290 thoughts on “Dealing with property auction issues”
My Property has been sold at Auction, my Lawyer produced the deed showing a Home rights charge by my ex wife, She said my ex will have to sign a release before she will complete .She contacted the divorce lawyer with no result, and informed me I would have to arrange removal or get another lawyer to do it I contacted the registry office who told me to complete form HR4 attach a certified copy of the divorce final and it will be removed no signature of my ex necessery, which I have. As the contract period for completion is overdue and the removal could take 16 weeks I informed the Lawyer of it, I requested that she forward these details to the buyer so he is aware, as I need a quick result and the buyer needs to rent it out, She refused and further would not give me the solictors contact, is there any thing I can do ?
We do have some experience when it comes to removing Matrimonial Homes Act notices but yes, if you cannot get a release from the beneficiary, it does take time.
We are not sure exactly on the position, but if the title deeds were included in the auction pack, and the terms and conditions were such as to exclude liability or a requirement to remove the notice, this might not be your problem but a problem for the buyer. If on the other hand you contractually agreed in some way that the notice would be removed by completion, then you might be in breach of contract. We are not sure why your own solicitor, if we have read your comment correctly, would not follow your instructions to provide you with information you wanted.
Whatever the situation, the starting point would be to consider your contractual responsibility to ensure that the notice is removed. If you do have a contractual liability in this respect, the the siautoln should be discussed with the huger before matters become out of hand.
I won a bid for a property at auction, I have committed to the contract and paid a 10% deposit (£15K). My bridging loan provider found evidence of subsidence that requires under pinning. I had purchased building insurance before it was noted that the property required under pinning. I believe my insurance will not pay out should I fail to carry out the work and the lender wants to recoup their money. The lender is happy to provide the funds but with insurance. I looked through the legal pack and there is no mention of subsidence. I have the seen some auction house that will stipulate that the property is for cash buyers only as it is mortgageable.
Although i can afford the repair i am not able to complete as i cannot get insurance on the property with subsidence issues. This is very stressful. I should’ve done my due diligence.
At this point I am not sure what to do: 1. Was this a misrepresentation for not declaring the subsidence? 2. Should i pull out of the purchase on the premise that there is subsidence issue and I cannot get a insurance, but what are the possibilities of getting my deposit back? OR Should I insist my insurance should continue to insure me since i wasn’t aware of the subsidence when i bought the insurance? Although the lender feels the insurance will not pay since defect were there before the insurance was instated.
I am devastated over this and have not slept or days.
Thank you for your comment and we are genuinely sorry to hear of this.
It does not help, and is not meant as insulting, when we say you are right regarding due diligence.
The basic position with any contract (subject to things such as consumer legislation and, in respect of property “latent defects of title”) is buyer beware.
It is generally down to the buyer to ask questions, make enquiries, undertake surveys and investigate before committing to a contract. If a buyer is not given the opportunity to do this, or a seller is not prepared to answer the buyer’s questions or enquiries, then the buyer proceeds at their own risk.
Auctions are often of particular risk. Often (but not always) an open market seller will provide information, answer questions and allow a prospective buyer to look at the property, with or without their surveyor. This is not often something that auction sellers accommodate and is often this is often for a reason. A buyer might feel that they are getting a “bargain” but this might be because the seller has tried to sell on the open market, or doesn’t want to take this risk. Sellers will often achieve a better price in the open market, but it usually means liaising with the buyer before a decision is made by the buyer to proceed. If there is a problem with the property, it might very well be discovered by the buyer, their surveyor or their solicitor. This is not invariably the case, of course, and there might be lots of reasons why a property is put into auction.
We cannot tell you want to do about your insurance position. We would need to consider the terms of the insurance contract and in particular, any assumptions or other preconditions that were relevant when you obtained it. Often, insurers will not insure against pre-existing or structural defects, but it does depend on your policy.
We also wouldn’t be able to tell you precisely what to do even if we were instructed. A solicitor’s role is not to make decisions for a client but to provide them with sufficient informed advice that they can make a decision for themselves.
We agreed a price for a property ‘post auction’ as it didn’t sell when online bidding opened in a traditional auction. We were sent an invoice for 10% deposit and the auctioneers fees of £2500, which were duly paid the same day.
The following day the auctioneer calls to say she had received a higher bid and they would not be able to proceed and wouldn’t sign the Auction Sale Document (even though they issued it to me and have accepted the deposit. I have not accepted their position, as my offer was accepted (under auction terms, not a private treaty sale) and the 10% deposit paid to them the same day, at their request.
I believe there may be (at least forthcoming) a breach of contract by the seller/auctioneers if they refuse to complete on the property. What would the options be in this case?
There may be a breach of contract, but we would not be able to advise you on that until we had considered the contractual documentation and facts of the matter with you.
In the assumption that a contract was formed when the “hammer fell” then options may include instructing your solicitor to serve notice to complete under the terms of any contract (so far as it applies) and then rescind (“cancel”) the contract, recovering your deposit and potentially the consequential losses you have suffered.
Whether or not there is a basis to claim specific performance as a remedy (i.e. to “force” the seller to sell to you) is subject to a number of factual and legal considerations.
Specific performance is an” equitable remedy”. This means that if damages (i.e. financial compensation) is an adequate remedy in the courts opinion, it would generally order this instead.
