Auction rules and entry-fee terms

Every bidder accepts these rules when joining an auction, before paying its entry fee. They add to the Terms of use. The version you accept when you join applies to that auction until it is completed.

1. Who can bid

1.1 To bid you must: have an account; accept these rules and pay the auction's entry fee, which makes you a participant; and have submitted your identity verification (PAN and masked Aadhaar). You may submit it right after paying, and you needn't wait for our check before bidding. You can join an upcoming auction before bidding opens.

1.2 You may not bid on your own listing, or on a listing in which you or anyone connected with you has an interest as a seller.

1.3 If you bid for someone else, you must tell us who, and they must also be identified.

1.4 We may refuse a bidder whose identity can't be verified, whose due diligence can't be completed, or who has failed to complete a purchase they won before.

2. The entry fee: what it is and what it isn't

2.1 The entry fee is a fee for services. For the auction you join you receive:

• The locked information: the documents and details the seller has shared for bidders, such as legal papers, business financials, the exact address and any valuation report. It opens once you have submitted your identity verification;
• Consultation: a call with our expert about what to check in the listing and its documents, and help arranging a site visit or inspection;
• The AI advisor for that listing, and a record of everything you were shown;
• The auction itself: bidders who have given KYC and paid the entry fee, a fair process and a full record of the bidding.

2.2 You receive these services whether or not you bid again, and whether or not you win.

2.3 The entry fee is not a payment for the chance to win, not a deposit and not part of the purchase price. It is not a valuation, legal or tax advice, a survey, or a guarantee that the listing will suit you or that a sale will happen.

2.4 The fee for each auction is shown on its page, including GST, before you pay. A GST invoice is issued when you pay.

2.5 The entry fee is refunded in full, automatically, only if the auction is cancelled or never starts, is voided (section 11), the seller fails to complete a sale you won (section 9), or your payment arrives after bidding has closed. It is not refunded because you didn't bid, didn't submit your identity verification, didn't win, or decided the listing wasn't for you. See the Refund policy.

2.6 The entry fee is personal to you. Don't share the locked information or your account.

3. Live and non-live auctions

3.1 Live auctions take bids in real time during a set window. Non-live auctions take bids over several days; when bidding closes, our team connects the winner and the seller. The seller chooses the type and our team confirms it.

3.2 Some auctions are sealed: you see only your own bids, never other bidders' amounts, until bidding closes; any bid at or above the starting price is accepted, and the highest valid bid wins.

4. Bids

4.1 A bid is a binding offer to buy at the amount bid. It cannot be withdrawn, reduced or changed once placed.

4.2 Bids are in whole rupees. There is no minimum raise; where bids are visible, each auction may set a maximum raise per bid, shown on its page.

4.3 The time recorded by our server is conclusive as to when a bid was placed.

4.4 In a live auction a valid bid in the final seconds may extend the end time, as shown on the auction page. Our team may also extend the bidding time of any auction, and will tell bidders.

4.5 We may reject a bid that doesn't meet these rules or looks erroneous, manipulative or not genuine, and may pause an auction and cancel affected bids where we suspect collusion or shill bidding.

5. Reserve price and the binding sale

5.1 A seller may set a reserve price, which stays secret. The listing may show whether it has been met.

5.2 If the highest valid bid when bidding closes is at or above the reserve price (or there is no reserve), that bid is accepted, and a binding contract to sell at that price arises between the seller and that bidder, subject to the winner's identity verification.

5.3 If the highest bid is below the reserve, no contract arises. Our team may, with the seller's agreement, negotiate between the seller and the highest bidder, re-run the auction, or close it unsold.

5.4 We give no assurance that a listing will reach its reserve or sell.

6. As it is, where it is

6.1 Everything is offered as it is, where it is, with all its faults. The particulars come from the seller; measurements, photographs and descriptions are indicative.

6.2 Our checks are described in the Terms of use (section 7). They are not a valuation, survey or guarantee. You should inspect, check the documents and take your own advice before bidding; you are treated as having done so, or chosen not to.

6.3 For a running business, most licences do not transfer and you will probably need fresh ones in your own name. For a vehicle, you must transfer its registration at the RTO.

7. Keeping locked information confidential

7.1 Locked information is confidential. Use it only to decide whether to buy this listing. Share it only with your own professional advisers or financiers who need it and who keep it confidential; you are responsible for them.

