Kansas Auction License Laws

Chapter 58. Personal and Real Property
Article 10. New Goods Public Auction Law

58-1016. License required to conduct certain auction sales; unlawful acts

It shall be unlawful for any person to sell, dispose of, or offer for sale at public auction in this state any new goods, wares or merchandise, unless such person and the owners of such new goods, wares or merchandise to be offered for sale or sold if such are not owned by the vendors, shall have first secured a license as herein provided and shall have complied with the other requirements of this act.

58-1017. Same; filing application; contents; verification

Any person desiring to offer any new goods, wares or merchandise for sale at public auction shall file, in duplicate, an application for a license for that purpose with the clerk of the county or city in which the said auction is proposed to be held. The application shall be filed not less than ten (10) full days prior to the date the said auction is to be held. The application shall state the following facts:
(a) The name, residence and post-office address of the person making the application, and if a firm, association or corporation, the name and address of the members of the firm or association or officers of the corporation, as the case may be.
(b) If the applicant is a corporation then there shall be stated on the application form the date of incorporation, the state of incorporation and if for a corporation formed in a state other than the state of Kansas the date on which such corporation qualified for authority to do business as a foreign corporation in the state of Kansas.
(c) The name, residence and post-office address of the auctioneer who will conduct such public auction.
(d) A detailed inventory and description of all such new goods, wares or merchandise to be offered for sale at public auction which inventory shall list the items set forth in paragraph (c) of K.S.A. 58-1015.
(e) The number of days and dates on which said auction will be held.
(f) A statement that the applicant has complied with all the requirements made of the applicant by the director of revenue under the Kansas retailers' sales tax act and that the applicant holds a valid unrevoked certificate of registration issued by the director of revenue to sell tangible personal property at retail as a transient seller in the state of Kansas.
(g) The said application shall be verified.

58-1018. Same; bond requirements; process; actions

At the time of filing the application required by this act, and as a part thereof, the applicant shall file and deposit with the said clerk a bond issued by a corporate surety authorized to do business in this state, in the penal sum of three (3) times the cost to the vendor of the merchandise proposed to be offered for sale at public auction, to the state of Kansas, and for the use and benefit of any purchaser of any such new goods, wares or merchandise at the said auction who might have a cause of action for damages sustained on account of dishonest or fraudulent conduct arising from or out of a sale or sales at such auction against the applicant or against the auctioneer, and which action is commenced within one (1) year from the date that such sale is made at any such auction; the said bond shall be further conditioned that the applicant will pay any fines that may be assessed by any court against the applicant or against the auctioneer for violation of the provisions of this act: Provided, however, The aggregate liability of the surety for all said taxes, fines, and causes of action shall in no event exceed the sum of such bond, but there shall be no limitation of liability against the owners of the new goods, wares and merchandise or the auctioneer or the applicant for the license.
In such bond the applicant and surety shall appoint the clerk of the county or city, as the case may be, in which said bond is filed the agent of the applicant and of the surety for the service of process, which appointment shall be irrevocable. At the time that said bond is filed and deposited with the clerk as herein provided the auctioneer shall appoint the said clerk the agent of the auctioneer for the service of process, which appointment shall be irrevocable. In the event of such service of process, the agent on whom such service is made shall, within five (5) days after the service, mail by registered mail a true copy of the process served upon the agent to each party for whom the agent has been served, addressed to the last known address of such party.
The state of Kansas or any agency or political subdivision thereof, or any person having a cause of action arising out of any sale of such new goods, wares or merchandise may join the applicant and the surety on such bond and the auctioneer in the same action, or may in such action sue either such applicant or the surety or the auctioneer alone.

58-1019. Same; license fees; disposition of moneys

The applicant filing an application with the clerk for a license to conduct a public auction shall pay to the clerk of such county or city, as the case may be, in which the said application is made, a license fee of twenty-five dollars ($25) per day for each day that the applicant proposes to conduct a public auction. The clerk of such county or city, as the case may be, shall pay such license fees so collected into the county treasury or city treasury, as the case may be, and the said county treasurer or city treasurer shall credit all moneys so received by him or her to the county general fund or the city general fund.

58-1020. Same; issuance of license by county or city clerk; restrictions; record; public inspection; duplicate copy of application to director of revenue

Upon the filing of such application and after the applicant has established that he or she has fully complied with all the provisions of this act, the clerk shall issue to the applicant a license authorizing the said applicant to conduct a public auction as proposed in said application; such license shall not be transferable and shall be valid only in the county outside the corporate limits of any city if issued by the county clerk and only in the city if issued by the city clerk. No license shall be good for more than one (1) person, unless such persons shall be copartners or an association nor for more than one (1) place in said county or city.
The clerk shall keep a record of such licenses in a book provided for that purpose, which shall at all times be open to public inspection. No particular form of license shall be required to be issued by said clerk. However, any license issued shall state the name of the person who is licensed, the precise place at which such auction sale is to be held and the number of days and the dates for which the license is issued. Upon the issuance of such license, the clerk shall mail the duplicate copy of the application for the license to the director of revenue, state office building, Topeka, Kansas.

Kan. Stat. Ann. §§ 58-1016 - 58-1020