Buying or selling a house at a property auction is quite different from the normal conveyancing transaction so you need to ensure sure that your solicitor has plenty of experience in representing clients in auction sales and purchases. You would be surprised many don’t.

If you and your solicitor don’t your homework in advance, you risk ending up purchasing a property with major flaws – perhaps a house that never had planning permission in the first place, or a flat with really expensive ground rent and management charges, or other onerous conditions.

If you and your solicitor don’t your homework in advance, you risk ending up purchasing a property with major flaws – perhaps a house that never had planning permission in the first place, or a flat with really expensive ground rent and management charges, or other onerous conditions.

Our specialist property auction solicitors have the experience to enable you to make your winning bid with confidence.

Auction legal packs

Before attending an auction and purchasing a property it is crucial that you do your homework with regards to the legal pack that is available from the vendors solicitor. Each and every property which is offered for sale at auction will involve a legal pack. You can usually download these from the auction house website.

The legal pack contains documents relating to the auctioned property and will have been prepared by the vendor’s solicitors and made available in good time prior to the actual auction. However, there is no legal requirement for the seller to provide a comprehensive pack. The legal pack usually includes:

• office copy entries from the Land Registry – or if not registered, the title deeds (including an epitome of title)
• results of any conveyancing searches
• special conditions of sale
• property information form
• the fixtures and fittings form
• a management information pack and the lease itself if the property is leasehold (LPE.1 form)
• any existing tenancy agreements
• any existing or lapsed planning permission
• an EPC

The Legal Pack should reveal details of any legal problems affecting the property. However, auctions are becoming increasingly popular using the Modern Method or Conditional Terms where properties that do not have anything wrong with them are sold using the auction process. The Modern Method or Conditional Terms provides a reservation period before exchange of contracts in order to allow the purchaser to secure funding via a mortgage or other suitable financing.

It is therefore vital that you check these documents and unless you are extremely confident in your ability to fully understand the whole auction conveyancing process, get your solicitor to review the pack before the auction.

Our strong advice is that unless you are 100% satisfied with the legal pack it is advisable NOT to put in a bid. Or at least don’t put in that bid before you’ve made further enquiries and received specialist legal advice. Why? Because getting it wrong can be very expensive. A legal pack usually remains valid for 6 months.

Speak to our auction conveyancing team on 0800 000 000 for more information or a free quote without obligation if you are buying at auction.