License for auctions
To commercially auction third party movables, third party land or third party rights, you need a license from the responsible authorities.
The license can be linked to conditions if this is required to protect the general public, the client or the bidder. The subsequent adoption, amendment or supplement of conditions is permitted taking the same prerequisites into account.
Prerequisite
The prerequisites for granting this licence are your personal reliability and orderly financial circumstances.
You will not receive a licence, if
- facts justify the assumption that you as the applicant do not have the required reliability to run the business.
You do not have the required reliability generally if you have been legally convicted with a term of imprisonment in the last five years before making the application due to a criminal act or due to theft, embezzlement, blackmail, fraud, betrayal of confidence, forgery of documents, handling stolen goods, usury or due to an offence against unfair competition. - as the applicant your financial circumstances are not orderly.
This is generally the case if insolvency proceedings have been initiated on your assets or you have been entered in the directory kept by the bankruptcy court or by the competent court for execution.
Note: Upon request, the responsible authorities will appoint particularly competent auctioneers (with the exception of legal entities) publicly for certain types of auctions. As a publicly appointed auctioneer you have to take an oath that you will fulfil your duties conscientiously and impartially.
It is forbidden for the auctioneer
- to bid at his auctions in person or through another person for himself or to buy any auctioned product which has been entrusted to him,
- to allow dependents for the purpose of § 52 Para. 1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure or his employees to bid at his auctions or to buy any auctioned product which has been entrusted to him,
- to bid for someone else at his auctions or to buy for someone else an auctioned product which has been entrusted to him, unless there is a written bid from this other person,
- to auction movables belonging to group of products which he sells in his commercial transactions, if this is not customary,
- to auction goods on which he has the right of lien or as far as they belong to the goods which are offered for sale in public sales outlets and which are unused or which are intended to be used for consumption.
Responsible department
the municipal administration or city council (Gemeinde-/Stadtverwaltung) of your future premises
Standard port
Enter the location of your premises in the Location field.
Procedure
The application for the licence for auctions has to be submitted to the responsible authority.
Required documents
- completed application form
- copy of the identity card or comparable identity documents
- for proof of the corporate legal form
- If the location of your company is in Germany, you will need:
- for registered companies: an excerpt of the Commercial Register (Handelsregisterauszug) and if applicable a copy of the shareholders agreement (e.g. for a company constituted under civil law, (GbR)).
- If your company is located abroad, you will need documents from the country where it is located which prove its legal form.
- If the location of your company is in Germany, you will need:
- for proof of personal reliability
- If your place of residence is in Germany, you will normally need:
- Certificate of Good Conduct (Führungszeugnis)
- Excerpt from the Central Trade Register (Auszug aus dem Gewerbezentralregister)
- If your place of residence is abroad, you will need documents from your native country, which prove that you have the personal reliability to provide the requested service.
- If your place of residence is in Germany, you will normally need:
- proof of orderly financial circumstances
- If your place of residence is in Germany, you will normally need:
- Exceprt from the debtor’s files (Auszug aus der Schuldnerkartei)
- Attestation from the bankruptcy court (Bescheinigung des Insolvenzgerichts)
- Certificate from the tax authorities regarding tax matters (Bescheinigung des Finanzamtes in Steuersachen)
- If your place of residence is abroad, you will need documents from your native country, which prove that you are living in orderly financial circumstances.
- If your place of residence is in Germany, you will normally need:
When checking the personal reliability, in individual cases the authorising authority could request alongside the documents listed additional documents, which are appropriate to make a statement about your personal reliability as applicant.
In the case of legal entities (GmbH, corporate companies, AG, registered cooperatives) the application form only has to be completed by the legal entity itself. All personal documents have to be submitted for all natural persons authorised to manage the company (e.g. certificate of good conduct, personal documents). In addition, an excerpt from the Central Trade Register has to be applied for in the case of legal entities.
In the case of partnerships, which as such are not capable of holding a licence (GbR, KG, OHG, PartG, GmbH & Co. KG), each of the managing partners requires the licence. I.e. an application form and all personal documents are required for each person.
Costs
The amount charged is based on the local regulations governing the fees.
Release note
The German original version of this text was drafted in close cooperation with the relevant departments. The Wirtschaftsministerium released it on 04.08.2015. Only the German text is legally binding. The Federal State does not assume any liability for the translated texts.
In cases of doubt or if you have any questions or problems, please contact the relevant authorities directly.