Property auction legal pack.
Whether you're entering your first auction or you're an experienced investor, the property auction legal pack represents a critical collection of legal documents prepared by the seller's solicitor prior to the auction.
It's recommended that buyers seek professional help when reviewing the legal pack, to ensure they bid confidently and avoid potentially costly pitfalls that can await unsuspecting buyers.
What is a property auction legal pack?
A property auction legal pack (sometimes called an ‘auction pack’) is a compilation of documents that provides essential information about the property being auctioned. The pack allows prospective bidders to carry out due diligence on the property before bidding.
What documents are included in an auction legal pack?
The contents of auction legal packs can vary to some degree, but they should contain the following legal documents:
- Official copy of the title register - Confirming the seller's ownership of the property and any rights or restrictions.
- The title plan - Depicting the buildings and registered land.
- Conveyancing searches - including local authority, drainage and water, mining, chancel and environmental searches.
- Planning permission documentation - including past or current planning permissions or building regulation consents.
- Property information form (TA6) - information about the property including insurance, rights and informal arrangements, notices, proposals, disputes and any complaints from neighbours.
- Fixtures and contents form (TA10) - listing all fittings and contents included in the sale.
- Special conditions of sale - Specific terms or conditions the buyer must adhere if they win the auction.
- Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) - rating the property's energy efficiency and typical energy costs
- Tenancy agreements
- Other relevant information - such as details on past building work, guarantees for recent work.
If the property is leasehold, the pack should also include:
- Leasehold Information form (TA7) - providing details about the leasehold nature of a property, including service charges, ground rent, and other relevant leasehold obligations and information.
- Management Information Pack - sometimes called a ‘Leasehold Information Pack, this includes the lease, details about the ground rent, service charges, planned major works and information about the property's management.
Preparing legal packs for sellers
The auction pack is prepared by the seller's solicitor or licensed conveyancer. Auction houses sometimes recommend a solicitor to produce the pack. Many sellers at auction prefer to instruct their own solicitor to produce the auction pack as they:
- prefer to work with an independent solicitor
- have an existing relationship with a solicitor
- intend to use the same solicitor to handle the conveyancing, which can make the process more efficient.
If you would like our team of specialist auction Conveyancing solicitors to prepare the auction legal pack for you, contact us now.
FAQs
What if some documents are missing from the pack?
Packs are often compiled incrementally, with some documents added shortly before the auction date. Sometimes, packs may have documents missing, even on the auction day.
Leasehold management information, in particular, can be time-consuming to obtain.
Bidding at auction without thoroughly reviewing all the legal documents is very risky as potentially costly, or even unfixable complications might arise.
When reviewing the auction pack, your solicitor can help you obtain any documents or searches on the property you're interested in, should the auction pack not cover everything you need.
Why would I spend money when I don't know I will win the auction?
With a standard conveyancing transaction, buyers can carry out their due diligence on a property after an offer has been accepted. If they discover a serious issue with the property, they can renegotiate, or pull out before contracts are exchanged.
With an auction, however, you exchange contracts as soon as your winning bid is accepted. This means that if you subsequently find that you are buying a property with serious legal defects, you must still complete on the property. If you don't, you'll lose your deposit (normally 10% of the sale price) and you could be sued.
With no option but to complete, you might then find that the property is no longer mortgageable after the legal issues are discovered.
Without Auction Legal Pack Review, you are bidding blind. A review offers low-cost peace of mind, helping you make an informed bid, so you'll know:
- what you are actually bidding on
- how much you want to bid
- whether you want to bid at all
How long before the auction, are packs made available?
Auction packs are typically made available a few weeks before the auction, either online or upon request from the auction house.