Bidding protocol

How can I bid?

Step 1: Register

To participate in an auction, you first need to create an account on our website. You can create an account on the registration page.

Step 2: Legalization

To participate in our online real estate auctions, identification and legalization of your signature on the registration statement by a civil-law notary are also required. This identification and legalization can be carried out by any civil-law notary in the Netherlands, sometimes for a small fee.

Download the legalized registration statement and see which notary offices can arrange the legalization for you free of charge.

For real estate auctions, identification and legalization of the signature by a civil-law notary are mandatory. Legalization by the municipality is not valid.

Step 3: Complete

The signed and legalized registration statement, the original document, can then be sent by post to our platform notary: Hekkelman Notarissen. The address details are listed on page 5 of the registration statement: Hekkelman Notarissen, Department of Auctions, Oranjesingel 41, 6511 NN Nijmegen.

If the auction is taking place soon, we recommend asking the relevant notary to email a copy to the platform notary in advance via veilingen@hekkelman.nl.

Once Hekkelman Notarissen has received the documents, they will process them. You will be notified by email. You will also be contacted if something is incorrect, such as an incorrect customer number.

How does the auction work?

Ascending auction

The auction starts from the opening bid. Please note: this is often €0. Bids are then increased by a minimum amount until no higher bids are placed. This amount is called the stake amount.

An auction is normally open for bids for 5 minutes. If a bid is placed in the final 30 seconds before the auction closes, the auction is automatically extended to 60 seconds. This gives everyone a fair opportunity to place a bid.

Before placing a bid, the additional terms must first be accepted. By accepting these terms, a bidder declares that they agree to the terms applicable to the auction, have taken note of the bidding method described in the Bidding Protocol, and are aware of the additional costs listed for the auction.

Descending auction

After the ascending-bid phase, there is a three-minute pause. Two minutes before the start of the descending-bid phase, the descending bid becomes visible. This is the amount that is added to the highest ascending bid. After that, the accept-price button can be unlocked.

How does the descending auction work?

As soon as the descending-bid phase starts, the message “The price can now be accepted” is displayed. During the descending-bid phase, a counter is shown. In this counter, the highest ascending bid and the descending bid are added together under “bid”. Additional costs are often added on top of this amount. A specification of the total costs can be found under the “total amount” heading at the bottom of the overview.

The descending-bid phase is a one-time phase. As soon as a party presses the “Accept” button, the auction stops immediately. This action cannot be undone.

The total amount of this auction is the amount the buyer must pay for the relevant property. However, this excludes any taxes, pro-memoria costs and possible stake premium.

If the price is not accepted during the descending-bid phase, the highest bidder from the ascending-bid phase remains the highest bidder.

Online bidding

Please note: bidding in the auction, including accepting the price in the descending-bid phase, is binding.

A bid is always unconditional and irrevocable, and no reservations can be attached to it, unless otherwise stated in the auction conditions for the relevant sale.

Common reservations, such as a financing condition or a condition relating to obtaining a housing permit or other required permits, are not possible in a foreclosure auction. Buyers must therefore inform themselves properly in advance.

Different provisions may apply to voluntary auctions.

Auction conditions apply to every auction and are listed separately for each auction. Carefully read these general and special auction conditions before participating in the auction, and contact the auction organizer in good time if anything is unclear. In the event of a conflict between the general and special auction conditions, the special auction conditions apply. In the event of a conflict between the information on this website and the auction conditions, the auction conditions apply.

How can I place a private bid?

For most auctions, you can place a private bid. This means that for foreclosure auctions, you can submit a written bid 14 days before the ascending-bid auction. For voluntary auctions, this is often possible until 1 week before the auction. The auction conditions describe the specific situation for each auction.

Do you want to place a private bid? Then we ask you to first complete the bid form on the website. You can find this form on the auction information page under the heading Private bids.

Send the completed form to the auctioning notary or to the party supervising the auction. This is stated in the top-left corner of the bid form.

If the seller accepts your private bid, the purchase agreement is prepared for signature by the parties involved. If you are a private individual bidding on a home, the statutory three-day cooling-off period applies. This will be taken into account in the process, which means things often need to be handled and signed quickly.

Once the cooling-off period has expired, the signed purchase agreement is sent to the court, because permission from a supervisory judge is required for a foreclosure auction. In that case, we suspend the auction, and the auction is shown as cancelled or sold privately.

System requirements

For this website to work optimally, your system must meet a number of minimum requirements, including:

Supported browsers

• Chrome 142.x or higher
• Safari (macOS / iOS) version 26.1.x or higher
• Microsoft Edge 142.x or higher
• Firefox version 145.x or higher

Connection

• A stable and sufficiently fast internet connection (>1 Mb/s), preferably wired.
• Wi-Fi connections may stutter, cause delays or interruptions, including timeout errors, and are not recommended.
• Mobile connections, such as UMTS, are not recommended.
• Mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, may show delayed updates.
• Browser security must be set to normal or lower.
• JavaScript must be enabled.
• Cookies must be accepted.

Tenders

A tender works slightly differently. You can read all about this in our tender protocol.

More information

Still unable to find what you need? View the frequently asked questions page or contact us.