Apply for a permit for auctions

Prerequisites are:

• personal reliability and
• orderly financial circumstances.

You will not receive a permit if

• facts justify the assumption that you, as the applicant, do not possess the reliability required for commercial operations. As a rule, you do not have the necessary reliability if you have been convicted of a crime or theft, embezzlement, extortion, fraud, breach of trust, money laundering, forgery of documents, receiving stolen goods, usury or an offense against the Unfair Competition Act in the five years prior to submitting the application.

• you as the applicant are living in disorderly financial circumstances. This is usually the case if insolvency proceedings have been opened against your assets or if you are entered in the register kept by the insolvency court or the enforcement court.

Note: Upon application, the competent authority appoints particularly competent auctioneers for certain types of auctions. As a publicly appointed auctioneer, you must swear an oath that you will perform your duties conscientiously and impartially.

As an auctioneer, you may not:

• Bid for yourself or through another person at your auctions or purchase auctioned property entrusted to you,
• allow relatives or your employees to bid at your auctions or to purchase auctioned items entrusted to you.
• bid for another person at your auctions or purchase auctioned goods entrusted to you, unless the other person has made a written bid,
• Auction movable goods from the range of goods that you carry in your commercial business, if this is not customary,
• auction items on which you have a lien or if they belong to the goods that you offer in open sales outlets and which are unused or whose intended use consists in their consumption (consumer goods).

You must apply for a permit for auctions in writing or in person at the competent authority. If the legal requirements are met, you will receive the permit. The competent authority may attach certain conditions to it.

Otherwise, you will receive a notice of refusal.

• Copy of identity card or comparable identification document
• for proof of the legal form of the company: If you have your registered office in Germany, you will need the following for registered companies Extract from the commercial register and, if applicable, a copy of the articles of association (e.g. for a civil law partnership (GbR). If your company is based abroad, you will need documents from this country that prove the legal form.
• For proof of personal reliability: If you are resident in Germany, you will generally need a certificate of good conduct and an extract from the central trade register. If you are resident abroad, you will need documents from your home country. These must prove that you have the personal reliability to perform the desired service.
• Proof of orderly financial circumstances
  If you are resident in Germany, you will generally need: extract from the debtor register, certificate from the insolvency court, certificate from the tax office in tax matters. If you are resident abroad, you will need documents from your home country. These must prove that your financial circumstances are in order.

When checking your personal reliability, the approving authority may, in individual cases, request further documents in addition to the documents listed, which are suitable for making a statement about your personal reliability as an applicant.

In the case of legal entities (limited liability companies, business companies, public limited companies, registered cooperatives), you only need to complete the application form for the legal entity itself. You must submit all personal documents for all natural persons authorized to manage the company. These are, for example, certificates of good conduct or identity papers. For the legal entity, you must also apply for an extract from the central trade register.

In the case of partnerships that are not themselves eligible for a license (GbR, KG, OHG, PartG, GmbH Co. KG), each managing partner must apply for a license. Each must complete an application form and submit all personal documents.