Our Terms of Business for Buyers
General
1. These Terms of Business form the basis upon which we, Preston Traders Limited (Company Number 4570810) trading as Bainbridges, conduct auctions. Any reference to “we”, “our” or “us” shall mean Preston Traders Limited.
2. By entering any lot for sale or bidding at one of our auctions you will be deemed to accept these Terms in their entirety. Any variation must be in writing and agreed with us prior to the commencement of an auction.
3. You (and all buyers, sellers and other members of the public) accept that you enter onto our premises, or any premises from which we are conducting an auction, at your own risk and you must familiarise yourself with the appropriate layout and security or safety arrangements. We shall have no liability for your security or safety whilst on our property, or any other property from which we conduct an auction, other than for death or personal injury arising as a result of our negligence. We may occasionally record CCTV footage at our premises prior, during and after an auction and you consent to our holding and processing any images of you we may acquire.
4. We reserve the right in our absolute discretion to refuse admission to any of our premises or other premises from which we conduct an auction, or to require any person to leave such premises at any time, whether before, during or after an auction.
Description and Condition of Lots
5. We make every reasonable effort to ensure the accuracy of advertisements, catalogue descriptions or other publicity relating to lots but any such statement or representation about the attribution, genuineness, origin, date, age, value or condition of a lot is a statement of opinion only and does not form part of any contractual statement or obligation between you and us. You must rely on your own opinion and discretion and we will have no liability to you in relation to such matters.
6. All lots are available for inspection prior to an auction and are sold with all faults imperfections or errors of description and in their actual state. We accept no responsibility for any errors of description and offer no warranty to you or any buyer in respect of any lot and any express or implied warranties or representations are excluded. You must satisfy yourself as to the condition of any lot and whether it accords with its description prior to an auction. We strongly advise you to examine any lot prior to bidding for it.
7. We act as Agents for the seller of any lot and if you are successful in bidding for a lot the contract of sale is between you and the seller and not with us. We are not responsible to you for any breach of contract or other default by the seller. These terms govern your separate contractual relationship with us.
Conduct of the Sale
8. All lots are sold subject to any announcement, notice, change or alteration of description made by us at the auction prior to the invitation of bids.
9. We have an absolute discretion without giving any reason whatever to refuse any bid, to divide or combine any lot or to withdraw any lot. We shall also have an absolute discretion to put any unsold or disputed lot up for auction again.
10. Any items entered for sale by bailiffs are marked accordingly.. All stated quantities in respect of any lot are approximate only.
11. The highest bidder for a lot shall be the buyer at the hammer price and shall also be liable for any VAT or other tax or levy due on the lot. Any dispute will be settled at our absolute discretion and we expressly reserve the right to bid on behalf of the seller up to the amount of any reserve.
12. For online bidding you must register through our online bidding portal prior to bidding at any auction. By bidding at one of our auctions online you accept that you do so on these Terms.
13. You acknowledge that any bid you attempt to make online is subject to appropriate and operational internet and website facilities and we accept no liability for any failure or delay in placing or executing bids caused by any failure, delay or interruption in the availability of online bidding services or functionality.
Payment
14. You agree to pay to us in full the purchase price for any lot for which you are the successful bidder (being the hammer price plus any VAT or other levy due). You also agree to pay to us in full a premium of 27% of the hammer price (subject to a minimum of £5.00 per Lot or such other sum as may be set out in the catalogue for the auction and/or sale room notices) together with VAT on such premium at the prevailing rate. You acknowledge that we may also receive the seller’s commission due to us.
15. You must also pay to us in full and on demand any expenses that may be due from you to us including our charges for packaging, postage, transport or disposal of a lot, together with any relevant VAT thereon.
16. All payments to us must be made in the currency in which the sale was conducted and must be made without any set-off or deduction whatsoever. All bank charges and exchange rate fluctuations are your responsibility and must not be deducted from the sums due to us.
17. Ownership of a lot shall not pass to you until you have paid to us (and we have received) the total amount due in cleared funds (including the hammer price, buyer’s premium, expenses and any VAT or other tax due).
