For municipalities and regions
The sale of municipal assets must withstand scrutiny.
The question rarely arises when the sale takes place. It arises in the committee, in the audit or in a request for public access — months later, put to someone who was not there. Budgiv publishes the assets openly across several channels and issues a record that shows the entire procedure: which channels, which bids, at what time.
The obligation — and why the procedure must be able to be shown
The Local Government Act does not specifically regulate the sale of movable assets. Instead, three general principles meet in every such decision: equal treatment of members, the prohibition on individually favouring a particular business, and sound financial management. A sale below value risks engaging all three at once — and whether it concerns a municipality or a region, the principles apply in exactly the same terms.
”Municipalities and regions shall treat their members equally, unless there are objective grounds for doing otherwise.” Kommunallag (2017:725) 2 kap. 3 §
What makes municipal decisions particularly exposed is how low the threshold for review lies. Any member may seek judicial review of the legality of a decision by appealing it (13 kap. 1 §), without having to be affected — and the appeal must have been received ”within three weeks from the day on which it was announced on the notice board of the municipality, the region or the local government association that the minutes of the decision had been adjusted” (13 kap. 5 §). On top of local government law sits the EU prohibition on state aid (TFEU art. 107(1)): if assets are sold to a company below market value, the difference may constitute unlawful aid, with recovery to follow. A competitive, transparent, non-discriminatory and unconditional tender procedure establishes the market price in principle — but ”has been carried out” is not enough: it must be possible to show. A municipal member who appeals three weeks later does not ask about the intention, and that is precisely the record Budgiv documents.
In depth: the duty to account on realisation — the municipality →
How it works
- You send the inventory list. Or a brief description of what is to be disposed of.
- We divide it into sale lots — each with its own reserve price — and choose channels per lot.
- Publication across all chosen channels, over the same period.
- The bids are collected and time-stamped, channel by channel.
- You decide. The record is issued — a signed, hash-chained and qualifiedly time-stamped Realisation Report that can be verified by anyone, without an account and without contacting us.
Frequently asked questions
Does a Budgiv procedure meet the requirements of equal treatment and market value?
Budgiv publishes the assets openly across several independent channels over the same period and collects the bids. A competitive, transparent and non-discriminatory tender procedure shows that everyone had the same opportunity to bid — which is what the principle of equal treatment (Kommunallag 2017:725 2 kap. 3 §) and the prohibition on state aid are aimed at. We do not establish that the decision is lawful; we deliver the record that makes the procedure possible to show.
Can a municipal member or auditor verify the record without contacting us?
Yes. The Realisation Report is issued per sale lot and is signed, hash-chained and qualifiedly time-stamped. It can be verified by anyone — auditor, resident or court — without an account and without contacting us. This is decisive in a request for public access or a judicial review of legality, where the person scrutinising months later was not there when the sale took place. Verify a report →
Does the record hold up if a decision is subject to judicial review of legality?
Any member may appeal a decision within three weeks from when the adjustment was announced on the notice board. The question then rarely concerns the intention but whether the procedure can be shown. The report documents which channels the assets were listed on, which bids were received and at what time — a record that cannot be created after the fact, and which lies ready before the three-week period even begins to run.
What does it cost, and can the fee affect the price?
One fee per sale lot, fixed before the first bid is placed and independent of the final price. This means the fee never competes with the price the municipality or region receives, and that the cost is known before the procedure begins. See the price per sale lot →
Are the bidders’ identities disclosed in what is reported?
No. Bidders are disclosed under pseudonym in the report. The record shows the bid history — levels and times channel by channel — without identifying who placed which bid, so that the procedure can be scrutinised openly without disclosing personal data about the tenderers.
Ninety seconds, no account. Tell us briefly what is to be sold, and we will get back to you with a proposal for channel selection, how the assets are divided into sale lots, and a price.
Describe an upcoming disposal