It’s usually that so-called “out-of-town” (out of state) auctioneer who doesn’t have an auctioneer’s license in that state, conducting an auction next weekend … and he “doesn’t have a license?!” It appears he’s acting as a “power of attorney” for the seller to avoid the licensing requirement.
The question becomes: “Can a power of attorney (POA) circumvent the licensing requirement?” It appears to us that unless the state has some particular statute or rule prohibiting this type of arrangement, it may be a legal workaround to licensing.
Additionally, the license requirement may only apply if this auctioneer is generally engaging in the business or holding himself out as an auctioneer and this one single POA arrangement may not violate license law. Alternately, it may depending upon a state’s particular laws.
As well, license law can explicitly prohibit such structures. For example, in Ohio and some other states, a POA cannot specifically be used to circumvent license law. That related Ohio statute is here: http://codes.ohioFo4r .gov/orc/4707.15v1 (M). Probably not a bad license law stipulation for any state’s licensing statutes …
A power of attorney is not the same as a court-order. Courts can order real or personal property auctions to take place and order particular persons to conduct them independent of (superseding) any license law. As we’ve suggested before, an non-licensee not complying with a court-order would risk being in contempt of court.
Certainly the intent of most occupational licensing law in the United States is to comprehensively license professional work in that state, with specific exemptions as expressed in the same statutes; for states that don’t prohibit such, it’s doubtful the drafters of such laws foresaw power of attorney appointments as an issue.
Our conclusion is that if a license state doesn’t expressly prohibit a POA appointment that such would be an clear exemption from any licensing requirement unless otherwise — possibly — that state may be able to cite other statues (for example, “engaging in the business” or “holding oneself out as …”) as reason to prohibit this appointment work-around.
Mike Brandly, Auctioneer, CAI, CAS, AARE has been an auctioneer and certified appraiser for over 30 years. His company’s auctions are located at: Mike Brandly, Auctioneer, RES Auction Services and Goodwill Columbus Car Auction. He serves as Distinguished Faculty at Hondros College, Executive Director of The Ohio Auction School, an Instructor at the National Auctioneers Association’s Designation Academy and America’s Auction Academy. He is faculty at the Certified Auctioneers Institute held at Indiana University and is approved by the The Supreme Court of Ohio for attorney education.
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