The auction compliance gate

Auction rules differ by state and country. To protect you and your bidders, MotoDealerHQ keeps live bidding off for your dealership until a legal and compliance review for your auction jurisdiction has been recorded. You can still build and preview test auctions.

How the gate works #

1. You set your jurisdiction under Auctions › Auction settings.
2. A qualified reviewer checks your auction terms, licensing and local rules.
3. The MotoDealerHQ platform owner records the result (approved or revoked) for your dealership and jurisdiction.
4. Live auctions can then be published and bid on.

Until step 3 is done, the auctions dashboard and Auction settings show a message such as "Live bidding is not enabled yet: the platform has not recorded a legal/compliance review for US-FL. Test auctions (staff preview) still work."

Prepare your dealership #

1. Open Auctions › Auction settings.
2. Under Jurisdiction and disclosures, enter Where you run auctions as a region code, for example US-FL.
3. Enter your Auctioneer / dealer licence if you have one. It is shown to bidders.
4. Review the Platform vs. seller disclosure. By default it says your dealership runs the auction using MotoDealerHQ software, and that MotoDealerHQ is not an auctioneer and not a party to the sale.
5. Review the Default auction terms. They are a starting point for your own legal review.
6. Select Save settings.
7. Ask MotoDealerHQ support to arrange the review.

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At the bottom of Auction settings, Compliance reviews recorded by the platform lists every review for your dealership, with the jurisdiction, result, reviewer and date.

Test auctions while you wait #

1. Create a draft and tick Test auction before you publish.
2. Publish it. Open the Staff preview link (test auction) on the auction page.

A test auction is never listed on your website, is clearly marked Test, and can never become a sale. Test bids are flagged and test auctions never count in reports. Stripe test keys work only with test auctions. Test mode can only be changed while the auction is a draft.

What bidders always see #

Every auction page shows the disclosures you entered: title status, lien status, odometer, salvage or rebuilt details, known defects and condition report, plus the buyer fee, a taxes and fees note, payment and pickup deadlines, shipping terms, the auction terms with their version number and your platform disclosure.

Tips #

• Changing your jurisdiction later needs a new review for the new jurisdiction.
• Have your cancellation policy and any deposit forfeiture reviewed at the same time. See deposits and settlement.

Permissions #

Limitations #