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Property Auction Scams - If you think you've been conned please read this!
zaceek
Posts: 1 Newbie
To my fellow money savers, 
I've been an avid viewer of this website for a long time now, however I've never posted to it's forums, this is my first thread.
I'm not a writer, I'm not that articulate, but I will tell my story as best I can. Thank you for reading.
In 2006 I invested some money in a very old property in need of renovation. The neighbour and I came to an agreement that we would demolish both the properties and sell them to a developer. 1 year down the line however, my neighbour/business partner had his house repossessed and the plan fell through.
In 2011 after a several failed attempts to sell the property privately, I decided to try and sell the property with a local auction house.
They decided to market the property at £85000, this was a bit of a drop on what I had paid for it however, this was not a problem as it was a sign of the times. I set my reserve at £85000.
2 viewings were arranged for Day 1 and 1 viewing for Day 2.
Day 1, the first viewer arrived and after looking round was very pleased with the property and was keen to see what I would accept for the property. I said I would accept £85000. Nothing more was said.
Later that day, viewing 2 was cancelled.
Day 2, the viewing was cancelled.
3 Days later, an offer came through for £75000. The auction company said they hadn't viewed the property. I questioned this, "how can someone make an offer but not see the property". They replied, "he said he's seen it before".
That same day, I received an email from the auction company recommending that I refuse the offer. So I did.
3 Days later, I received an email from the auction company, as there's been no interest in your property, we recommend you reduce the reserve to £75000. I wasn't too keen as I didn't want to accept £75000. But they assured me that this would encourage bidding. (I wondered how this would encourage bidding as the property was listed at £85000+). Reluctantly, I agreed.
The day of the auction arrived.
BBC's Homes under the Hammer were filming at the auction that day.
I noticed the man who viewed the property in the auction house.
My lot came up, no one was bidding at all. So the auctioneer dropped the start price to £50000 and started to take "phantom bids" from around the room. The man who looked at my property started to bid. Looking round the room I did NOT notice anyone but the man who viewed the house bidding. The property reached £75000 and all the "phantom bidding" stopped and the auctioneer put down the gavel. The one viewer of my property had won the auction at £75000.
I wasn't happy. But I had to accept it.
BBC's "Homes under the Hammer" were filming at the auction that day.
If you're not familiar with Homes under the Hammer.
Several days after the auction, before completion, I received an email from the auction house requesting my permission to allow "Homes under the Hammer" into my property, along with one of their surveyors.
I agreed to allow them in, on the condition that as it was beneficial to the auction house with the free publicity, I thought it only fair that they waive their fees. Obviously, they declined saying "Homes under the Hammer do not in any way promote the estate agents".
Not wanting to settle for that, I decided to look on BBC iPlayer for a recent episode to take a screen capture of the auctioneers and the estate agents getting their businesses advertised.
I found the episode that had been shown earlier that day and paused the player on the very first person it showed. To my surprise, it was the very same person who had bought my property. The winner of the auction was was the owner of another local estate agent/auctioneer.
This set off alarm bells! :mad:
I watched the rest of that episode, only no see that the two local estate agents who went to view the property at a later date were my auctioneer and the winning bidder.
I contacted the auctioneer and asked them to tell me who made the offer of £75000 before the auction. They telephoned me back and said it was a different name, but it was the same details of the person who actually bought the property.
What. A. Con. - I looked into scams that estate agents pull.
These are legitimate links, NOT spam.
"telegraph.co.uk/property/propertyadvice/propertymarket/3293652/Spot-the-scam-behind-the-smile.html"
"news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4826444.stm"
1. Accepting a back hander to "Ring Fence" a property - Basically, telling potential viewers, "it's gone" or "it's under offer" or "it's got dry rot" or any lie they can think of to dissuade a possible buyer from going any further.
2. Not Declaring an Interest - If an estate agent, or a friend/partner/family member/ colleague is interested in YOUR property and they try to get it themselves, as cheap as they can without your knowledge.
I want to expose these companies and I want to make it known that this kind of thing goes on and will NOT be tolerated.
Tell me YOUR story, has this or anything like this happened to you or your friend/family? Reply to this topic, or private message me and include the Estate Agent/Auctioneer name.
I've been an avid viewer of this website for a long time now, however I've never posted to it's forums, this is my first thread.
I'm not a writer, I'm not that articulate, but I will tell my story as best I can. Thank you for reading.
In 2006 I invested some money in a very old property in need of renovation. The neighbour and I came to an agreement that we would demolish both the properties and sell them to a developer. 1 year down the line however, my neighbour/business partner had his house repossessed and the plan fell through.
In 2011 after a several failed attempts to sell the property privately, I decided to try and sell the property with a local auction house.
They decided to market the property at £85000, this was a bit of a drop on what I had paid for it however, this was not a problem as it was a sign of the times. I set my reserve at £85000.
2 viewings were arranged for Day 1 and 1 viewing for Day 2.
Day 1, the first viewer arrived and after looking round was very pleased with the property and was keen to see what I would accept for the property. I said I would accept £85000. Nothing more was said.
Later that day, viewing 2 was cancelled.
Day 2, the viewing was cancelled.
3 Days later, an offer came through for £75000. The auction company said they hadn't viewed the property. I questioned this, "how can someone make an offer but not see the property". They replied, "he said he's seen it before".
That same day, I received an email from the auction company recommending that I refuse the offer. So I did.
3 Days later, I received an email from the auction company, as there's been no interest in your property, we recommend you reduce the reserve to £75000. I wasn't too keen as I didn't want to accept £75000. But they assured me that this would encourage bidding. (I wondered how this would encourage bidding as the property was listed at £85000+). Reluctantly, I agreed.
The day of the auction arrived.
