Read before signing
The document is usually short, often a single sheet, and almost nobody reads it properly. It decides what happens to the object, what happens to the money, and who carries the loss when something goes wrong.
The clauses that carry the weight
Five things determine almost everything. What the agent takes, expressed as a percentage and of what. Which additional costs may be charged and whether they apply if the piece does not sell. The floor price and who may change it. How long the agent may keep the goods. And when the seller gets paid, counted from the sale rather than from any other event.
Everything else in the document is machinery around those five. If time is short, read those clauses and ask about anything in them that is not a specific number or a specific date.
| Clause | The question it answers | What to watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Commission | What the agent takes, and of what | Whether it is a percentage of hammer, and whether it slides with value |
| Additional charges | What else comes off | Whether any of them apply to a lot that does not sell |
| Reserve | The floor, and who controls it | Whether the house may sell below it at its own discretion |
| Term and exclusivity | How long they may hold the goods | Automatic renewal, and whether there is a notice period you can actually invoke |
| Settlement | When you are paid | That it is counted from the sale date, and what happens if the buyer defaults |
Exclusivity, and how long it runs
Nearly every agreement is exclusive for its duration. The seller cannot offer the piece elsewhere while it is held, which is reasonable given the agent is spending money preparing it.
What matters is the length and how it ends. A term that renews automatically unless the seller gives notice can keep an object tied up through several sales without anybody making a fresh decision. Look for a fixed end date, or a notice period the seller can actually invoke.
What happens when it does not sell
This is the clause people skip and later regret. An unsold piece can be returned, entered into a later sale, offered privately at a reduced figure, or in some agreements sold at the agent's discretion below the floor. Those are very different outcomes.
Find out which applies, whether a charge attaches, who pays to move the object back, and how long the seller has to collect before storage becomes chargeable. An object nobody collects can accrue costs quietly.
What is negotiable
More than most sellers try. Percentages on higher-value pieces are frequently movable, and so is who pays for preparation and transport. The floor is agreed rather than imposed. So is the term length.
What is rarely movable is the settlement window and the insurance basis, both of which are usually set business-wide rather than per seller. Asking costs nothing, and an agent who will not discuss any of it has told the seller something useful. which channel suits an item is worth rereading if the terms on offer make this route look worse than the alternatives.
Who is liable if the description turns out to be wrong
Agreements almost always contain a warranty from the seller that they own the goods, that they are entitled to sell them, and that nothing material has been withheld. That clause is easy to skim and it is the one that carries the sharpest consequences.
If a buyer later establishes that a lot is not what the catalogue said, the house will generally unwind the sale and reclaim the money. Where the error traces back to something the seller knew or should have known, the agreement usually puts the cost on the seller rather than on the house.
This is not a reason for alarm and it is a strong reason for candour at intake. Mentioning the repair, the uncertain history or the missing paperwork protects the seller far more than staying quiet does. A house that knows about a problem writes around it. A house that discovers it afterwards has a claim.
What to keep once it is signed
Keep the signed agreement itself, the intake receipt listing what was handed over, and any written confirmation of the reserve. Those three documents answer almost every question that arises later.
The intake receipt matters most and is the one people discard. It is the only record of exactly what went in, described in somebody else's words, and it is what a disagreement about a missing piece turns on. Check it against what you actually handed over before leaving, because corrections are trivial on the day and difficult afterwards.
Photograph everything before it goes, too. That set, matched against the receipt, is a complete record of condition at the moment responsibility transferred, which is the thing nobody has when a piece comes back marked.
Common questions
Can an object be withdrawn after signing but before the sale?
Usually yes, and usually not for free. Most agreements provide for withdrawal against a charge, often calculated against the low estimate, on the basis that the agent has already spent money cataloguing and photographing the piece. The figure and the notice required should be in the document. Withdrawing after a catalogue has been published is treated more seriously than withdrawing before.
Should the agreement be signed by everybody who owns the object?
Where more than one person has a claim on it, yes, and it is worth sorting out before rather than after. Jointly inherited property is the usual case, and a sale agreed by one beneficiary without the others can be challenged, which puts the house in a difficult position and the seller in a worse one. Most businesses will ask, and the ones that do not are still relying on the warranty that you were entitled to sell.