Courts to auction seized hot property online

Two courts in Zhejiang province are breaking new ground by putting two seized vehicles up for auction online.

The courts of Ningbo's Beilun district and Yinzhou district are inviting the public to bid for a BMW sedan and a Mitsubishi Outlander SUV on taobao.com, a Chinese online marketplace.

The auctions, scheduled from 10 am on July 9 to 10 pm on July 10, may be followed by other courts in Zhejiang and across the country to deal with confiscated properties.

"To make this pilot program simple and smooth, we've chosen vehicles, uncomplicated properties that do not involve multiple creditors or parties having pre-emptive rights," Wang Yang, the official in charge of the online auction at the Yinzhou court, said on Monday.

But the online auction can be used to deal with other properties, such as real estate and mechanical equipment, if the pilot auctions are successful, he said.

Both courts said on Monday that the public has shown great interest in the vehicles since the notice was put up one week ago.

Phone calls have flooded in from across the country to the courts and some from Zhejiang's Ningbo and Shaoxing cities even paid personal visits to check out the vehicles, they said.

Taobao.com also said last week that it would be the platform for all the courts in Zhejiang to carry out judicial sales, as the online retailer launched a website on Wednesday for courts to organize online auctions.

Traditional court auctions are carried out by an entrusted third party in a brick-and-mortar auction house.

Xu Wenhui, a judge of Chaoyang District People's Court in Beijing, told China Daily that they have enforced judicial sales via a third party, such as an auction company, in line with a regulation issued by the capital's high people's court.

The judge said the most important issue for a court is to make the auction open and fair.

Tang Junfen, a Beijing-based lawyer from Jia Zi Law Firm, said online auctions could cause the under-evaluation and depreciation of auction items.

"It's hard to ensure the fairness of procedures and the rationality of the price," she said, adding that online sales sound more eye-catching yet may not be practical.

But the two courts in Ningbo said the online auction could ensure a fairer operation and attract more buyers by cutting fees.

The Beilun court has listed the BMW sedan at a starting price of 199,900 yuan ($31,500), while Yinzhou court's Outlander SUV starts at 50,000 yuan. Potential buyers can take part in the auction as long as they register with their real identities and pay a 50,000-yuan advance payment for the sedan or 10,000 yuan for the SUV.

The estimated value for the sedan is 250,800 yuan and the SUV 58,650 yuan, according to the two courts.

Other information about the vehicles, such as the sizes, distances traveled and pictures are posted online.

Contact the writers at wangzhenghua@chinadaily.com.cn and caoyin@chinadaily.com.cn