18. All lots will be at your sole risk from the fall of the hammer and you will be entitled to take away any purchased lot, at your own expense, at the times specified by the auctioneer, but strictly providing you have paid to us, and we have received, the total amount due in cleared funds.
19. In order to bid at an auction we will require you to give to us your full name and permanent address (together with any evidence of such details as we may reasonably request). If you fail to do we reserve the right to refuse any bid you make or to refuse you access to an auction. If you are the successful bidder for a lot you will be obliged to promptly pay to us the total amount due in full cleared funds. If you fail to do so we may, at our discretion, put the lot up for re-sale.
Collection of Lots
20. You are responsible for any loss or damage to purchased lots from the time of sale (i.e. when the hammer falls) and we will not be responsible for any loss or damage of any kind, whether caused by negligence or otherwise while any lot remains in our custody or control.
21. You will be responsible for any removal, storage and insurance charges on any lot and any unnecessary, negligent or wilful damage that may be done by you or your agents in the removal and collection of any lot from us or from any property where such items are stored. You will fully indemnify us for any loss or expense we may suffer or incur in relation to such matters. All items forming part of a lot must be collected by you and not some only.
22. If you do not collect a purchased lot by the deadline stated in the relevant auction catalogue or notified by the auctioneer we will charge you a storage fee of £1.00 per day per lot for non-furniture lots, and £5.00 per day for furniture lots until you collect the lot or it is disposed of.
23. If you fail to pay any sum due to us in full by the due date (time being of the essence) we will be entitled (without further notice to you) to: (i) retain possession of the lot; (ii) take legal proceedings against you for payment of any sums due to us and/or damages for breach of contract; (iii) be paid interest on any monies due to us at the annual rate of 5% per annum above the base lending rate of [Lloyds Bank Plc]; (iv) sell the lot at our discretion by auction or any other means; or (v) refuse to allow you to register for any future auction and/or to reject any further bid from you.
24. You agree to fully indemnify us against all loss, liability or expense we may suffer as a result of any breach by you of your obligations in respect of an auction or under these Terms.
25. If during a period of seven days after the auction, but before we remit the sale proceeds of any lot to the seller, you give us notice that a lot is a forgery or imitation and we, acting reasonably, accept this to be the case, then we are entitled to rescind the sale and to refund to you sums paid by you (limited to any amount paid in respect of the relevant lot) and subject to you returning the lot to us in the same condition as it was at the time of the auction. The benefit of this clause is not assignable and will rest solely and exclusively with you (which for the avoidance of doubt shall mean the person to whom our original invoice was issued in respect of the lot).
Our Liability
26. We will not be liable to you whether in negligence, tort, breach of contract or statutory duty or under the Misrepresentation Act 1967, or in any other way for lack of conformity or inaccuracy, mis-description or omission in relation to any lot made by us on our behalf or on behalf of the seller.
27. Our duty to you while the lot is at your risk and in our custody or control is to exercise reasonable care in relation to it. We will not be responsible for damage or loss caused by third parties or matters outside of our responsibility or control.
28. We will not be liable to you for any loss of business, profits, revenue or income or for loss of reputation or disruption or wasted time or for any other indirect or consequential loss or damage of any kind.
29. Nothing in these Terms will be construed as excluding or restricting our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence.
Miscellaneous
30. We are obliged to offer all electrical goods as scrap, and to remove plugs, to comply with trading standard regulations. Soft furnishings and upholstery that does not comply with current fire regulations may be disposed of at our discretion and any charges we may incur passed to the seller or their agent. Alternatively we may choose to exclude any such items from a lot. We will not be liable for breakages or damage to any glass or marble items. We will recycle all packing and jewel boxes unless specifically asked in writing to retain the same. The buyer’s premium due on the sale of any books is subject to VAT at the same rate as all other lots.
31. You may not assign either the benefit or the burden these Terms or any contract for sale.
32. Any failure or delay on our part in enforcing or exercising any power or right under these Terms will not be deemed to operate as a waiver of our rights nor affect our ability to enforce any obligation or liability.
