288 thoughts on “Dealing with property auction issues”
I bought a small piece of land on 15th April 2021, intended to be a present for my teenage son to see what he could do with it, perhaps as an encouragement for him to further pursue his wish to study law. The land was advertised with a guide price of £1000, and after reading the Special Conditions of Sale, I understood that there was an auction fee of £300 and a further £650 for the search.
In the heat of the online auction, I bid to £5000, winning the auction. Whilst completing the paperwork, the sellers’ solicitors demanded £4750 to cover “Buyers’ contribution to seller’s auction and legal costs” on top of the aforementioned fees. Instantly, I objected to this as the fees were disproportionate.
Firstly, in the Special Conditions of Sale, all fees were written in numeric form, consecutively placed on the second page of the contract (easily spotted, understandable, and uncontestable); however, the largest fee of ‘higher of two point seven five percent of the purchase price or four thousand seven hundred and fifty pounds in relation to the Seller’s legal and agents costs’ was located on the 5th page, far away from any other cost stated. In addition, as quoted, the fee was written in word form as to be deceptively hidden from a less experienced buyer in an effort to throw them off course, compared to the other fees.
Secondly, the fee located in Clause 15 (as above) was ambiguously worded and lacked clarity. It is unclear as to which fee will carry through: being ‘higher of two point seven five percent of the purchase price’ or ‘four thousand seven hundred and fifty pounds’. Evidently, there is far too much room for error in the understanding of this clause.
Furthermore, this plot of land was previously purchased by the sellers as part of a larger plot for £750 on 29th October 2020. The ‘legal and agents costs’ demanded summed to £5450, extortionate compared to what they paid for and clearly unfair to the consumer as not only are they being misled through the hidden nature of the clause and its wording, but they are also being excessively charged for “seller’s legal and agents costs”.
Finally, before being served with the Notice to Complete, I contacted the auctioneer in regard to these charges. He then came back to me with a reduced charge of £3000, including search costs, after discussing with one of the partners in the sellers’ firm – which I agreed to pay. However, the reduction was later rescinded by another partner, of which was communicated to me via their solicitors (however, they did not acknowledge the reduction). They then forced me to pay the total cost of £5700 after serving a Notice to complete.
I now want to complain and escalate to the Legal Ombudsman. The seller is a property company and I am a consumer. Which laws and regulations can I base my complaint on and how should I approach it?
Thank you for this. The problem here is that in relation to any contract in writing if you sign it you are bound by all its terms so long as you had an opportunity to consider those terms. From what you have said it seems unlikely that you could argue that the terms you are objecting to were not properly incorporated into the contract, unless you can show you were not permitted to see the terms you were signing or actively discouraged from considering it.
As regards the value of the fees that they were charging, there may be something in the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations, since you say you were acting as a consumer, but that will depend on whether or not the terms you object to are particularly onerous or unusual in the industry, and since empty plots of land are usually purchased by commercial entities for development that is unclear. However if you wish some additional advice on this then please feel free to contact the Litigation team.
Hi , I recently bought a house at on-line auction. Paid deposit and then to keep things moving paid the 90% to my solicitor to help closing. Problem is the Vendor is now gone missing and we are left waiting for 3 months with no reply. 6 weeks and no response from Vendor or Auction house
Thank you for your comments regarding this vanishing vendor. If you purchase at auction once the hammer falls, if you are the top bidder, a binding legal contract is formed by which the seller agrees to sell and you agree to buy the property in question for the price stated in your bid. If the completion date has passed you would be able to serve Notice to Complete upon the vendor.
The legal avenues open to you therefore depend on what you are seeking to accomplish. You may be able to, subject to the terms of the contract, either seek to recover from the vendor the deposit, interest thereupon, and damages to cover losses of an occasioned by their failure to complete the transaction, or seek to enforce that they complete the transaction by way of a claim in Court for an order for specific performance. To obtain the latter you would have to show that as at the date of the hearing of that claim, you are ready, willing, and able to complete the transaction. This means you must have a valid and un-expired mortgage offer or other funding in place to pay the balance. This should not be too problematic since you have said you have already put the balance of 90% of the purchase price on your solicitor’s client account.
The hardest bit, therefore, will be finding the vendor and making contact with them. This is something we may have to instruct a tracing agent or similar in respect of. If you wish our advice on this matter then please feel free to contact our Litigation department at the Braintree office for a confidential discussion.
I bid on a property based on the information available on the auctioneer website and view the property from outside which looks fine. My bid was successful. I was told there is a tenant living in the property but the auctioneer was unable to get hold of them. I managed to speak to the tenant following visit to the neighbours and they informed me that there was a fire in the property prior to the auction and due to this the property is not inhabitable at the moment and requires major repairs. The tenant living somewhere else and also emailed the auctioneer and the landlord why the property is put for sale in auction without giving details of the fire. This is misleading deliberately.
Could you please advise us on this where we stand as we no longer wish to buy this property. We considered the auctioneer deliberately mislead and not add this information rather just stating details of the property and rent per month.
Would appreciate it if you can provide some guidance on this.
