Sanmenxia Judicial Auction Steps into Internet era

( chinadaily.com.cn )

Updated: 2014-04-16

On April 9, a property valued at 285,000 yuan ($45,813) was successfully sold through auction at a price of 287,000 yuan as the first auction item of the Sanmenxia intermediate people’s court’s online judicial auction platform on Taobao, a Chinese website for online shopping similar to eBay. This was the first time the Sanmenxia court held an online judicial auction.

The auction item was a house measuring 130.5 square meters in Lingbao county-level city, which has been controlled by Lingbao court through legal procedure and auctioned on the Taobao judicial auction platform after evaluation, since March 17. Its owner was locked in a loan dispute case with a bank.

In order to achieve its goal to close the immovable property deal at the first auction, the court made good preparations, including not only extensive publicity of advantages of online judicial auction and detailed operation procedure, but also announcement of the auction through both Internet and paper media. Auction leaflets were also handed out around the house’s location, striving to integrate advantages of both traditional and trust auctions.

After the announcement, a picture show and house viewing, the auction was held on April 8 and lasted until April 9. The opening bid was 185,000 yuan. Three bidders paid a bid bond to participate in the auction, and one of them clinched the deal at a price of 287,000 yuan, a 0.7 percent premium.

Edited by Liu Yufen and Michael Thai