IN automobile auctioneer bonds.
$250 flat.
Indiana licenses an automobile auctioneer through the Secretary of State’s Auto Dealer Services Division, and IC 9-32-11-2 conditions that license on a $25,000 vehicle merchandising bond in favor of the state. Ours is $250 flat, and the price you see is the price at checkout. The application includes a credit consent, but it authorizes a soft credit pull only — a soft inquiry that never affects your score.
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Three steps. One sitting.
The bond is the fastest line item on an Auto Dealer Services application — the zoning affidavit and the photographs take longer. Here is the entire bond process:
Apply online
Business details, your dealer number if you already hold one, and an effective date. That is the application — no financial statements and no scavenger hunt.
Pay & e-sign
Vehicle merchandising bonds are among the thousands of bond types that issue right after purchase. If a check runs at all it is a soft pull that never affects your score.
Upload to the Dealer Portal
Since October 1, 2024 the Auto Dealer Services Division takes bond and insurance updates only through the online Dealer Portal — no mail, no email. Your executed bond and power of attorney arrive by email ready to upload. Wet-ink original mailed on request.
What it is and who needs it.
What the automobile auctioneer bond actually guarantees
Indiana defines an automobile auctioneer in IC 9-13-2-7 as a person who is engaged in the business of — or as part of the auctioneer’s business participates in — providing a place of business or facilities for the purchase and sale of motor vehicles on the basis of bids by persons acting for themselves or others. The definition expressly does not reach a person acting only as an auctioneer under IC 25-6.1-1. In other words, it is the venue and the transaction that pull you into Title 9, not the act of crying the bids: the moment you supply the lanes, the block, or the facilities where vehicles change hands on bids, the Secretary of State’s Auto Dealer Services Division licenses you and IC 9-32-11-2 requires the bond.
The bond is a compliance guarantee, not a warranty on the cars. IC 9-32-11-2 requires the licensee to maintain a bond satisfactory to the secretary in the amount of $25,000, in favor of the state, securing two distinct things: payment of the fines, penalties, costs, and fees the secretary assesses after notice, an opportunity for a hearing, and an opportunity for judicial review; and payment of damages to a person aggrieved by a violation of IC 9-32 by the licensee after a judgment has been issued. That second limb matters — a claimant does not simply write to the surety, they take a judgment first.
It is a three-party instrument: you are the principal, the carrier is the surety, and the State of Indiana is the obligee, with buyers, sellers, and consignors as the protected parties. It is not insurance for you — if the surety pays, you reimburse the surety. And it is a standing condition of the licence, not a one-time filing: the Division states plainly that your dealer license is suspended during any lapse in bond coverage, so the bond’s expiration date has to fall after your license expiration date. A continuation certificate on the existing bond is acceptable at renewal.
You need this bond if you are
One application, issued instantly.
These are the actual issuing fields. Have your dealer number handy if you already hold a license; the credit consent in this application authorizes a soft pull only.
Start the application →Common questions.
Other Indiana bonds.
Clear the bond line on your dealer application today.
$250 flat, soft pull only, bond often issued in the same sitting and ready to upload to the Dealer Portal. Free until issued.