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I bought a small piece of land on 15th April 2021, intended to be a present for my teenage son to see what he could do with it, perhaps as an encouragement for him to further pursue his wish to study law. The land was advertised with a guide price of £1000, and after reading the Special Conditions of Sale, I understood that there was an auction fee of £300 and a further £650 for the search.
In the heat of the online auction, I bid to £5000, winning the auction. Whilst completing the paperwork, the sellers’ solicitors demanded £4750 to cover “Buyers’ contribution to seller’s auction and legal costs” on top of the aforementioned fees. Instantly, I objected to this as the fees were disproportionate.
Firstly, in the Special Conditions of Sale, all fees were written in numeric form, consecutively placed on the second page of the contract (easily spotted, understandable, and uncontestable); however, the largest fee of ‘higher of two point seven five percent of the purchase price or four thousand seven hundred and fifty pounds in relation to the Seller’s legal and agents costs’ was located on the 5th page, far away from any other cost stated. In addition, as quoted, the fee was written in word form as to be deceptively hidden from a less experienced buyer in an effort to throw them off course, compared to the other fees.
Secondly, the fee located in Clause 15 (as above) was ambiguously worded and lacked clarity. It is unclear as to which fee will carry through: being ‘higher of two point seven five percent of the purchase price’ or ‘four thousand seven hundred and fifty pounds’. Evidently, there is far too much room for error in the understanding of this clause.
Furthermore, this plot of land was previously purchased by the sellers as part of a larger plot for £750 on 29th October 2020. The ‘legal and agents costs’ demanded summed to £5450, extortionate compared to what they paid for and clearly unfair to the consumer as not only are they being misled through the hidden nature of the clause and its wording, but they are also being excessively charged for “seller’s legal and agents costs”.
Finally, before being served with the Notice to Complete, I contacted the auctioneer in regard to these charges. He then came back to me with a reduced charge of £3000, including search costs, after discussing with one of the partners in the sellers’ firm – which I agreed to pay. However, the reduction was later rescinded by another partner, of which was communicated to me via their solicitors (however, they did not acknowledge the reduction). They then forced me to pay the total cost of £5700 after serving a Notice to complete.
I now want to complain and escalate to the Legal Ombudsman. The seller is a property company and I am a consumer. Which laws and regulations can I base my complaint on and how should I approach it?
Thank you for this. The problem here is that in relation to any contract in writing if you sign it you are bound by all its terms so long as you had an opportunity to consider those terms. From what you have said it seems unlikely that you could argue that the terms you are objecting to were not properly incorporated into the contract, unless you can show you were not permitted to see the terms you were signing or actively discouraged from considering it.
As regards the value of the fees that they were charging, there may be something in the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations, since you say you were acting as a consumer, but that will depend on whether or not the terms you object to are particularly onerous or unusual in the industry, and since empty plots of land are usually purchased by commercial entities for development that is unclear. However if you wish some additional advice on this then please feel free to contact the Litigation team.
Hi , I recently bought a house at on-line auction. Paid deposit and then to keep things moving paid the 90% to my solicitor to help closing.
Problem is the Vendor is now gone missing and we are left waiting for 3 months with no reply.
6 weeks and no response from Vendor or Auction house
Thank you for your comments regarding this vanishing vendor. If you purchase at auction once the hammer falls, if you are the top bidder, a binding legal contract is formed by which the seller agrees to sell and you agree to buy the property in question for the price stated in your bid. If the completion date has passed you would be able to serve Notice to Complete upon the vendor.
The legal avenues open to you therefore depend on what you are seeking to accomplish. You may be able to, subject to the terms of the contract, either seek to recover from the vendor the deposit, interest thereupon, and damages to cover losses of an occasioned by their failure to complete the transaction, or seek to enforce that they complete the transaction by way of a claim in Court for an order for specific performance. To obtain the latter you would have to show that as at the date of the hearing of that claim, you are ready, willing, and able to complete the transaction. This means you must have a valid and un-expired mortgage offer or other funding in place to pay the balance. This should not be too problematic since you have said you have already put the balance of 90% of the purchase price on your solicitor’s client account.
The hardest bit, therefore, will be finding the vendor and making contact with them. This is something we may have to instruct a tracing agent or similar in respect of. If you wish our advice on this matter then please feel free to contact our Litigation department at the Braintree office for a confidential discussion.
I bid on a property based on the information available on the auctioneer website and view the property from outside which looks fine. My bid was successful. I was told there is a tenant living in the property but the auctioneer was unable to get hold of them. I managed to speak to the tenant following visit to the neighbours and they informed me that there was a fire in the property prior to the auction and due to this the property is not inhabitable at the moment and requires major repairs. The tenant living somewhere else and also emailed the auctioneer and the landlord why the property is put for sale in auction without giving details of the fire. This is misleading deliberately.
Could you please advise us on this where we stand as we no longer wish to buy this property. We considered the auctioneer deliberately mislead and not add this information rather just stating details of the property and rent per month.
Would appreciate it if you can provide some guidance on this.
Thanks