POWER Family helps buyers and sellers agree a fair price and finish the deal safely. This page explains offers, auctions, buyer requests, the POWER Family middleman (escrow), fees, deadlines, the warranty and penalties.
1. How a deal starts
- Buy now — pay the asking price.
- Offer — send your price; the seller accepts, counters or declines. Offers expire after 3 days without an answer, and offers below 30% of the asking price aren't allowed. Members can have up to 20 open offers (50 for VIP).
- Auction — runs for 1, 3, 5 or 7 days. The highest bid when the timer ends wins, if it reaches the seller's hidden reserve. A bid in the last 5 minutes adds 5 minutes, so nobody can "snipe" the auction. Bids are binding.
- Buyer request — buyers post what they want and a budget (open for 30 days); sellers answer with a price; the buyer accepts one. VIP members see new requests before everyone else.
Every agreed price opens a private deal room for the buyer, the seller and the middleman — every deal goes through a POWER Family middleman.
2. The POWER Family middleman
- First the buyer and the seller agree who pays the middleman fee. Then all official middlemen are notified, and the first one to accept owns the deal — nobody else can join it after that. A VIP party may choose a specific official middleman, who gets the deal first for a few hours before it opens to everyone.
- The buyer pays the middleman, never the seller directly. The middleman confirms when the payment is secured — the seller hands nothing over before that.
- Handover: for pages and accounts the seller hands the asset to the middleman (for example by adding them as admin / owner). The middleman checks it, secures the recovery email and phone, removes the seller's access and passes it to the buyer. For services and files the seller can deliver directly to the buyer while the middleman supervises. Login details recorded in a handover are encrypted, shown only to the person receiving them, and erased 14 days after the deal closes.
- The buyer checks full ownership (admin / owner access, recovery email and phone changed, no other admins) and confirms.
- Only then the middleman sends the seller's money (price minus the seller's share of the fee), records how and where it was sent (method + account) and attaches a screenshot of the transfer, visible to both parties in the deal room.
- Signed declarations: the seller signs a delivery declaration (rightful owner, full access handed over, nothing kept back), the buyer signs a receipt declaration (everything checked, password / recovery email / phone changed, other admins removed), and the seller signs a payment declaration when the money arrives. Every statement must be ticked; they are saved on the deal with the date, time and IP address and used in any dispute.
- The seller confirms the money arrived and the deal is completed. If it didn't arrive, the seller opens a dispute; without any answer the deal completes automatically 72 hours after the payout.
3. Fees
- The middleman fee depends on the size of the deal. The current schedule is: up to E£5,000 — 8% (minimum E£150); up to E£50,000 — 5% (minimum E£400); up to E£250,000 — 4% (minimum E£2,500); above E£250,000 — 3% (minimum E£10,000). Deals in other currencies are converted at the live rate. The exact fee is always shown in the deal room before anything is paid.
- Who pays it is agreed by BOTH parties: the buyer, the seller, or split 50 / 50. One side proposes, the other accepts or proposes another split — the middlemen are only called once both agree.
- VIP members get a discount on their own share of the fee, as included in their plan. A discounted fee never goes below the minimum fee floor (currently E£150), so no deal is run at a loss.
- Team deal: when a POWER Family administrator is the buyer or the seller, both sides can agree that the administrator runs the deal with no middleman fee. When the administrator is the buyer, the payment step is skipped (the money is guaranteed); after confirming ownership they pay the seller, who confirms receipt. A dispute on a team deal is decided by a different team member.
- Every deal on POWER Family goes through a middleman — there is no way to finish a deal "outside" the platform. This protects both sides and keeps the price index honest.
4. Deadlines
Every open deal is on one step, and whoever's turn it is has a set time. Reminders are sent at half time and one hour before the end. The default times are:
- Agree who pays the fee: 24 hours. Accept the other side's proposal: 24 hours.
- A middleman takes the deal: 12 hours.
- Buyer pays the middleman: 24 hours. An auction winner must also have the payment secured within the auction payment time shown in the deal room (48 hours by default). Middleman confirms the payment: 12 hours.