BBC's Homes under the Hammer were filming at the auction that day.
I noticed the man who viewed the property in the auction house.
My lot came up, no one was bidding at all. So the auctioneer dropped the start price to £50000 and started to take "phantom bids" from around the room. The man who looked at my property started to bid. Looking round the room I did NOT notice anyone but the man who viewed the house bidding. The property reached £75000 and all the "phantom bidding" stopped and the auctioneer put down the gavel. The one viewer of my property had won the auction at £75000.
I wasn't happy. But I had to accept it.
BBC's "Homes under the Hammer" were filming at the auction that day.
If you're not familiar with Homes under the Hammer.
- They visit the property before the auction.
- See who buys it at auction and interview them.
- They revisit at a later date to see any changes made.
- They then have the property revalue by 2 local estate agents.
Several days after the auction, before completion, I received an email from the auction house requesting my permission to allow "Homes under the Hammer" into my property, along with one of their surveyors.
I agreed to allow them in, on the condition that as it was beneficial to the auction house with the free publicity, I thought it only fair that they waive their fees. Obviously, they declined saying "Homes under the Hammer do not in any way promote the estate agents".
Not wanting to settle for that, I decided to look on BBC iPlayer for a recent episode to take a screen capture of the auctioneers and the estate agents getting their businesses advertised.
I found the episode that had been shown earlier that day and paused the player on the very first person it showed. To my surprise, it was the very same person who had bought my property. The winner of the auction was was the owner of another local estate agent/auctioneer.
This set off alarm bells! :mad:
I watched the rest of that episode, only no see that the two local estate agents who went to view the property at a later date were my auctioneer and the winning bidder.
I contacted the auctioneer and asked them to tell me who made the offer of £75000 before the auction. They telephoned me back and said it was a different name, but it was the same details of the person who actually bought the property.
What. A. Con. - I looked into scams that estate agents pull.
These are legitimate links, NOT spam.
"telegraph.co.uk/property/propertyadvice/propertymarket/3293652/Spot-the-scam-behind-the-smile.html"
"news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4826444.stm"
1. Accepting a back hander to "Ring Fence" a property - Basically, telling potential viewers, "it's gone" or "it's under offer" or "it's got dry rot" or any lie they can think of to dissuade a possible buyer from going any further.
2. Not Declaring an Interest - If an estate agent, or a friend/partner/family member/ colleague is interested in YOUR property and they try to get it themselves, as cheap as they can without your knowledge.
I want to expose these companies and I want to make it known that this kind of thing goes on and will NOT be tolerated.
Tell me YOUR story, has this or anything like this happened to you or your friend/family? Reply to this topic, or private message me and include the Estate Agent/Auctioneer name.
If you live in the Manchester Area, I ESPECIALLY want to hear from you.
Thanks for reading.
Long Live the King of Savings! :money:
Long Live the King of Savings! :money:
0
Comments
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I fail to see how you were 'scammed'.
If someone ELSE had wanted your property no doubt the bidding would have gone higher - if real people were bidding, you would have reached the £85k you wanted. But no one else wanted your property.
The person who bought your property was 'in the trade'. So what. Car dealers buy cars at auctions - horse dealers by horses...........this guy earns his living as an estate agent, and on the side buys houses that are 'bargains' for investment, or to re-sell or whatever. We all make money from what we know.
I can see you are angry, but read your post twice and can't for the life of me see what you were 'scammed' out of. Presumably the auctioneers put your property on the website and in the catalogue? They didn't not market it? You had a choice of remaining at your higher reserve? You could have marketed it through an agent not an auction?
You took the risk, went to auction and only one person wanted it therefore it only made your reduced reserve price.
Personally I don't see why you are so angry, am I missing something?0 -
To buy an auction property you have to go through the auctioneers. I'm not a genius but I expect I would be able to work out how to put off any buyers interested in a viewing.0
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Im sorry Op, I ahve read your post twice as well, you weren't scammed here, no offence maybe just a little naive.
I would have pulled the house from auction knowing it had only had 1 viewer, as very rarely do people buy without seeing it first.0 -
No scam there.
If you weren't prepared to sell your house for £75,000 you should have not set the reserve there. What you've described just sounds like a normal auction, the auctioneer generating interest in an attempt to get someone to bid your reserve. They then had to stop as they could not take bids off the wall once the reserve had been met. Auctions are by far the most transparent form of sale there is, however, they do usually result in lower values because they attract problem properties.
Sounds to me like you've lost a load of money on a property deal and are looking for someone to blame. Try looking in a mirror, you bought at the top of the market and sold at the bottom - that's not really the auctioneers fault, is it.0 -
If you wanted 85k you should have stuck to this as a reserve. You allowed the reserve to be set at 75k and thats what you got. No scam has taken place and considering there was only one interested party, perhaps it was priced right.
Auction houses are no secret, if anyone else wanted the property the auctioneer would have taken their bids.0 -
Caveat venditor.
If you wanted more than £75k, you should have set the reserve accordingly.
You could also have had a mate in the audience bidding it up...Act in haste, repent at leisure.
dunstonh wrote:Its a serious financial transaction and one of the biggest things you will ever buy. So, stop treating it like buying an ipod.0 -
CloudCuckooLand wrote: »You could also have had a mate in the audience bidding it up...
My father did that for a friend about 20 years ago, he almost had a heart attack when there was a pause in proceedings and it looked like he'd won the auction. Fortunately a new bidder appeared and he bowed out gracefully.0 -
I think the point is that the other viewers cancelled their appointment to view, therefore there were other interested parties, that were somehow 'put off'. Nobody would bid on a property that they hadn't even looked at...0
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Maybe they changed their mind - or found another property - or couldn't make that day - it doesn't mean they were 'put off'.0
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