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288 thoughts on “Dealing with property auction issues”

  1. In a judicial sale where am the only bidder but after the successful bid, am not able to pay what are the implications

    1. Thank you for your comment.

      We are unsure precisely what you mean by a “judicial sale” but presume that you mean that a Court has ordered the sale of the property for whatever reason. The seller could be a mortgagee in possession, a trustee in bankruptcy or a liquidator, for example. Whatever the case, if you are deemed to have entered into a contract by making the successful bid but are now in breach of contract because you are unable to proceed with the purchase, the chances are that you would lose your deposit. There may be other consequences but this would depend on the terms of the contract. It is unlikely to make any difference legally if the seller has been appointed by, or authorised by the Court to sell the property.

  2. Hi, I won a property at auction, I have committed to the contract and paid a 10% deposit (£16K). My solicitor had found a history of underpinning in one of the land searches (included in the local pack at auction, unfortunately I didn’t not make a meaning of this at the time of committing to the agreement as I did not spot this in the legal pack, my solicitor has now done). The lender has requested for a full structural survey given the history of underpinning, and to make matters worse the survey report has found evidence of subsidence on the property basement. The subsidence is considered significant, and ongoing movement and will require repair (to the quote or circa £25K), I have now gone past the 28days for completion and the seller’s solicitor has issued a notice to complete.

    This is messy situation, as I am stalk, cannot get lending, neither can I afford £25K for subsidence repair. I did a physical viewing of the property and I accept the ignorance on my part for not spotting the subsidence issue.

    At this point I am not sure what to do:

    1 – whether to pull out of the purchase on the premise that there is subsidence issue and I cannot get a lending, but what are the possibilities of getting my deposit back?
    OR
    2 – should I just not complete and wait till seller rescinds the contract themselves ?

    I have been stressed and devastated over this, been a learning curve but what are my best options please?

    Regards

    1. Thank you for your comment.

      We are sorry to hear of this but cannot give specific advice on our website.

      In short, if contractually you have agreed to purchase the property and now cannot do so, you will likely forfeit your deposit.

      Unless it can be said that the seller has actively misled you regarding the factual circumstances of the transaction, and it is noted that they did point out the history of subsidence, there probably is not a basis to avoid liability under the contract that you agreed.

  3. Just bought a property at auction, it is tenanted. Stated in legal pack that rent is £625pcm, tenancy agreement is included, but heavily redacted. After purchase, we have found actual rent is £450pcm . Can I do anything about this misrepresentation?

    1. Thank you for your comment.

      We have in fact dealt with a case historically where the seller stated in the auction pack that the commercial property in question yielded a certain rent. In fact the landlord/seller had in fact agreed a different, lower, rent with the tenant.

      We proved that it was a fraudulent misrepresentation and the property was placed back into auction, with the balance of the damages for diminution in value being met by the seller.

      A commercial property has different considerations to a residential property. Whilst the principles are the same, the financial loss to the buyer is likely to be lower and there are points to consider in respect of whether or not the buyer should mitigate their loss, which could be easier with a residential property.

      In short, there may be a claim for misrepresentation but the loss may not be such that it is financially viable to pursue.

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