whether the property is their own or someone else's.

Section 6 then sets the core rule. No person may act as an auctioneer, or advertise as one, without holding a licence. A licence is granted only to a natural person: not to a partnership, not to a company. A holder must trade under the name written in the licence, at the place it specifies, for the period it runs, and within the classes of business and conditions it carries. The penalty for a breach of section 6 is a fine of A$50,000.

Section 5 lists the sales the Act leaves alone. They include sales authorised by the Minister for Lands under the Land Administration Act 1997, sales held under a court's rule, order or judgment, sales under a process of execution issued by a court, sales by or under the authority of the Public Trustee, sales of impounded animals, and bazaars or gift sales where all the proceeds go to charitable, educational or church purposes. A person authorised by another Act to sell by auction without an auctioneer's licence is also outside it, and the Governor may exempt further classes by Order in Council. For property, the practical point is that a court-ordered sale of land is not governed by this licensing scheme, while an ordinary vendor's auction is.

The five kinds of licence

Section 7 creates five kinds of licence, and they do different jobs. Two are the working licences of the trade. Three are short, special-purpose permissions.

For a licence other than a general one, section 10 has the magistrate decide and write down the classes of business it covers. The Act allows regulations to prescribe separate classes, and names interests in land, motor vehicles, wool, livestock and second-hand articles among them. The Australian Business Licence and Information Service, the government directory of business licences, describes the general licence as covering land, motor vehicles, wool, livestock, second-hand items and other commodities.

The occasional licence is tightly rationed. Section 13 requires the application to name the dates and places of the sale. No more than five may be granted for a police district in any 12 consecutive months, a person may hold only one at a time, it cannot be transferred, and it cannot run outside the police district.

The interim licence exists for illness. Under section 14, it is available where an auctioneer is incapacitated by illness or other sufficient cause. That auctioneer's own licence is suspended while the substitute sells, the original auctioneer remains liable meanwhile, and the interim licence ends if the original is surrendered or cancelled.

The provisional licence is the trainee's route. Section 15 provides it for an employee who is seeking practical instruction. It cannot be granted for the same person more than three times in a calendar year, which at two months each gives a ceiling of six months of supervised calling in that year. The application nominates a supervising auctioneer, who is personally liable, and the licence expires if that auctioneer's own licence is surrendered, cancelled or suspended.

Applying to the Magistrates Court

Section 11 sets out the procedure for a first grant, and its timetable is fixed by counting back from the hearing. The application goes, in the prescribed form, to the registrar of the Magistrates Court nearest the proposed place of business, with the prescribed application fee.

A worked example shows the timetable. Assume an application lodged on 1 March and a hearing fixed at the earliest date the Act allows. Thirty-five days after 1 March is 5 April. Any objection must be lodged and served at least seven days before the hearing, so by 29 March. A hearing listed later than the minimum moves that date later with it. The 2007 reprint also required a newspaper advertisement at least 28 days before the hearing; that subsection has been deleted, and the current Act contains no advertising requirement.

Anyone may object. Section 11 names the Commissioner of Police, a person authorised by the Commissioner, and any other person, and requires a notice stating the grounds of the objection. Under section 16 the hearing is open. The test in that section is that the proposed licensee be a fit and proper person. The Australian Business Licence and Information Service lists the eligibility requirements as three character references, an age of at least 18 and being a fit and proper person.

The magistrate is not limited to yes or no. Section 16 allows conditions to be attached, and allows a restricted licence to be granted where a general one was sought. A renewal with no objection may be dealt with in chambers, and a renewal needs no fresh testimonials. For occasional and interim licences, the notice periods may be waived if the Commissioner of Police consents.

