1. Terms of Consignment
Both the sale of goods at our auctions and your relationship with us are governed by the Terms of Consignment (primarily applicable to sellers), the Terms of Sale (primarily applicable to bidders and buyers) and any notices displayed in the saleroom or announced by us at the auction (collectively, the “Conditions of Business”). The Terms of Consignment and Terms of Sale are available at our saleroom on request.

Please read these Terms of Consignment carefully. Please note that if you (or another person acting on your behalf) provide goods to us to sell on your behalf at our auction, this signifies that you agree to and will comply with these terms and conditions.

SUMMARY OF COMMISSION AND CHARGES

Commission is charged to sellers calculated, per lot, at 10%
Entry Fee £10 per lot (sold or unsold)
Catalogue Illustration Fee £10 per lot (sold or unsold, discretionary)

All the above are subject to VAT at the current rate.

Commission and fees are negotiable for important or large collections and consignments.

1 Definitions and interpretation

1.1 To make these Terms of Consignment easier to read, we have given the following words a specific meaning:

“Auctioneer” means Hunts Auction, a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales whose registered office is located at Hunts Lounge, Chessington Business Centre, Cox Lane, Chessington, Surrey, KT9 1SD or its authorised auctioneer, as appropriate;

“Bidder” means a person who places a bid for Goods at our auction;

“Buyer” means the person who makes the highest bid for the Goods accepted by the Auctioneer;

“Commission” means the commission that we charge you on the sale of the Goods as set out in Clause 5 below;

“Consumer” means an individual acting for purposes which are wholly or mainly outside that ndividual’s trade, business, craft or profession;

“Consumer Contracts Regulations” means the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013;

“Deliberate Forgery” means:
(a) an imitation made with the intention of deceiving as to authorship, origin, date, age, period, culture or source;
(b) which is described in the catalogue as being the work of a particular creator without qualification;
(c) which at the date of the auction had a value materially less than it would have had if it had been as described;

“FCA” means the Financial Conduct Authority;

“Goods” means the goods that you consign to us for sale at our auction;

“Hammer Price” means the level of the highest bid for the Goods accepted by the Auctioneer by the fall of the hammer;

“Premium” means the premium charged to the Buyer on the sale of the Goods in accordance with the Terms of Sale;

“Price” means the total of the Hammer Price, Premium and any applicable VAT;

“Proceeds” means the Price less the Commission, the Premium, any expenses incurred to your account and any applicable VAT;

“Reserve” means the minimum price at which the Goods may be sold;

“Seller” means the owner of the Goods and any agent who consigns the Goods for sale on the owner’s behalf (if applicable);

“Terms of Consignment” means these terms of consignment;

“Terms of Sale” means the terms of sale for bidders or buyers at our auctions;

“Trader” means a Seller who is acting for purposes relating to that Seller’s trade, business, craft or profession, whether acting personally or through another person acting in the trader’s name or on the trader’s behalf (such as an agent and/or the Auctioneer);

“VAT” means any value added tax or equivalent sales tax;

“Website” means our website available at www.huntsauctions.co.uk

In these Terms of Consignment the words “you”, “yours”, etc. refer to the Seller. The words “we”, “us”, etc. refer to the Auctioneer. If the consignment of Goods to us is made by an agent we assume that you (as owner of the Goods) have authorised the consignment and authorised the agent to contract on your behalf. All obligations that apply to the Seller under these Terms of Consignment shall apply to the owner of the Goods and their agent, jointly and separately. Any reference to a ‘Clause’ is to a clause of these Terms of Consignment unless stated otherwise.

2 Information that we are required to give to Consumers

2.1 A description of the main characteristics of the auction-related services that we are providing to you as set out in these Terms of Consignment or otherwise agreed with you in writing.

2.2 Our name, address and contact details as set out in these Terms of Consignment and/or on our Website.

2.3 The rate at which we will charge you the Commission plus any applicable VAT on the sale of the Goods as set out in Clause 5.

2.4 The fee that we will charge you plus any applicable VAT as set out in Clause 18 if either the Goods are unsold at auction or the Goods are withdrawn by you from the auction after the Goods have been catalogued and/or marketed by us prior to the auction in any way.

2.5 The arrangements for collection of any unsold Goods as set out in Clauses 18 and 20 and terms regarding payment of any Proceeds due to you set out in Clause 17.