33. If any Term or any part of any Term is held to be unenforceable or invalid, this will not affect the enforceability or validity of the remaining Terms or the remainder of the relevant Term.
34. These conditions and all matters connected with them will be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales and you agree that the courts of England and Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction to settle all disputes arising in connection with any aspect or matter relating to these Terms or any transactions to which they relate, except that you agree that we retain the right to bring proceedings in any other court of competent jurisdiction insofar as permitted by the laws of the relevant jurisdiction.
35. All UK art market professionals are required to collect a royalty payment on re-sale of all works of art that have been produced by living artists and recently deceased artists in accordance with certain conditions as set out in the Artists Re-sale Right Regulations 2006 as subsequently amended. This payment is only calculated on qualifying works of art which are sold for a hammer price more than the UK sterling equivalent of €1,000.00. The royalty charge will be invoiced to all relevant buyers and should be paid before items can be collected. The charge must be paid before the items are sold on again. All royalty charges are passed on to the Design & Artists Copyrights Society (DACS). The royalty charge that will be applied to qualifying items which achieve a hammer price of more than the UK sterling equivalent of €1,000.00 but less than the UK sterling equivalent of €50,000.00 is 4%. For qualifying items that sell for more than the UK sterling equivalent of €50,000.00 a sliding scale of royalty charges will apply. Please see www.dacs.org.co.uk for further details.
36 Where we obtain any personal information about you, we shall only use it in accordance with the terms of our Privacy Policy (subject to any additional specific requests or consents you may have given at the time your information was disclosed to us). A copy of our Privacy Policy can be found on our website www.bainbridgesauctions.com or requested from us by post or email
Our Terms of Business for Sellers
General
- These Terms of Business form the basis upon which we, Preston Traders Limited (Company Number 4570810) trading as Bainbridges, conduct auctions. Any reference to “we”, “our” or “us” shall mean Preston Traders Limited.
- By entering any lot for sale or bidding at one of our auctions you will be deemed to accept these Terms in their entirety. Any variation must be in writing and agreed with us prior to the commencement of an auction.
- You (and all buyers, sellers and other members of the public) accept that you enter onto our premises, or any premises from which we are conducting an auction, at your own risk and you must familiarise yourself with the appropriate layout and security or safety arrangements. We shall have no liability for your security or safety whilst on our property, or any other property from which we conduct an auction, other than for death or personal injury arising as a result of our negligence. We may occasionally record CCTV footage at our premises prior, during and after an auction and you consent to our holding and processing any images of you we may acquire.
- We reserve the right in our absolute discretion to refuse admission to any of our premises or other premises from which we conduct an auction, or to require any person to leave such premises at any time, whether before, during or after an auction.
Contract for Sale - We act as your agent. This means you will be responsible for all statements and representations made by us on your behalf and you will be the principle to the contract for sale with the buyer of the lot. For that reason you are required to give us certain warranties and undertakings about the lot and about yourself and you must ensure that what you tell us is correct and complete.
- You agree that anything stated or represented by us in any description, catalogue or other publication or literature relating to the attribution, provenance, history, age, suitability, quality, condition or value of any lot is only an expression of our opinion, and that any estimate we may provide for a lot is our opinion and should not be relied upon as an indication of the selling price or value of a lot.
- You agree to complete our entry and registration form and that the information and details you have provided on the form are true and accurate. You accept that we shall hold no liability as a result of any failure on your part to fully provide any necessary detail to us.
- If any item or lot contains or refers to your personal details or data, or if such details or data are traceable by reference to an item or lot, you agree and accept that we may pass such details and data to a third party and agree to indemnify us for any loss or damage we may suffer or incur as a result.
- We have an absolute discretion, without having to give any reason whatever, to refuse to sell any item or lot, to refuse any bid, to divide or combine any lot or to withdraw any lot. We shall also have an absolute discretion to put any unsold or disputed lot up for auction again
Seller’s Warranties - You warrant and undertake to us that you are the owner of the lot or, if you are not the owner, that you are fully authorised by the owner to sell it. You also undertake that you are able to sell the lot with full title guarantee, free from all liens, charges and third party claims.