What the licence costs and how long it lasts

The Act speaks only of a "prescribed" fee and gives no amount. The Australian Business Licence and Information Service, which cites the Auction Sales Regulations 1974, lists three fees for the general licence for 2025-26: A$592.00 for the application, A$55.50 for a transfer and A$1.70 for a duplicate certificate. It names the Department of Justice and the Magistrates Court as the agency and says the licence is granted by a magistrate and issued by a local clerk of court, with an approval time of not less than 35 days. The fees for the other four kinds were not found in the sources read for this guide.

On duration the Act and the directory now agree. Under section 19 of the current text, the magistrate who grants a general or restricted licence fixes the period for which it has effect: not less than 12 months and not more than a period prescribed by regulation. The directory says "not less than 12 months". The 2007 reprint gave a flat one year; the Act's table of amendments attributes the present wording to the Licensing Provisions Amendment Act 2016, which commenced on 1 July 2017. An earlier attempt at the same change, passed in 1995, never came into operation and was removed by the Statutes (Repeals and Minor Amendments) Act 2025, according to a note in the current text.

Section 19 also deals with two awkward moments. If the holder dies, the licence is treated as granted to the legal personal representative and lasts three months from the death. If a licence lapses, a renewal may still be granted on an application made within three months after expiry, on payment of any prescribed late penalty.

Firms, corporations and the person behind the gavel

Because only a natural person can be licensed, a company that runs auctions works through a named individual. Section 6 requires a firm or corporation to have a licensed natural person who is a member, officer or employee. Section 8 sets out how that licence is obtained and who answers for it.

The application names both the business and the proposed licensee, with the principal place of business of each. The court weighs two things: the fitness of the individual, and the fitness and repute of the firm or corporation. More than one licence may be granted for the benefit of the same business, which is how a larger firm fields several auctioneers.

The licence does not turn the business into an auctioneer. Section 8 says so in terms, and it ties the licence to the business in three ways. A transfer needs the firm's or corporation's consent. The business is liable for the holders of interim and provisional licences working under its licence. And where the licensee is an employee, the firm or corporation is primarily responsible for compliance with the Act.

How the licence fits a real estate agency

The Auction Sales Act does not mention estate agents. The current text contains no reference to real estate agency law, and treats land only as one possible class of business. The link between the two regimes comes from the regulator's guidance. Consumer Protection's page on real estate auctions says applications for an auctioneer's licence are made to the Magistrates Court of Western Australia, and states that a real estate agent must either have a licensed auctioneer on staff or appoint a consultant auctioneer.

That gives two workable arrangements. In the first, the agency's own employee holds an auctioneer's licence, and the agency carries the primary responsibility the Act gives an employer. In the second, the agency lists and markets the property and brings in an outside auctioneer for the day. In both, the agency relationship with the vendor is a separate matter. Consumer Protection says an agent must have written instructions, called an Authority to Auction.

What an agent's own licence requires at an auction is governed by other legislation that this guide does not cover. No industry code of conduct was read for this guide, and none is described here.

What the auctioneer does on the day

Consumer Protection describes the sequence at a Western Australian property auction. Before the auction, the reserve price is set in writing. The auctioneer cannot sell below it, and it is not revealed to prospective buyers beforehand. The auctioneer announces the property's attributes, any restrictions on the title and the deposit required, and reads out a form the regulator calls the Auction Particulars and Conditions of Sale of Freehold Property.

When bidding ends at or above the reserve, the final bidder signs and the auctioneer signs for the seller. The Joint Form of General Conditions for the Sale of Land is generally attached. If the reserve is not reached, the property is passed in.

The regulator is direct about whose side the auctioneer is on: the primary duty of the agent and the auctioneer is to the seller. It also notes that a bid at auction cannot be conditional.

On money, Consumer Protection says a deposit of 10 per cent of the price is generally paid when the contract is signed, with the balance at settlement, usually 30 days after the auction. As a worked example with an assumed hammer price of A$800,000 and a 10 per cent deposit, the buyer pays A$80,000 on signing and A$720,000 at settlement. The actual deposit and date are those in the conditions read out before bidding.

