Auction held on behalf of a government, bank or similar entity
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.
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.
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 a mortgage 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.
Forced sale
A Forced Sale of Real Estate is an action
taken in a civil court forcing the owners to sell the
property at issue and divide the profits. The profits
are divided, generally under a reliance damages theory,
that would best restore the owners to the position they
would have been in had the contract never been entered
into
Why forced sales occur
Forced sales generally occur because of the parties'
inability to agree upon certain aspects of the
ownership. Property can be owned by more than one person
either as joint tenants, tenants in common, and in some
states tenants by the entirety.. The choice of which
tenancy to enter into is made by the parties at the time
of purchase. With each, every owner has the right to
occupy the whole. That means that an owner is not
allowed to designate certain rooms as their own and so
on. Each element of the property is enjoyed fully by all
parties.
When a disagreement occurs the court is usually
reluctant to hear the claim immediately. The owners may
disagree how to use the property, the amount of money to
invest into the property, or are depriving other owners
their right to occupy the whole of the property. If the
parties cannot come to an agreement, the case moves to
court.
Calculating damages
To initially divide the damages the court will look at the percentage
owned. For example, if Owners A, B and C own a property as tenants in
common, where A owns 50%, B owns 25% and C owns 25%, a forced sale of
$100,000 would be split $50,000 to A and 25,000 to B and C. However,
after the initial determination, the court may bring in other factors.
For example, if A made reasonable and necessary renovations and was
never reimbursed, the court may reimburse A from the awards to B and/or
C. Generally frivolous improvements to the property are not reimbursed.
Finances
AUCTION