2.6 If you have any complaints, please get in contact with us using the contact details set out on our website.

3 Procedure for consigning Goods for sale at auction

3.1 If you consign Goods to us for sale at auction, you will need to provide us with the following information about you, in a form acceptable to us:

3.1.1 Your legal name and proof of identity;

3.1.2 Information about the Goods (as set out in Clause 12);

3.1.3 Your bank account details;

3.1.4 Your address and contact details;

3.1.5 Your VAT registration number (if applicable);

3.1.6 Your confirmation of whether you are selling the Goods as a Trader or as a Consumer.

3.2 If you do not provide us with, or we are not satisfied with any of the above information, we may refuse to accept consignment of your Goods for sale in our auction.

3.3 You must provide the Goods to us by any stated deadline (at your expense). We may be able to assist you with this process but any liability incurred to a carrier for haulage charges is solely your responsibility.

4 The contract between you and the Buyer

4.1 The contract between you and the Buyer will be formed when the hammer falls accepting the highest bid for the Goods at the auction.

4.2 You may directly enforce any terms in the Terms of Sale against a Buyer and/or a Bidder to the extent that you have suffered damages and/or loss as a result of the Buyer and/or the Bidder’s breach of the Terms of Sale.

4.3 If you breach these Terms of Consignment, you may be responsible for damages and/or losses suffered by a Buyer, Bidder and/ or by us. If we are contacted by a Buyer and/or a Bidder who wishes to bring a claim against you, we may in our discretion provide the Buyer and/or Bidder with information or assistance in relation to that claim.

4.4 We normally act as an agent only and will not have any responsibility for default by you or the Buyer.

5 Commission

5.1 We will charge you a commission on the sale of the Goods calculated as a percentage of the Hammer Price at the following rate: 10% plus VAT

5.2 In addition we have an Internet and marketing charge of £10 per lot and a further charge of £10 per lot for printed catalogue illustrations (these charges apply to both sold and unsold lots) and all charges are plus VAT.

6 Loss and Damage to Goods

We are not authorised by the FCA to provide insurance to you.

7 Photographs

You will pay for the cost of any photographs of your Goods produced for the auction catalogue. We reserve the right to photograph all Goods unless you specifically request us not to. The copyright in such photographs will be owned by us, along with the text of the auction catalogue. For charges see clause 5 above.

8 Minimum bids and our discretion

Goods will normally be offered subject to a Reserve agreed between you and us before the auction in accordance with Clause 9. We may sell Goods below the Reserve provided that we account to you for the same sale proceeds as you would have received had the Reserve been the Hammer Price. If you specifically give us a “discretion” we may accept a bid of up to 20% below the formal Reserve.

9 Reserves

9.1 Reserves must be reasonable and may not exceed our lower pre-sale guide price for that lot. We may decline to offer Goods which, in our opinion, would be subject to an unreasonably high reserve (in which case the Goods carry the storage and insurance charges set out in these Terms of Consignment).

9.2 Once we have agreed a Reserve, this cannot be changed except with your and our consent.

9.3 Where a Reserve has been agreed only we may bid on your behalf and only up to one bid below the Reserve (if any) and you may in no circumstances bid personally or ask anyone else to bid on your behalf.

9.4 Pre-sale notifications will be sent via email if not, reserves will not be set by the auctioneer without specific instructions and we must be advised of any request for a reasonable reserve figure by you, in cases were no reserve has been set by you then the item will be sold without reserve.

10 Electrical items

10.1 You must test any electrical items that you wish to consign to us for sale using external contractors. We will not accept any Goods that are not certified as safe by an electrician (unless they are antiques).

10.2 If we notify you that we will not accept uncertified electrical Goods, you must remove such Goods promptly at your expense following such notification. If you do not collect the Goods within five days of our written notice to do so, we may dispose of the Goods at your expense.

11 Unsafe Goods

If in our opinion any of your Goods, in particular those which are soft furnishings, infringe safety regulations, we will not offer these Goods for sale. You must remove such Goods at your expense. If you do not collect such Goods within five days of our written notice to do so, we may dispose of the Goods at your expense.

12 Warranties and information about the Goods

12.1 You must provide us with all information that you have relating to the provenance, export/import history, condition, attribution and authenticity of the Goods (and any additional information that may be relevant).

12.2 In addition to any warranties implied by law, you warrant to us and the Buyer that:

12.2.1 any information that you provide in relation to the Goods is complete, correct and up-to-date;

12.2.2 the Goods will match any description of the Goods that you provide to us;

12.2.3 as far as you are aware, the main characteristics of the Goods set out in the auction catalogue (as amended by any notice displayed in the saleroom or announced by us at the auction) are correct.

12.2.4 to the best of your knowledge, the Goods have been lawfully imported and lawfully and permanently exported as required by the laws of any country in which the Goods were located; required declarations upon the export and import of the Goods have been properly made; and any duties and taxes on the export and import of the Goods have been paid;

12.2.5 you will pay all taxes and duties potentially due on the sale of the Goods.

