Other legal academics have explained how this extraordinary authority of the auctioneer to sign on behalf of the seller is “founded on the contract of agency signed by the seller and auctioneer. “sufficient for a seller to found an action against the buyer for failing to complete, on the basis that writing existed signed by the auctioneer, who would have been acting appropriately as the buyer’s agent.”

This action would have been, according to the legal academic, However, according to the above legal authorities, the auctioneer could have signed the contract on the buyer’s behalf immediately he realised the buyer had scarpered and was not going to sign.

The Court of Appeal held that the seller had no cause of action because there was no written contract signed by the seller to satisfy the Statute of Frauds. After reselling the property at a loss, the seller sued the buyer for the difference between the auction price and later lower sale price. In a fairly recent Queensland case, Wright v Madden 1 Qd R 343, a property was knocked down to the highest bidder an auction, but (surprise, surprise!) the buyer left without signing the contract. The auctioneer must, however, sign the contract immediately after the auction: Chaney v Maclow 1 Ch 461. The position is different elsewhere in Australia because, as one legal academic has written (wait for it!),

Rise of industry contract auctions