Public auction From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article is about an auction on behalf of a government. For auctions open to the public, see Auction. A public auction is an auction held on behalf of a government in which the property to be auctioned is either property owned by the government, or property which is sold under the authority of a court of law or a government agency with similar authority. [edit]Sale of property owned by the government Government property sold at public auction may include surplus government equipment, abandoned property over which the government has asserted ownership, property which has passed to the government by escheat, government land, and intangible assets over which the government asserts authority, such as broadcast frequencies sold through a spectrum auction. Public auctions of government property may be conducted by whichever agency is auctioning the property. Some substantial items have been sold at public auction. For example, the United States Navy cruiser USS Philadelphia (C-4) was sold at such an auction at the Puget Sound Navy Yard in 1927. [edit]Sale of private property in a public auction Private property may be sold in a public auction for a number of reasons. It may be seized through a governmental process to satisfy a judgment rendered by a court or agency, or to liquidate amortgage foreclosure, tax lien, or tax sale. Usually, prices obtained at a public auction to satisfy a judgment are distressed - that is, they are much lower than the price which would be obtained for that property if the seller were free to hold out for an optimal time to sell. In the United States, public auctions to satisfy judgments are usually conducted under the authority of the sheriff of the county or city in which the property to be auctioned was seized pursuant to the judgment, and an auction held for such a purpose is also called a Sheriff's sale. Real property may be subject to a public auction in order to partition the property between joint tenants who can not agree as to how the property should be divided. An estate sale conducted at the direction of a probate court may also be conducted as a public auction. For a directory of sheriff sales and auctions, visit sheriffsalesnet.com. [edit] An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder. In economic theory, an auction may refer to any mechanism or set of trading rules for exchange. There are several variations on the basic auction form, including time limits, minimum or maximum limits on bid prices, and special rules for determining the winning bidder(s) and sale price(s). Participants in an auction may or may not know the identities or actions of other participants. Depending on the auction, bidders may participate in person or remotely through a variety of means, including telephone and the internet. The seller usually pays acommission to the auctioneer or auction company based on a percentage of the final sale price. Lost, mislaid, and abandoned property From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Abandoned property) Property law Part of the common law series Acquisition Gift · Adverse possession · Deed Conquest · Discovery · Accession Lost, mislaid, and abandoned property Treasure trove · Bailment · License Alienation Estates in land Allodial title · Fee simple · Fee tail Life estate · Defeasible estate Future interest · Concurrent estate Leasehold estate · Condominiums Conveyancing Bona fide purchaser Torrens title · Strata title Estoppel by deed · Quitclaim deed Mortgage · Equitable conversion Action to quiet title · Escheat Future use control Restraint on alienation Rule against perpetuities Rule in Shelley's Case Doctrine of worthier title Nonpossessory interest Easement · Profit Covenant Equitable servitude Related topics Fixtures · Waste · Partition Riparian water rights Prior-appropriation water rights Lateral and subjacent support Assignment · Nemo dat Property and conflict of laws Other common law areas Contract law · Tort law Wills, trusts and estates Criminal law · Evidence v · d · e Lost, mislaid, and abandoned property are categories of the common law of property which deals with personal property which has left the possession of its rightful owner without having directly entered the possession of another person. Property can be considered lost, mislaid or abandoned depending on the circumstances under which it is found by the next party who obtains its possession. The rights of a finder of such property are determined in part by the status in which it is found. Because these classifications have developed under the ancient and often archaic common law of England, they turn on nuanced distinctions. The general rule attaching to the three types of property may be summarized as: A finder of property acquires no rights in mislaid property, is entitled to possession of lost property against everyone except the true [1] [2] owner, and is entitled to keep abandoned property. This rule varies by jurisdiction. Contents [hide] 1 Lost property 2 Mislaid property 3 Treasure trove 4 Abandoned property 5 Recent developments 6 See also 7 References 8 External links [edit]Lost property Property is generally deemed to have been lost if it is found in a place where the true owner likely did not intend to set it down, and where it is not likely to be found by the true owner. At common law, the finder of a lost item could claim the right to possess the item against any person except the true owner or any previous possessors.[3][4] The underlying policy goals to these distinctions are to (hopefully) see that the property is returned to its true original owner, or "title owner." Most jurisdictions have now enacted statutes requiring that the finder of lost property turn it in to the proper authorities; if the true owner does not arrive to claim the property within a certain period of time, the property is returned to the finder as his own, or is disposed of.[5] In Britain, many public businesses have a lost property desk, which in the United States would be called a lost and found. Many exceptions may be applied at common law to the rule that the first finder of lost property has a superior claim of right over any other person except the previous owner. For example, a trespasser's claim to lost property which he finds while trespassing is generally inferior to the claim of the respective landowner. As a corollary to this exception, a landowner has superior claim over a find made within the non-public areas of his property, so if a customer finds lost property in the public area of a store, the customer has superior claim to the lost property over that of the store-owner, but if the customer finds the lost property in the non-public area of that store, such as an area marked "Employees Only," the store-owner will have superior claim, as the customer was trespassing when he found it.[6] The status of finders as employees or tenants of the landowner complicates matters, because employees and tenants have legitimate access to non-public areas of a landowner's property that others would not, without trespassing. Employees and tenants, however, still usually lose superior claim over lost property to their employers or landlords if the property is found within the scope of their employment, or outside the actual leased area, respectively.[7] For example, if the lost property is found by a tenant inside the walls of his leasehold, or by an employee embedded within the soil of an estate owned by his employer, the landowner (as employer or landlord) of the property where it was found usually has a superior claim of right over that of the finder. However, this is not always the case, as a long-term tenant who finds lost property within the leased area of his leasehold may have a superior claim over that of his landlord (especially if the landlord has never been to the property). While employers usually have a superior claim over lost property found by their employees, exceptions to this exist as well, as modern law sometimes grants the employee superior claim if turning over lost property to his employer is not part of his job description (such as if the employee is an interior decorator).[8] Unclaimed Property laws in the United States provide for two reporting periods each year whereby unclaimed bank accounts, stocks, insurance proceeds, utility deposits, un-cashed checks and other forms of "personal property" are reported first to the individual state Unclaimed Property Office, then published in a local newspaper and then finally the property is turned over to the State for safe keeping until its rightful owner makes a claim. The states sponsor a free public site that reports a only a portion of the unclaimed property available in the United States. There are commercial sites as well that provide the same information or portions of the information for a fee. Some consumer reporting sites that conduct the research and assist consumers without charge or expense to the consumers. [edit]Mislaid property Property is generally deemed to have been mislaid or misplaced if it is found in a place where the true owner likely did intend to set it, but then simply forgot to pick it up again. For example, a wallet found in a shop lying on a counter near a cash register will likely be deemed misplaced rather than lost. Under common law principles, the finder of a misplaced object has a duty to turn it over to the owner of the premises, on the theory that the true owner is likely to return to that location to search for his misplaced item.