- Seller hands the asset over: 48 hours. Middleman checks it and passes it on: 24 hours.
- Buyer confirms ownership: 48 hours. Middleman sends the payout: 24 hours.
If the buyer or the seller misses a deadline, the deal is frozen, goes to the team as a dispute, and a penalty is recorded against the late member. If a middleman misses one, the team is alerted and takes the deal over. A deal still open after 7 days is reviewed by the team.
5. Warranty
For assets, the buyer can make a warranty claim for 7 days after the deal is completed if the seller takes the asset back or it did not stay as sold. The middleman or the team reviews the claim. If it is upheld, the deal is marked refunded, the buyer's money is returned by the team, and the seller owes the full price as a penalty. If it is rejected, the deal stays completed.
6. Feedback
After every completed deal the buyer and the seller rate each other (1–5 stars and a few words) within 14 days. Feedback appears on the member's profile, in the Feedback tab, with their average rating, and counts toward the Trust Score.
7. Changing a deal
Buyer and seller can change a deal instead of cancelling it — one side proposes, the other accepts:
- the price, at any time before the seller is paid (if the middleman already holds the payment, they settle the difference first, and the fee follows the price);
- who pays the middleman fee, before the payment;
- more time to pay an auction deal (1–7 days);
- reopening a cancelled or refunded deal within 30 days, if the asset is still available.
Every change is recorded in the deal room.
8. Auctions — rules and penalties
- The seller can stop an auction freely before the first bid, and with a reason while no bid has reached the hidden reserve. Once a bid reaches the reserve, only the team can stop it.
- The winner must get the payment secured within the time shown in the deal room (48 hours by default).
- A winner who doesn't pay or backs out pays a penalty of 5% of the winning price (minimum E£250, or the equivalent), and the next-highest bidder is offered the asset at their own bid.
- A seller who backs out of a won auction pays the same penalty.
9. Penalties
- Penalties are recorded for missed deal deadlines, backing out of a won auction and upheld warranty claims. The standard penalty is 5% of the deal price with a minimum of E£250; an upheld warranty claim costs the seller the full price.
- While a penalty is unpaid the member can't bid, buy or make offers, and their marketplace ranking drops. The team marks a penalty as paid or waives it.
10. Disputes and cancellations
- A deal can be cancelled by either side until a middleman joins. After that the middleman (or an administrator who is not part of the deal) can close it at any time for a clear reason — for example the seller disappears, the asset doesn't match the listing, or both sides agree. If nothing was paid the deal ends as "Cancelled"; if the middleman holds the payment it goes back to the buyer (method, account and a screenshot of the refund are recorded) and the deal ends as "Refunded". Any access already handed over goes back to the seller, and the side at fault can be fined. Once the seller has been paid, only a dispute decision can change the result.
- Either side can open a dispute once the middleman holds the payment. The deal is frozen. The member who opened it can withdraw it; otherwise the middleman — or a team member who is not part of the deal — decides: complete, refund or cancel, and can fine the side at fault.
- What the listing showed when the deal opened is saved with the deal and used as the reference in any dispute.
- Never share passwords in the chat; the middleman explains how access is transferred safely.
11. Official middlemen
- Middlemen are members appointed by the POWER Family team and carry the official middleman badge. They keep the middleman fee for their work.
- For every completed deal, an official middleman owes POWER Family a commission (1% of the deal by default, or a rate agreed with the team). Until the team confirms it was paid, that middleman cannot take new deals; deals already running continue normally.
- A middleman who misses deadlines or breaks these rules can lose middleman status.
12. Prices and the price index
- Closed deals are the strongest signal in the price index: a price confirmed through a middleman counts three times (a team deal run by a staff member counts twice). One deal per pair of members per month counts.
- Live auctions, open offers and buyer requests show demand: the more buyers want a category, the higher its index — within limits, and never more than 10% in one day.
- Extreme prices far outside the fair range are ignored, so nobody can push the index up or down on their own.