7.2 While you evaluate and for 12 months after, do not contact the seller's staff, landlord, franchisor, suppliers or customers about the sale except through AuctionHub, and don't solicit the business's staff.

7.3 No going around us. If, within 12 months, you buy the listed item (or a material part of it) from the seller outside AuctionHub, you will pay us the success commission the seller would have paid on that price, plus GST.

7.4 These duties last for 2 years whether or not you bid, except where you complete a purchase and the sale agreement says otherwise.

8. Winning and completing the purchase

8.1 When bidding closes we tell the winner. Once the winner's identity verification is complete, the winner and the seller are put in touch: after a live auction their contact details appear on the auction page; after a non-live auction our team connects them.

8.2 The winner must complete the purchase within these times from the result:

8.3 “Complete” means paying the seller the price and signing the transfer documents. Where the transfer needs more time (registration of a sale deed, a lender's no-objection certificate, a landlord's formal consent or fresh licences), it means signing a written sale agreement with the seller within that time and paying the advance agreed in it, then completing as that agreement says.

8.4 Where completion is delayed by something outside your control, such as a lender's NOC or an authority's processing time, we may with the seller's agreement extend the time on reasonable terms.

8.5 Pay the seller directly, by bank transfer or UPI to the seller's own account. Never pay in cash to strangers or to anyone claiming to act for AuctionHub. We never collect the price.

8.6 On top of your bid you pay stamp duty, registration, RTO transfer and licence fees, and your own advisers' costs, unless agreed otherwise in writing with the seller.

8.7 After the auction the auction page shows the winner and the seller their next steps for that kind of sale.

9. If the winner doesn't complete, or the seller doesn't

9.1 If the winner doesn't complete in time and no extension was agreed, we will write to them, point out the default and give them a chance to explain. If it isn't put right or reasonably explained, the winner receives a strike, may lose the right to bid on AuctionHub, and the item may be offered to the next-highest bidder at their bid, or put up again. The entry fee is not refunded. The seller keeps any rights they have against the winner.

9.2 If the seller fails or refuses to complete a sale you won, we refund your entry fee and may suspend the seller. You keep your rights against the seller, and we will provide the auction record on request. We are not liable for the seller's failure.

10. Larger bids: source of funds

For any bid of ₹50,00,000 or more, you must first tell us where the money comes from, whether a bank loan is involved, and whether you bid for yourself or for someone else (whom we must then also identify), and confirm the money comes from lawful sources. We keep this confidential for five years, as the law requires, and may refuse a bid where it isn't given.

11. Technical failure

If a verified technical failure materially disrupts an auction, bids validly placed before it stand, and we will extend, re-run or void the auction as is reasonable, telling every bidder our decision and why. If an auction is voided, every entry fee is refunded and nobody acquires any right from it.

12. Bidder conduct

You must not: bid without the intention and the money to complete; coordinate with other bidders to distort the price; bid on your own listing or for the seller; use bots or automated tools; approach the seller to deal outside AuctionHub; or post misleading comments about a listing.

13. Vehicles

A Verified agent badge on a listing means our team has checked the dealer's identity and business address; a listing without it comes from a seller who has completed KYC with us. Our checks cover the listing and its papers, not the vehicle's condition, so please see the vehicle in person before the final purchase, so that you buy with full satisfaction. Our team is with you for any question. Match the chassis and engine numbers with the RC before completing. The seller signs Forms 29 and 30 and gives the loan NOC (Form 35) if there was a loan; the buyer applies to the RTO to transfer the registration (the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 sets the time limits) and moves the insurance into their name. Challans and dues are as the seller declared.

14. Art and craft

14.1 The buyer pays the seller directly within the time in section 8.2. The buyer then collects it in person, or the seller ships it insured, with tracking, within 5 days of being paid, as the listing says.

14.2 Unpack it on video and check it against the listing. If it is materially different from the listing or arrives damaged, tell the seller and us within 48 hours of delivery; the seller and the buyer then settle it between them (repair, partial refund, or return for a refund). We will share the listing record to help.

14.3 The attribution, edition and any certificate are the seller's declarations. Buying an artwork gives you the object, not its copyright, unless the listing says otherwise.

15. Records

For every bid we record who placed it, the amount, the time to the second, the IP address and device, and the version of these rules accepted. These records are conclusive unless shown to be clearly wrong.

16. Changes

We may change these rules with notice. A change does not apply to an auction you have already joined: the version you accepted when you joined governs that auction until it is completed.