6.2 Written Auction Contracts (15-10)

Written Auction Contracts (15-10)

Public Act 104-130, effective January 1, 2026, rewrote 225 ILCS 407/15-10. Study the post-amendment text. Older outlines that still say a written or oral listing is enough, or that stop before buyer-premium and ownership acknowledgments, are testing the wrong statute. Section 5-10 already defines an auction contract as a written agreement between the auctioneer or firm and the seller. Section 15-10 independently forbids doing the work without that writing prior to the date of the auction and then lists the disclosures the writing must contain.

The gate: no writing, no sale, no service

The current opening sentence is a prohibition, not a suggestion: any auctioneer or auction firm shall not conduct an auction or provide an auction service unless the auctioneer or auction firm enters into a written auction contract with the seller of any property at auction prior to the date of the auction.

Three timing and form traps sit in that sentence:

1. Written. A handshake, a voicemail, or a text that says "you're hired" is not a 15-10 contract. Papering the file after the last lot is not a 15-10 contract. Chapter 2 already flagged the leftover Rule 1440.10 "written or oral" definitional language. Prefer the Act. 15-10 is the operational ban.
2. With the seller (or sellers, or the seller's legal agent). A contract with a neighbor who "knows the family," or with a bidder, is the wrong party.
3. Prior to the date of the auction. The statute says date, not "before the first bid." A Saturday sale needs a writing entered into before that Saturday. Signing at 7 a.m. on sale day is late under the statutory phrase, even if the first lot is at 10 a.m.

The same sentence covers providing an auction service — arranging, managing, advertising, or conducting. Booking the tent and placing the ads before a writing exists is already inside the prohibition.

Reserve or absolute, and both signatures

Any agreement shall state whether the auction is with reserve or absolute. That sentence is new emphasis from P.A. 104-130 and is not optional fine print. A contract that is silent on the point is incomplete. The public advertising must then match the contract; a with-reserve contract advertised as absolute is the 15-5(1) problem taught in Section 6.1, with Rule 1440.260 waiting in Chapter 7.

The agreement shall be signed by:

• the auctioneer or auction firm conducting the auction or providing the auction service, and
• the seller or sellers, or the legal agent of the seller or sellers of the property to be offered at or by auction.

Multiple owners means multiple signatures unless one legal agent (executor, attorney-in-fact with authority, court-appointed representative) signs for them. An office manager who is not the firm, and a spouse who is not on title and not an agent, are not substitutes.

Licensee disclosures — 15-10(1)(A) through (D)

The statute says the agreement shall include, but not be limited to, the listed disclosures. The list is a floor.

Licensees shall disclose:

1. (A) the name, license number, business address, and phone number of the auctioneer or auction firm conducting the auction or providing the auction service.
2. (B) the fee to be paid to the auctioneer or auction firm for conducting the auction or providing the auction service.
3. (C) an estimate of the advertising costs that shall be paid by the seller or sellers, and a disclosure that if actual advertising costs exceed 120 percent of the estimated advertising cost, the auctioneer or firm shall pay the advertising costs that exceed 120 percent of the estimate or shall have the seller or sellers agree in writing to pay the actual advertising costs in excess of 120 percent of the estimate.
4. (D) the buyer premium and the party to the transaction that receives it.

Exam traps on this floor:

• License number lives in the contract, not as a substitute for the sponsor name that Rule 1440.230 requires in sale-specific advertising (Chapter 7). PSI will swap those two duties.
• Fee is the amount the seller pays the auctioneer or firm — commission, flat fee, or mixed. It is not the buyer premium.
• (D) is the P.A. 104-130 add. Stating that there is a 10 percent buyer premium is not enough if the contract never says who receives it (firm, seller, split). Section 5-10 already defines buyer premium as a fee paid by the successful purchaser other than the purchase price; 15-10(1)(D) is the contract home for that number and that payee.

The 120 percent advertising math

Paragraph (1)(C) is a worked-example item. The estimate is a number in the contract. The 120 percent clause is a second required sentence. Without that sentence, the contract is missing a statutory disclosure even if the estimate itself is present.

Work the assigned numbers. Estimate $2,000. Actual invoices come in at $2,800, which is 140 percent of the estimate.

• 120 percent of $2,000 = $2,400.
• Amount over that cap = $2,800 − $2,400 = $400.

Without a new writing, the seller is on the hook for advertising up through 120 percent of the estimate ($2,400). The auctioneer or firm shall pay the excess $400. The firm does not get to invoice the extra $400 just because the ads "needed to be bigger."

With a new writing in which the seller agrees to pay actual costs above 120 percent, the seller may be billed the full $2,800. The statute requires that agreement in writing. A hallway conversation on sale morning is not the writing.

If actual costs are $2,300 (115 percent of $2,000), the 120 percent trigger never fires. The seller pays the actual $2,300 under the original estimate-and-seller-pays structure. The firm does not owe a 15-10(1)(C) excess.

Seller disclosures — 15-10(2)(A) through (C)

Sellers shall disclose:

1. (A) the name, address, and phone number of the seller or sellers or the legal agent of the seller or sellers.
2. (B) any mortgage, lien, easement, or encumbrance of which the seller has knowledge on any property or goods to be sold or leased at or by auction. P.A. 104-130 expressly includes easement.
3. (C) if known to the seller, an acknowledgment that (i) all property or goods offered are owned by the seller, (ii) the seller has full legal authority to sell, and (iii) to the best of the seller's knowledge the property or goods were lawfully obtained.

(C) is the stolen-goods and no-authority trap. The qualifier is if known to the seller. It is still a required contract acknowledgment when the seller knows those facts, which a true owner ordinarily does. A seller who cannot make the acknowledgment is waving a red flag: do not cry lots the seller cannot lawfully sell. Known liens and easements belong in (B) even if the sale is as-is; bidders' title risk is a 15-5 material fact if the crew misdescribes it.

Copies at execution — 20-15(18)

Section 15-10 tells you what the instrument must contain. 225 ILCS 407/20-15(18) tells you what happens at the signature table: grounds for discipline include failing to voluntarily furnish copies of all written instruments prepared by the auctioneer and signed by all parties to all parties at the time of execution.

• Voluntarily — you do not wait for a party to ask, and you do not wait for an IDFPR records request (that is a different 30-day duty in 20-15(19)).
• All written instruments prepared by the auctioneer and signed by all parties — the listing contract, and any addendum signed the same way.
• To all parties at the time of execution — both sides leave with a copy when they sign, not a scan emailed the following week.

Pocketing both originals at 4 p.m. and mailing a copy on Monday is a 20-15(18) fail even if the 15-10 disclosures were perfect.

A complete 15-10 file on exam day is therefore: writing before the auction date; reserve or absolute stated; both (or all) signatures; licensee (A)–(D); seller (A)–(C); 120 percent math understood; copies in each party's hands at execution.