A government auction or a public auction is an

auction An auction is usually a process of Trade, buying and selling Good (economics), goods or Service (economics), services by offering them up for Bidding, bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from th ...

held on behalf of a

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

in which the

property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, re ...

to be auctioned is either property owned by the government or property which is sold under the authority of a

court of law A court is an institution, often a government entity, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between Party (law), parties and Administration of justice, administer justice in Civil law (common law), civil, Criminal law, criminal, an ...

or a

government agency A government agency or state agency, sometimes an appointed commission, is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government (bureaucracy) that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, s ...

with similar authority.

Variations

When the term "government auction" is used it often means that a general auctioneer has been contracted to deal with stock that needs to be liquidated by various government bodies: * Rights to transmit signals on bands of electromagnetic spectrum * Customs: seized smuggled items * Defense:

military surplus Military surplus is goods, usually materiel, that are sold or otherwise disposed of when held in excess or are no longer needed by the military. Entrepreneurs often buy these goods and resell them at surplus stores. Usually the goods sold by th ...

* Police auction: proceeds of crime * Post office, transport: lost property * Warrant sale: assets of debtors * Tax sale: seized assets * Court auction: items sold to satisfy a court judgment, like storage contents of not-paying tenants * Insolvent companies where the government is the liquidator (e.g. official receiver) * Unowned property Often goods sold at government auctions will be unreserved, meaning that they will be sold to the highest bidder at the auction. Auctioneers are normally contracted by the different government organisations within their local area.

Sale of property owned by the government

Government property sold at public auction may include surplus government equipment, abandoned property over which the government has asserted ownership, property which has passed to the government by

escheat Escheat () is a common law doctrine that transfers the real property of a person who has died without heirs to the crown or state. It serves to ensure that property is not left in "limbo" without recognized ownership. It originally applied t ...

, government land, and intangible assets over which the government asserts authority, such as broadcast frequencies sold through a

spectrum auction A spectrum auction is a process whereby a government uses an auction system to sell the rights to transmit signals over specific bands of the electromagnetic spectrum and to assign scarce spectrum resources. Depending on the specific auction for ...

. Public auctions of government property may be conducted by whichever agency is auctioning the property. Some substantial items have been sold at public auction. For example, the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

cruiser A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several operational roles from search-and-destroy to ocean escort to sea ...

''Philadelphia'' was sold at such an auction at the Puget Sound Navy Yard in 1927. In 2021, GSA offered a 0.7501 share of a

bitcoin Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC; Currency symbol, sign: ₿) is the first Decentralized application, decentralized cryptocurrency. Based on a free-market ideology, bitcoin was invented in 2008 when an unknown entity published a white paper under ...

valued more than $38,000 for an auction. Kevin Kerns, an acting regional administrator of GSA's Southeast Sunbelt Region, stated: ''"Whether it’s a car, or a piece of jewelry, or now even cryptocurrency, you never know what kind of treasures you’ll find on GSA Auctions”''. It was the first time ever that GSA auctioned cryptocurrency.

Sale of private property in a public auction

Private property may be sold in a public auction for a number of reasons. It may be seized through a governmental process to satisfy a

judgment Judgement (or judgment) is the evaluation of given circumstances to make a decision. Judgement is also the ability to make considered decisions. In an informal context, a judgement is opinion expressed as fact. In the context of a legal trial ...

rendered by a court or agency, or to liquidate a mortgage foreclosure,

tax lien A tax lien is a lien which is imposed upon a property by law in order to secure the payment of taxes. A tax lien may be imposed for the purpose of collecting delinquent taxes which are owed on real property or personal property, or it may be i ...

, or tax sale. Usually, prices obtained at a public auction to satisfy a judgment are distressed – that is, they are much lower than the price which would be obtained for that property if the seller were free to hold out for an optimal time to sell. In the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, public auctions to satisfy judgments are usually conducted under the authority of the

sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland, the , which is common ...

of the county or city in which the property to be auctioned was seized pursuant to the judgment, and an auction held for such a purpose is also called a sheriff's sale or sheriff sale.

Real property In English common law, real property, real estate, immovable property or, solely in the US and Canada, realty, refers to parcels of land and any associated structures which are the property of a person. For a structure (also called an Land i ...

may be subject to a public auction in order to partition the property between

joint tenants In property law, a concurrent estate or co-tenancy is any of various ways in which property is owned by more than one person at a time. If more than one person owns the same property, they are commonly referred to as co-owners. Legal terminolo ...

who can not agree as to how the property should be divided. An

estate sale An estate sale or estate liquidation is a sale or auction to dispose of a substantial portion of the materials owned by a person who is recently deceased or who must dispose of their personal property to facilitate a move. Reasons for an estate ...

conducted at the direction of a

probate court A probate court (sometimes called a surrogate court) is a court that has competence in a jurisdiction to deal with matters of probate and the administration of estates. In some jurisdictions, such courts may be referred to as orphans' courts o ...

may also be conducted as a public auction.

Countries

Ancient Roman Empire

In ancient Roman Empire, the maintenance of the public works such as aqueducts, roads, drains, etc. were let out by the censors by public auction to the lowest bidder, just as the vectigalia were let out to the highest bidder. These expenses were called ''ultrotributa'', and hence we frequently find ''vectigalia'' and ''ultrotributa'' contrasted with one another.

United Kingdom

The Proceeds of Crime Act allows for a court to confiscate items that a criminal can't legally account for. Government auctions are usually held by nominated auction houses all around the UK. They will instruct an auction house which will sell the items on their behalf. There are many thousands of such

court order A court order is an official proclamation by a judge (or panel of judges) that defines the legal relationships between the parties to a hearing, a trial, an appeal or other court proceedings. Such ruling requires or authorizes the carrying o ...

s issued each year, and items that can't be returned to their legal owner are auctioned off at local auction houses all over the UK. Police auctions are an established route used by regional police forces across the country to dispose of proceeds of

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

lost and found A lost and found (American English) or lost property (British English), or lost articles (also Canadian English) is an office in a public building or area where people can go to retrieve Lost, mislaid, and abandoned property, lost articles th ...

, seized, and unclaimed stolen and confiscated property.

United States

Government auctions are often held onsite in the US, generally hosted by a professional auctioneer. A wide variety of merchandise is available from a number of websites both official and unofficial. The Internet provides services to various government agencies that allow them to sell surplus and confiscated items.

New Zealand

Government agencies sell goods via various contracted auctioneers and online on websites such as

Trade Me Trade Me is New Zealand's largest online auction and classifieds website. Managed by Trade Me Ltd., the site was founded in 1999 by New Zealand entrepreneur Sam Morgan (entrepreneur), Sam Morgan, who sold it to John Fairfax Holdings, Fairfax in ...

Brazil

Brazil runs auctions to sell surplus electrical energy. Brazilian state also holds auction for contracts for solar and wind power.

Germany

Germany established the websit
zvg-portal.de
to announce court auctions of real estate. There are over 120 real estates every day auctioned on court auctions by German authorities.

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan started an e-auction platfor
eherrac.gov.az
in 2020 in order to influence the property prices positively.

References

{{Reflist Law enforcement agency powers Governmental auctions Public sphere Government procurement