How we chose
We started from every auction room Google Maps shows across Telford. Scheme memberships were sourced from the Propertymark register, each firm's own website and the review platforms buyers actually use [1] [2]. Each business must first meet our basic checks: it is who it says it is, it is trading today and can be reached, and anything it must hold by law is in place. Both Telford rooms met all three. What customers say counts most toward the score, then qualifications, then whether the firm has traded for two years or more and whether its cover is stated, then pricing clarity and website detail. All evidence in this round is dated early September 2026.
How to hire
Start by matching the room to your lot. Telford's two rooms serve different sellers: Mullock Jones at Halesfield deals in sporting memorabilia, antique fishing tackle, historical documents and ephemera, while Wilsons Auctions at Hadley sells cars, commercials and plant almost entirely. A general house-clearance lot with neither specialist appeal nor an engine may suit neither room, so ask both what they would actually do with it before you book a van. Say what you have, with photographs and rough sizes, in your first message.
There is no licence or mandatory qualification for calling yourself an auctioneer, and no compulsory register to check [1]. The voluntary scheme that matters is NAVA Propertymark, the auctioneering arm of the property profession, whose members follow its conduct rules and offer a route to redress [2]. To check a membership claim, type the business name into the Find an Expert search on the Propertymark website and look for the Auctioneering badge on the result [1]. If your job is a property sale, an RICS member firm can also advise on valuation and the sale itself, and the RICS consumer guide to property auctions sets out what to expect [5].
Vehicle sales need their own checks. View the car at the Hadley rooms where possible, and run its registration through the free MOT history checker on GOV.UK, which shows past passes, failures, recorded mileages and recalls [7]. Ask to see the log book and the service history, and confirm in writing whether the car carries a reserve or is offered without one. The Sale of Goods Act treats each lot as its own contract and lets you withdraw any bid before the hammer falls [6].
Telford and Wrekin adds its own layer where property meets the auction room. The borough holds eight conservation areas, including the Severn Gorge and Wellington, and the Gorge carries an Article 4 Direction that tightens control over even minor changes, so a period cottage in Ironbridge or a shopfront in Wellington may need permission for works that would pass unnoticed elsewhere [8]. Trees in these areas need six weeks' notice before any work, which can delay a clearance or a pre-sale tidy [8]. If your lot is a building in one of these streets, raise the planning position with your solicitor before the catalogue closes, and read the RICS consumer guide alongside the legal pack [5].
Understand what the hammer means before you raise your hand. A bid accepted at auction completes the contract when the hammer falls, and there is no cooling-off period afterwards [6]. For property sold unconditionally, contracts exchange on the fall of the hammer and completion usually follows within four to six weeks, with a deposit due on the day [5]. Read the legal pack with a solicitor before any property auction, and never bid a sum your lender has not agreed.
Get the money terms in writing before you consign or bid. Sellers should see the commission rate, any per-lot cataloguing or entry fee, the agreed reserve, what happens if the lot goes unsold, and when and how they are paid. Buyers should see the buyer's premium as a percentage, how VAT is applied, and the extra charge for bidding online, which the best-known platform puts at just under five per cent of the hammer price [3]. A national survey of auction charges found premiums at the large houses running to a quarter of the hammer price or more once VAT is added [4].
After the sale, keep every piece of paper. Buyers should leave with an invoice splitting the hammer price, the premium, VAT and any online charge, plus a collection receipt once the lot is picked up [3]. Property buyers get the memorandum of sale on the day and the completion statement from their solicitor afterwards [5]. Sellers should keep the signed reserve agreement, the sale-day account showing commission and fees deducted, and proof of payment. Photograph valuable lots before they leave your hands.
From first contact to sign-off, a typical consignment follows the same rhythm. You describe the lot with photographs and rough sizes, the room values it and proposes a reserve, and both sides sign the reserve agreement before cataloguing. On sale day the hammer decides, and afterwards the seller receives the sale-day account with commission and fees deducted while the buyer takes the split invoice and collects inside the stated window. Vehicle buyers tax the car before driving it away, since tax no longer transfers with the log book [9]. If anything in that chain is missing — no valuation, no signed reserve, no invoice — pause until it appears.
Pricing
As of autumn 2026, expect the buyer's side to add roughly a quarter to the hammer price at a typical regional sale. Premiums at the large houses have climbed to around a quarter of the hammer before VAT, adding nearly a third once tax is included, though Sotheby's recently cut its own rate to a fifth including VAT [4]. Specialist Telford rooms set their own scales, so read the terms of the exact sale you are joining. Bidding online adds a further charge, typically just under five per cent of the hammer price through the best-known platform [3].
Sellers pay from the other side, with commission on the hammer price commonly running to just under a fifth including VAT at the large houses [4]. Many rooms add per-lot cataloguing or entry fees and illustration charges for photographed lots [4]. Vehicle entries can carry fixed cataloguing fees on top of commission, so a low-value car can cost more to sell than it makes. Ask for every fee by name before you sign.
Property lots follow a different arithmetic. Entry fees and the cost of the legal pack sit with the seller whether the lot sells or not, the buyer pays a deposit on the day with completion weeks later, and both sides carry solicitor costs on top of the auction charges [5]. Against those national patterns, the Telford specialist room is unusually open, publishing a buyer premium of roughly a fifth plus VAT with the exact online surcharge alongside it [10]. Read that page rather than any average: the scale of the exact sale you are joining is the only one that decides your bill.
Three things move the bill most: the value of the lot, how you bid, and how you collect. Higher-value lots sometimes earn a lower premium rate; bidding online rather than in the room adds the platform surcharge [3]; and packing, shipping, storage and collection after the sale all land on the buyer. Timed online-only sales can carry different scales from live room sales, so compare the exact terms rather than the house headline rate.
VAT catches buyers out most often. It is usually charged on the premium rather than the hammer price, but houses apply it differently, so check the sale's important-info section before you register [3]. Whichever side of the rostrum you stand on, get the full arithmetic in writing first: the rate, what VAT applies to, the online charge and, for sellers, the reserve, the payment date and what happens to unsold lots.
Red flags
Publishes no buyer premium, seller commission or VAT terms and will not put them in writing before you bid or consign [3] [4].
Will not agree your reserve price in writing before the lot is catalogued.
Offers no public viewing, photographs or condition information before the sale.
Takes bids from the seller's side when the sale was never announced as subject to seller bidding [6].
Asks for deposits or payment to a personal account with no invoice splitting hammer price, premium and VAT [3].
Will not let vehicle buyers see the log book or view the car before the sale [7].
Adds withdrawal, storage or illustration charges that appeared nowhere in the terms you agreed [4].
States no collection deadline or storage charge before you bid, then bills you for storage once the sale has closed [3].
Takes commission or telephone bids with no written confirmation of the amount and the deadline for leaving them [10].
Corrections and business responses
Tell us what needs checking, or ask to claim a listing and reply to an assessment.