Buying at Auction

This is the most important advice we can give. If you are the highest bidder, the property is yours, so it is essential that you have appointed and consulted your solicitor, had any survey or valuation carried out, secured your funding, and fully familiarised yourself with the property prior to the auction. 

You’ll need to create an EIG Auction Passport to access the legal pack and register to bid. You will need to provide details of all buyers (individuals/companies) and the deposit payer(s), together with the relevant proof of ID and proof of address for each individual. Be prepared to provide certified proof of ID if you are bidding remotely.

Familiarise yourself with the Symonds & Sampson’s Terms & Conditions,  the RICS Common Auction Conditions of Sale, the RICS Consumer Guide to Property Auctions, and any Special Conditions of Sale contained in the legal pack relating to the property you are interested in purchasing. We strongly advise prospective bidders to read all our Auction Notes printed in the catalogue 

Make sure you have downloaded and read the legal pack and passed it to your solicitor to inspect. The legal pack contains important information about the property, the contract, and the Special Conditions of Sale. If there are any updates to the legal pack after you have downloaded it, you will receive an email. Any update or change in circumstances will be incorporated into the online property listing on our website, therefore we recommend that you review this prior to the auction, as these changes will form part of the contract. 

It’s easy to get carried away in the heat of the moment, so decide on and stick to your limit. 

Decide how you are going to bid. Symonds & Sampson offer prospective purchasers four methods of bidding at auction:

• In person: You should arrive with plenty of time to spare, having already registered to bid. We often recommend arriving about one hour before the auction starts, which gives you time to park and talk to the auction team.
• By Telephone: A member of the Auction Team will call you live from the auction room, and you will instruct them to bid on your behalf. Telephone lines are offered on a first-come, first-served basis. To ensure you secure your line, you must complete your registration to bid in plenty of time.
• Online: This method allows you to join the auction via EIG (via our website), watch the auction live and bid online in real-time
• Proxy: You can authorise the Auctioneer to bid on your behalf up to a specified amount

If successful, the 10% deposit is payable immediately with the balance on completion, usually 28 days after the auction. As with most property transactions, there are penalties if you fail to complete, and you could well lose the 10% deposit already paid. It is imperative, therefore, that if you will be borrowing funds by way of a mortgage or loan, the lending body has given unrestricted approval to your loan before the auction. 

Please note that you will be responsible for insuring the property from the fall of the gavel, so please arrange a quote before the auction starts. 
 

• Bidder Security. When you register to bid you are required to arrange a bidder security payment. This takes the form of a pre-authorised ‘hold’ on a debit card, usually of £10,000. 
• The deposit. If you are successful and purchase a property, you are required to “top up” the Bidder Security payment by transferring the balance of the 10% deposit to Symonds & Sampson LLP. If the deposit equates to less than £10,000, the bidder security hold will be released, and you will pay a deposit equal to 10% of the property purchase price. 
• Buyers' Administration Fee applies to each lot purchased in the auction. The buyers’ fees are as follows:
  • Lots sold for £50,001 or more: £1,800 including VAT.
  • Lots sold for less than £50,000: £960 including VAT.
  • If two or more lots are purchased under one contract, the fee will apply per lot and not per contract. The charge applies to lots purchased prior to and after the auction.
• The balance of the purchase price becomes payable on completion, which is usually 28 working days after the auction, however it can vary, and will be detailed in the Special Conditions of Sale found in the legal pack.