- You confirm that you have notified us in writing of any material alterations to the lot and have provided us with all information in relation to it of which you are aware or which is in your possession.
- You agree to indemnify us against all claims, proceedings, liabilities, costs, expenses or other losses arising from any actual or alleged breach of any undertaking or warranty by you; any injury loss or damage caused to any person by you; by your fraud or wilful mis-description or mis-statement; any breach by you of these terms or of our exercising of any rights or duties under these Terms.
- In the event of a dispute concerning any lot consigned to us for sale you agree that should such dispute be resolved (by agreement or Court Order or otherwise) in your favour then you will re-consign the relevant lot to us for sale.
- If any third party shall claim possession of or title to all or part of a lot prior to its removal from our saleroom then we reserve the right to rescind the sale of the lot or permit its removal from the saleroom and/or our premises.
Payment & Reserve - You agree to pay to us the commission and/or costs as set out on our entry/registration form and you authorise us to receive payment for the lot on your behalf and to deduct any sums due from you to us from such payments before remitting the balance to you. Our commission is based on the hammer price if a lot is sold, or if unsold a minimum fee per lot as specified in our entry/registration form or otherwise notified to you . Payment of sums due to you will generally be made 13 days after the auction or receipt by us of the full sum due from the buyer, whichever is the later.
- You must also pay to us in full and on demand any expenses that may be due from you to us including our charges for a warranty against theft, illustrations, advertising, packaging, postage, transport or disposal of a lot, together with any relevant VAT thereon.
- We will be under no obligation to account to you for sums due from the buyer until we have received payment of the total sum due to us in respect of the lot and in accordance with our Terms of business (including the hammer price, buyer’s premium, expenses and VAT or other tax due).
- If the buyer does not make payment to us in accordance with our Terms, or is otherwise in breach of our Terms, then we shall, in our absolute discretion, be entitled to exercise one or more of the following remedies: (i) to proceed to enforce payment or claim damages for breach of contract against the buyer (including all legal costs incurred); (ii) to rescind the sale and/or re-sell the Lot; (iii) to remove, store, insure the Lot at the buyer’s expense at our premises or elsewhere; (iv) to charge the buyer interest at a rate not exceeding 1.5% per month on the total amount due to the extent that it remains unpaid for more than five days (including weekends) after the sale. We will consult with you in relation to any such action but our decision in relation to the appropriate course of action will be final and binding.
All sums due under these Terms, either to you or from you, will be subject to any VAT or other tax which may be applicable, at the prevailing rate. - We will sell all lots without a reserve unless we have agreed a reserve with you prior to the auction.
- If any lot being offered for sale shall not be sold we are entitled to re-enter previously reserved lots without reserve or to dispose of unreserved lots at your cost. Where you withdraw a lot before sale, but after cataloguing, then you will pay to us 25% of the latest high estimate for the lot together with VAT. All withdrawn lots will attract a storage charge of £1.00 per day after the third day following withdrawal.
- If we incur advertising costs or other expenses in connection with any lot placed at auction then in the event of any auction being unable to proceed or impeded due to a dispute howsoever arising in relation to that lot and/or failure by the buyer to make payment in accordance with their obligations, then you will pay to us such advertising costs or other expenses within 14 days of our written demand for payment.
23 We may from time to time in order to assist you pay costs and disbursements on your behalf and for which you are liable. Such payment by us shall in no way waive your liability to us and you will reimburse us in respect of any such payments within 14 days of our written demand for payment.
Responsibility for Lots - We accept no responsibility for loss or damage to any lot while in our custody or under our control unless you have specifically requested our warranty against theft by ticking the appropriate box on our entry/registration form.
- Where a warranty against theft is requested we will charge you a sum to cover such warranty at the rate of 1.5% of the hammer price, or the reserve price if the lot remains unsold, or the high estimate on withdrawn lots, subject always to a minimum fee of £1.00 per lot and the addition of any applicable VAT. Our warranty will apply only to items displayed in our saleroom off the hall adjacent to reception. The lot will remain warranted against theft until the expiry of 24 hours after the first offering for sale of the item. It is your responsibility to make enquiries and establish which lots remain unsold. Any payment made by us under the warranty will be based on an item value equivalent to the reserve, subject to a 10% discretion on our part, or in the case of an unreserved lot, the low estimate.
