Secondhand Dealers and Pawnbrokers Act 2004

Obligations of licence holders, promoters, and Internet auction providers - Obligations of licensed secondhand dealers - Records and verification of identity

43: Verifying identity

You could also call this:

"Checking who someone is when you buy from them"

Illustration for Secondhand Dealers and Pawnbrokers Act 2004

When you buy something from someone, you need to check who they are. You can do this by looking at their identification or knowing them personally. There are some situations where you do not need to check who they are, like when you buy something at a public auction. You do not need to check who someone is when you buy something from them at a garage sale, as long as you write down the address where you bought it. You also do not need to check when you buy from someone overseas. There are other situations where you do not need to check, and these are set out in the rules. If you know someone personally, but get some of their details wrong, you could be in trouble for making a false record. You must follow the rules to verify someone's identity when you buy something from them.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM305617.

This page was last updated on 24 December 2025 — View changes

Topics:

Money and consumer rights > Consumer protectionBusiness > Industry rules

42: Dealers record, or

"Keeping a Record of Bought and Sold Items"

44: Storage of dealers record, or

Part 3Obligations of licence holders, promoters, and Internet auction providers
Obligations of licensed secondhand dealers: Records and verification of identity

43Verifying identity

A licensed secondhand dealer must verify the identity of the person from whom an article is acquired, except in the circumstances set out in subsection (3).
A person’s identity may be verified for the purposes of subsection (1)—
by sighting the person’s authorised identification; or
by personal knowledge, in which case if any details about the person that are recorded in the secondhand dealer’s dealers record are incorrect, the secondhand dealer is regarded as having made a false entry, without reasonable excuse, in his or her dealers record; or
by any other prescribed method.

A secondhand dealer need not obtain evidence of the identity of a person from whom goods are acquired in the following situations:
where the goods are acquired at a public auction conducted by a registered auctioneer:
where the goods are acquired through an Internet auction run by an Internet auction provider that complies with any prescribed requirements:
where the goods are acquired at a garage sale and the secondhand dealer keeps a record of the address at which the goods were sold:
where the goods are acquired from a seller who is overseas:
in any other prescribed situation.

Notes

Section 43(3)(a): amended, on 18 December 2013, by section 28(3) of the Auctioneers Act 2013 (2013 No 148).