Vendor bids: disclosed in the conditions, or an offence

Western Australia allows a vendor to bid, and the rule is one of disclosure. Section 29 says the conditions of sale may state that the seller, or a person acting for the seller or for the auctioneer, has a right to bid, or has a specified number of bids. It is then an offence for a seller or their agent to bid when no such right was notified in the conditions, or to make more bids than the number specified. An auctioneer who knowingly takes such a bid commits an offence too. The section carries its own penalty: a fine of A$25,000. The 2007 reprint left it to a general penalty of A$400 in section 35, a provision the current text no longer contains.

Consumer Protection restates the rule for property. Vendor bidding, it says, is legal and ethical when properly declared at the start of the auction and at the time of the bid. The seller is required by law to show in the Auction Particulars form whether they intend to bid and how many bids they will make, and the seller or their agent may bid up to the reserve. The regulator adds that the seller often reserves the right to make ten such bids.

A vendor bid in Western Australia is lawful when the conditions of sale announce it, and an offence for the seller, and for an auctioneer who knowingly takes it, when they do not.

The Act says less than a reader might expect on neighbouring subjects. The current text does not regulate the reserve price and does not use the term dummy bidding. Two general offences fill part of that space. Section 24 makes it an offence knowingly to make a false or misleading material statement about a lot, with a defence for a person who believed on reasonable grounds that the statement was true; the penalty is a fine of A$25,000. Section 25 creates a mock auction offence, which carries a fine of A$50,000 or imprisonment for 12 months.

Accounts, inspection and losing a licence

An auctioneer handles other people's money, and sections 26 to 28 govern the paperwork. Money received for another person must be entered in a record of accounts that shows each receipt separately. The accounts are balanced at the end of each month and kept for three years. A breach of the record-keeping duty carries a fine of A$25,000.

The vendor is entitled to a written account. Section 27 sets the deadline as 42 days after the sale is completed, or 14 days after a written demand, whichever comes first. As a worked example, assume a sale completed on 1 June and a written demand made on 10 June. Forty-two days from 1 June is 13 July; fourteen days from 10 June is 24 June; the account is due by 24 June. Failing to render the account carries a fine of A$25,000. The section also limits how far back a demand can reach: no itemised account of a transaction more than six months old, and no particulars of a sale more than three years old.

Under section 28 the records must be open to inspection by a person authorised in writing by the Minister. The Minister may appoint an auditor at the licensee's expense. Section 36 gives the police a separate power to enter, without a warrant, premises where an officer reasonably believes an auction or a mock auction is being held.

A licence can also be taken away, and section 22 gives the initiative to the police. The Commissioner of Police may apply to the Magistrates Court where a licensee has been guilty of improper conduct, of dishonest or fraudulent conduct, or of an offence against the Act. The court may order the licence to be delivered up, suspended or cancelled, and may disqualify the holder for a time or permanently. Prosecutions under the Act must begin within two years of the alleged offence, according to section 35.

The plan to end licensing

The system described above may not last. Consumer Protection has published an announcement, on a page last updated on 14 August 2024, setting out plans to remove the requirement to hold a licence to be an auctioneer in Western Australia, following a review of the Auction Sales Act. The page carries no separate announcement date.

The model proposed is negative licensing. The announcement lists new conduct standards covering bidding practices, collusive behaviour, disclosure, record keeping and the operation of trust accounts. The plan would move the regulation of auctioneers from the Magistrates Court to Consumer Protection. The announcement says that the final review report is a Decision Regulatory Impact Statement, and that a draft Bill is to go before Parliament.

No such Bill was found for this guide. Consumer Protection's own page on auction sales reform, last updated on 23 April 2026, describes the review and its recommendations and mentions no Bill. The Act in force still requires a licence, and the Western Australian Legislation site records no repeal. Until Parliament changes the law, the magistrate's order remains the way into the trade.

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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