- We do not undertake collection of lots for sale but will if specifically requested by you and at your expense arrange for such collection by a third party. In such circumstances we accept no responsibility for the acts or omissions of the third party or for any loss or damage that they may cause.
- We will be entitled to exercise a lien on any of your property which is in our possession for any reason to secure payment of any sums due to us and we shall be entitled on giving 7 days’ notice to you of our intention to do so (sent to your last known address), to sell any such property to recover sums due to us.
Our Liability - We shall be entitled to rely entirely on any description of a lot or other information you provide in relation to a lot. Our liability in respect of any description given by us is excluded except to the extent that we fail accurately to reflect any description of the lot given to us by you. We shall be under no obligation to use any description or information you provide to us that we believe may amount to a misrepresentation and shall have no liability to you for any such non-use
- Without prejudice to the exclusion of our liability set out in these Terms, we will not be liable (whether in negligence, tort, breach of contract or statutory duty) for any lack of conformity with or inaccuracy, error or mis-description) of a lot or any opinion we express in respect of it, or in the setting of any reserve or any failure to achieve a sale except insofar as it was caused by a breach of our duty to exercise reasonable skill and care in the performance of our obligations.
- We will not be liable to you for any loss of business, profit or revenue or for loss of reputation or disruption to your business or any indirect loss or consequence or damage of any kind.
- Nothing in these Terms will be construed as excluding or restricting our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence.
Miscellaneous - We are obliged to offer all electrical goods as scrap, and to remove plugs, to comply with trading standard regulations. Soft furnishings and upholstery that does not comply with current fire regulations may be disposed of at our discretion and any charges we may incur passed to the seller or their agent. Alternatively we may choose to exclude any such items from a lot. We will not be liable for breakages or damage to any glass or marble items. We will recycle all packing and jewel boxes unless specifically asked in writing to retain the same. The buyer’s premium due on the sale of any books is subject to VAT at the same rate as all other lots.
- You may not assign either the benefit or the burden these Terms or any contract for sale.
- Any failure or delay on our part in enforcing or exercising any power or right under these Terms will not be deemed to operate as a waiver of our rights nor affect our ability to enforce any obligation or liability.
- If any Term or any part of any Term is held to be unenforceable or invalid, this will not affect the enforceability or validity of the remaining Terms or the remainder of the relevant Term.
- These conditions and all matters connected with them will be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales and you agree that the courts of England and Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction to settle all disputes arising in connection with any aspect or matter relating to these Terms or any transactions to which they relate, except that you agree that we retain the right to bring proceedings in any other court of competent jurisdiction insofar as permitted by the laws of the relevant jurisdiction.
- All UK art market professionals are required to collect a royalty payment on re-sale of all works of art that have been produced by living artists and recently deceased artists in accordance with certain conditions as set out in the Artists Re-sale Right Regulations 2006 as subsequently amended. This payment is only calculated on qualifying works of art which are sold for a hammer price more than the UK sterling equivalent of €1,000.00. The royalty charge will be invoiced to all relevant buyers and should be paid before items can be collected. The charge must be paid before the items are sold on again. All royalty charges are passed on to the Design & Artists Copyrights Society (DACS). The royalty charge that will be applied to qualifying items which achieve a hammer price of more than the UK sterling equivalent of €1,000.00 but less than the UK sterling equivalent of €50,000.00 is 4%. For qualifying items that sell for more than the UK sterling equivalent of €50,000.00 a sliding scale of royalty charges will apply. Please see www.dacs.org.co.uk for further details.
38 Where we obtain any personal information about you, we shall only use it in accordance with the terms of our Privacy Policy (subject to any additional specific requests or consents you may have given at the time your information was disclosed to us). A copy of our Privacy Policy can be found on our website www.bainbridgesauctions.com or requested from us by post or email