Anyone that has seen Dion Dublin walking around a vacant house in Homes under the Hammer will vouch for the fact properties are placed into auction for numerous reasons. Whether it be because of an issue with the property, the legal title or failure to reach the wanted price on the open market buying at auction is always a risk. Not so much because there will definitely be something wrong with the property you are buying but because you don’t know that there isn’t anything wrong before you buy!
If you are a prepared buyer you will have hopefully arranged to review the property you are interested in with a surveyor, or at least a builder, who will have given you an opinion on whether or not the property is structurally sound but have you had it confirmed that the legal title is in order as well? I am not suggesting that every structural problem can be identified during a ‘quick once over’ however you can gain an idea of whether a property is suffering from serious issues by looking at it (I’m no surveyor but if a property were leaning over or had no roof my alarm bells would start ringing). But unless you know what you are reading a legal title contract package can at best have points that can be overlooked and at worst be incomprehensible.
Being the helpful person that I am I have been offering my clients to my clients, and now you all, an ‘auction contract pack review’ service where I will do just that. I will review the contract papers and let you have a report on any issues which may be lurking in the detail. This will hopefully mean that if you buy a property at the auction for a specific purpose you can use it for that purpose. Not wanting to scare you but I was once approached by someone who wanted to convert a commercial building into flats. It would have been a great idea had it not been subject to a restrictive covenant not allowing it to be used as flats. The poor individual immediately called the auction house. Not to argue that the deal was not valid (I confirmed it was) but to put the property back in the next auction in order to try and recoup some of his losses.
So if you want to protect yourself against the risks of going to auction contact me and for a fixed fee of £300 plus VAT I will review the contract pack and give you a report on them so you know that when the hammer goes down the only comment that Dion Dublin will have is ‘what a bargain!’