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My Property has been sold at Auction, my Lawyer produced the deed showing a Home rights charge by my ex wife, She said my ex will have to sign a release before she will complete .She contacted the divorce lawyer with no result, and informed me I would have to arrange removal or get another lawyer to do it
I contacted the registry office who told me to complete form HR4 attach a certified copy of the divorce final and it will be removed no signature of my ex necessery, which I have. As the contract period for completion is overdue and the removal could take 16 weeks I informed the Lawyer of it, I requested that she forward these details to the buyer so he is aware, as I need a quick result and the buyer needs to rent it out, She refused and further would not give me the solictors contact, is there any thing I can do ?
Thank you for your comment.
We do have some experience when it comes to removing Matrimonial Homes Act notices but yes, if you
cannot get a release from the beneficiary, it does take time.
We are not sure exactly on the position, but if the title deeds were included in the auction pack, and the
terms and conditions were such as to exclude liability or a requirement to remove the notice, this might
not be your problem but a problem for the buyer. If on the other hand you contractually agreed in
some way that the notice would be removed by completion, then you might be in breach of contract.
We are not sure why your own solicitor, if we have read your comment correctly, would not follow your
instructions to provide you with information you wanted.
Whatever the situation, the starting point would be to consider your contractual responsibility to ensure
that the notice is removed. If you do have a contractual liability in this respect, the the siautoln should
be discussed with the huger before matters become out of hand.
I won a bid for a property at auction, I have committed to the contract and paid a 10% deposit (£15K). My bridging loan provider found evidence of subsidence that requires under pinning. I had purchased building insurance before it was noted that the property required under pinning. I believe my insurance will not pay out should I fail to carry out the work and the lender wants to recoup their money. The lender is happy to provide the funds but with insurance.
I looked through the legal pack and there is no mention of subsidence. I have the seen some auction house that will stipulate that the property is for cash buyers only as it is mortgageable.
Although i can afford the repair i am not able to complete as i cannot get insurance on the property with subsidence issues. This is very stressful. I should’ve done my due diligence.
At this point I am not sure what to do:
1. Was this a misrepresentation for not declaring the subsidence?
2. Should i pull out of the purchase on the premise that there is subsidence issue and I cannot get a insurance, but what are the possibilities of getting my deposit back?
OR
Should I insist my insurance should continue to insure me since i wasn’t aware of the subsidence when i bought the insurance? Although the lender feels the insurance will not pay since defect were there before the insurance was instated.
I am devastated over this and have not slept or days.
Thank you for your comment and we are genuinely sorry to hear of this.
It does not help, and is not meant as insulting, when we say you are right regarding due diligence.
The basic position with any contract (subject to things such as consumer legislation and, in respect of property “latent defects of title”) is buyer beware.
It is generally down to the buyer to ask questions, make enquiries, undertake surveys and investigate before committing to a contract. If a buyer is not given the opportunity to do this, or a seller is not prepared to answer the buyer’s questions or enquiries, then the buyer proceeds at their own risk.
Auctions are often of particular risk. Often (but not always) an open market seller will provide information, answer questions and allow a prospective buyer to look at the property, with or without their surveyor. This is not often something that auction sellers accommodate and is often this is often for a reason. A buyer might feel that they are getting a “bargain” but this might be because the seller has tried to sell on the open market, or doesn’t want to take this risk. Sellers will often achieve a better price in the open market, but it usually means liaising with the buyer before a decision is made by the buyer to proceed. If there is a problem with the property, it might very well be discovered by the buyer, their surveyor or their solicitor. This is not invariably the case, of course, and there might be lots of reasons why a property is put into auction.
We cannot tell you want to do about your insurance position. We would need to consider the terms of the insurance contract and in particular, any assumptions or other preconditions that were relevant when you obtained it. Often, insurers will not insure against pre-existing or structural defects, but it does depend on your policy.
We also wouldn’t be able to tell you precisely what to do even if we were instructed. A solicitor’s role is not to make decisions for a client but to provide them with sufficient informed advice that they can make a decision for themselves.
We agreed a price for a property ‘post auction’ as it didn’t sell when online bidding opened in a traditional auction. We were sent an invoice for 10% deposit and the auctioneers fees of £2500, which were duly paid the same day.
The following day the auctioneer calls to say she had received a higher bid and they would not be able to proceed and wouldn’t sign the Auction Sale Document (even though they issued it to me and have accepted the deposit. I have not accepted their position, as my offer was accepted (under auction terms, not a private treaty sale) and the 10% deposit paid to them the same day, at their request.
I believe there may be (at least forthcoming) a breach of contract by the seller/auctioneers if they refuse to complete on the property. What would the options be in this case?
Thank you for your comment.
There may be a breach of contract, but we would not be able to advise you on that until we had considered the contractual documentation and facts of the matter with you.
In the assumption that a contract was formed when the “hammer fell” then options may include instructing your solicitor to serve notice to complete under the terms of any contract (so far as it applies) and then rescind (“cancel”) the contract, recovering your deposit and potentially the consequential losses you have suffered.
Whether or not there is a basis to claim specific performance as a remedy (i.e. to “force” the seller to sell to you) is subject to a number of factual and legal considerations.
Specific performance is an” equitable remedy”. This means that if damages (i.e. financial compensation) is an adequate remedy in the courts opinion, it would generally order this instead.