12.3 You must let us know promptly, and in any event before the auction, if you find out that any of the information you have provided to us relating to the Goods is incorrect or incomplete and/or if the Goods do not match the description that you provided to us or the main characteristics of the Goods set out in the auction catalogue.

12.4 Any information that you provide in relation to the Goods may form part of the contract between both of us and the Buyer and you acknowledge that the Buyer may have a statutory right to reject the Goods if the information provided is incorrect.

13 Transfer of ownership of the Goods

You warrant and undertake to us and the Buyer that you are the true owner of the Goods (or are properly authorised by the true owner to sell the Goods on the owner’s behalf) and you currently have and will have the right to sell the Goods to the Buyer with good and marketable title free of any third party rights or claims at the time when ownership of the Goods is to be transferred.

14 Indemnity

You will indemnify and keep us fully indemnified against any and all liability, loss, damage, costs (including reasonable legal fees and any VAT in relation to such fees) and expenses which we may incur or suffer as a result of any breach of Clauses 12 or 13 by you or anyone acting on your behalf, including without limitation, if we are required to refund the price of any Goods to the Buyer as a result of your breach of these clauses.

15 Terms of Sale

You agree that the Goods will be sold to the Buyer in accordance with our Terms of Sale, a copy of which will be displayed in the saleroom and printed in our auction catalogue.

16 Authority to deduct commission and expenses and retain premium and interest

You authorise us to deduct our Commission at the stated rate and all expenses incurred on your account from the Hammer Price, plus any applicable VAT. You consent to our right to charge the Buyer and retain beneficially the Premium plus any applicable VAT paid by the Buyer in accordance with our Terms of Sale and any interest earned on the sale proceeds until the date of settlement.

17 Settlement

17.1 Provided that the Buyer has paid for the Goods, we will usually pay the net sum due to you within twenty eight days of the last day of the auction by crossed cheque to the seller.

17.2 If the Buyer has not paid for the Goods, we will not submit payment to you. In this case no settlement will be made. We will however discuss with you the rights that we may exercise under Clause 9 of our Terms of Sale in relation to a Buyer’s failure to pay. We will not release the Goods to the Buyer until we have received payment in full of the Price for the Goods.

17.3 You must notify us in writing if your bank account details change. We will not be responsible for any payments made to the incorrect bank account if this is because you have not provided us with the correct bank account details.

17.4 If we make payments to your bank account in error, we may request reimbursement by sending you an invoice.

17.5 We may deduct any sums that you owe to us from the Proceeds.

18 Unsold and withdrawn items

18.1 If the Goods are unsold at auction, you authorise us to negotiate a sale by private treaty not later than the close of business two working business days following the last day of the auction. In this case you will pay to us the same charges as if such Goods had been sold at auction and, so far as appropriate, these Terms of Consignment will apply to any such sale.

18.2 In addition to Clause 18.1, we may, with your consent, re-offer unsold Goods at a future auction (or by private treaty thereafter as set out in Clause 18.1 above) but we may recommend a variation in estimates or Reserve. Where, in our opinion, Goods are unsaleable, we will notify you and you must collect such Goods from the saleroom within seven days of the date of our notice to do so. If you fail to collect such Goods promptly, we may charge you reasonable storage charges at a daily rate of £5 per lot per day. If unsold lots remain with us after a period of one week, without instructions from you, we reserve the right to offer them to a local charity shop or arrange for their disposal at a charge of £10 plus VAT per lot.

18.3 You will pay us a charge of 10% of lower estimate for the lot plus all applicable marketting and / or illustration charges plus VAT on all charges, at a minimum of £10 plus VAT per Lot on any Goods that are unsold at the auction and fail to sell by private treaty as described in Clause 18.1.

18.4 You will pay us a charge of 15 % of the lower estimate for the lot plus all applicable marketting and / or illustration charges plus VAT on all charges, at a minimum of £10 plus VAT per Lot, on any Goods that are withdrawn from the auction after being catalogued and/or marketed by us prior to the auction in any way.

20 Warehousing

20.1 We have no liability for Goods that you deliver to our saleroom without sufficient sale instructions. We reserve the right to charge you a minimum warehousing charge of £5 plus any applicable VAT per Lot per day.

20.2 We will notify you to ask you to remove any of your unsold or withdrawn Goods. Unsold and withdrawn Goods will be subject to the charges set out in Clause 20.1 above if you do not remove them within five days of the date of our notification requesting you to do so.

20.3 If you do not remove your unsold or withdrawn Goods within [thirty days] of the date of our notification we may either:
(a) sell such Goods and set off charges from any net proceeds of sale; or
(b) at your expense dispose of such Goods.