Residential Auction Conveyancing Lawyers

Description

The normal conveyancing process for buying property is outlined in our Buyers Guide. Those who win the bidding at auctions often don’t appreciate that, technically, what they are doing on “fall of the hammer” is exchanging contracts to buy the property, typically with completion to be within 28 days of the auction. Essentially such bidders/buyers have “jumped-into” the normal conveyancing process, at least half way through – and have no opportunity, for example, to conduct property investigations that would normally be done pre-contract, AFTER winning the auction. For this reason, it may be unwise to bid at auction on property that you are not already sure you want to buy, i.e. having completed all your investigations into that property before bidding for it. Of course, checking titles etc. before bidding might entail detailed examination of properties you subsequently fail to buy, i.e. wasted time and effort for potential buyers. This is all part of the risk-benefit analysis of buying property at auction. People can often expect bargains to be available at auction – but it should also be borne in mind that sellers often auction properties which they know have problems – precisely because doing so at auction is often an easy way to off-load problems onto a new owner. The old (Latin language) property-market expression, “Caveat Emptor!” (“Buyer beware!”) applies particularly acutely at property auctions.

If you should “bag a bargain” (or otherwise win!) at a property auction, you will wish a conveyancer to complete the conveyancing process for you – which is what this product entails – i.e. the second half of the process described in our Buyers Guide.

Note this product does not include any mortgage borrowing – you won’t usually have enough time between auction and completion to arrange finance: most bidders at auction are cash-buyers.

How long will it take?

We don’t generally do anything for new clients until our process of client retention has concluded – this involves agreeing the scope of what we are doing for the price (our terms are below), setting-up our client record (that includes ID checks), and producing the bill (payment in advance is required for all new clients).

After that, the work takes several hours once we can schedule it in our workflow, that can depend on how busy we are at any particular time. We would not usually take-on a job for which we could not engage within about a working week.

You normally only have 28 days to complete an auction purchase – after that there are a few post-completion matters included such as payment of the Stamp Duty Land Tax / Welsh Land Transaction Tax, and Land Registration – see our Buyers Guide.

A completed transfer will need to be submitted to HM Land Registry for registration. The time HM Land Registry take to process such a registration varies greatly, depending on how busy they are. Some applications are processed very quickly, up to “next day”; however, most applications appear to languish awaiting HM Land Registry attention; in 2021 many applications were taking about 6 months to be registered – and some types of application can take even longer than that, unfortunately. However, once submitted HM Land Registry process applications on any title in order of submission – so their delay ought not to affect the priority of your application relative to other matters on that title.

Money Matters

Your supplier is CLC-regulated Mounteney Conveyancers Ltd, that charges VAT some customers may be able to reclaim

We charge £600 + VAT + HM Land Registry Fees

There is more about our fees on our website here

If you have any questions or require any further information, please don’t hesitate to Contact Us.