Opinion ID: 1379919
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Finality of Sale

Text: Yaffee contends that the evidence was insufficient to warrant the trial court's legal conclusion that the sale was completed. He concedes that an auction sale is concluded when the auctioneer announces the completion of the sale by the fall of the hammer or in other customary manner, citing by analogy Code § 8.2-328 which governs auction sales of personal property, but he complains that those requirements were not met in this case. There is no rigidly prescribed prerequisite for the conclusion of an auction sale of real property. The literal fall of the hammer, although commonly employed in practice and frequently alluded to in the decided cases, has never been regarded as essential to a valid sale. All that is necessary is that the auctioneer, after receiving the apparent last and highest bid, give clear notice of his intention to accept it if no higher bids are forthcoming, give those present a fair opportunity to submit higher bids and then, if none is forthcoming, announce in some clear and unequivocal manner that the highest bid is accepted and the sale completed. The auctioneer's search for higher bids ends when he indicates by any means which would be evident to an attentive bidder, that the sale is over. He may not thereafter reopen the bidding. Holston v. Pennington, 225 Va. 551, 557, 304 S.E.2d 287, 290 (1983). We hold that the trustee's conduct in this case fully complied with those requirements.