In Tasmania, a person who makes the successful bid at an auction on someone else’s behalf must give the auctioneer that other person’s name and address as soon as practicable after the bid is accepted. A person bidding for themselves gives their own. The maximum penalty is a fine of 50 penalty units. The duty does not apply if the bidder gave those details to the auctioneer before the auction.
General informationA summary of the Property Agents and Land Transactions Act 2016, not legal advice about any purchase. The Property Agents Board is the regulator for property agents in Tasmania. A solicitor or conveyancer can advise on a particular purchase.
One duty, two moments to meet it
Section 78
Section 78 can be met at either end of the auction. It sits in the Division of the Act on conducting auctions, where an auction means a public auction or a private auction, and a public auction is one that has been publicly advertised.
Before the auction
The person who will bid gives the auctioneer the name and address of the person they are bidding for. If that person’s bid then wins, the after-the-bid duty does not apply.
After the winning bid
If nothing was given beforehand, the successful bidder gives the auctioneer the name and address of the person the bid was made for, as soon as practicable after the bid is accepted.
The section asks for a name and an address only. The words that matter are “as soon as practicable” and “after the acceptance of the bid”: the duty is on the person whose bid succeeded, and it begins when the auctioneer accepts it.
Illustrative example, not a real saleA buyer who cannot attend asks a cousin to bid. The cousin’s bid is accepted. Straight after, the cousin gives the auctioneer the buyer’s name and address. Had the cousin handed those details to the auctioneer before bidding began, nothing more would have been owed under section 78 when the bid won.
The notice every auction gives first
Section 79
A general auctioneer or real estate agent may not conduct any auction until notice of the relevant and material parts of six sections has been given, in a manner and form the Board approves. Section 78 is one of the six. The maximum penalty is a fine of 50 penalty units.
The Board publishes that notice for each financial year, and its notice for 2026–2027 is on its auction notice page. The page lists the six sections:
- Section 67: bids by the owner at a public auction
- Section 69: dummy bids
- Section 70: falsely acknowledging a bid
- Section 76: bidding agreements that are unlawful
- Section 77: collusive practices at auctions
- Section 78: the successful bidder’s information for the auctioneer.
So notice of the section 78 duty, among the others, has to be given before the auction can begin.
For a buyer, never for the owner
Section 67
At a public auction of land, nobody may bid on behalf of the owner, and the auctioneer must not accept a bid known to break that rule. The maximum penalty is a fine of 500 penalty units. The Act lets the auctioneer, in person, bid for the owner if the auction’s conditions allow it, the auctioneer has declared that aloud before bidding starts, and the bid is announced as the owner’s. It also gives a defence where the land has more than one owner, one of them is trying in good faith to buy a greater interest, and the auctioneer was told before the auction.
A bid can count as made for the owner even if the owner never asked for it and did not know of it, and evidence that a bidder meant to benefit the owner is evidence that the bid was made on the owner’s behalf. Being outside Tasmania when the bid is made is no defence.
The conditions, and what they cannot change
Sections 71, 73 and 74
The real estate agent conducting a public auction of land must make the conditions of the auction available for public inspection a reasonable time beforehand. That counts as done only if they were available at least 7 days before the start, their availability was published so that likely bidders would hear of it, and they were on display at the place immediately before the auction.
Those conditions cannot override the Act. A condition applying at a public auction that conflicts with, or tries to restrict or modify, a requirement of the auction Part of the Act is void. A purchaser at a public auction who suffers loss or damage because someone failed to comply with a provision of that Part has a right to claim compensation from that person.