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Buying an Auction Property

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Comments

  • Cakeguts
    Cakeguts Posts: 7,627 Forumite
    Sixth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Any possibility that the seller didn't have the right to sell the property. I know that there has been at least one fraud where a property was "sold" at auction and the actual owner didn't know anything about it. The buyer tried to make the actual owner complete on the purchase but didn't succeed because they didn't have a contract to sell with the owner only with the fraudster who had entered the property into the auction. The fraudster couldn't complete because they didn't own the property. I can't remember how the property owner found out about the auction sale.
  • steampowered
    steampowered Posts: 6,176 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 27 September 2017 at 7:52PM
    It reminds me of a case I worked on a few years ago.

    The seller exchanged contracts and refused to complete. The buyer took them to court.

    The court ordered specific performance, and ultimately the judge ended up signing the transfer documents.

    We ended up with the purchase price being paid into court, less the buyer's assessed legal fees.

    Legal fees were £60k but negotiated down to £40k by the seller. The court authorised deduction of legal fees from the price paid.

    It can certainly be done. But you would need a proper litigation solicitor and would take at least several months. It could also get quite expensive though in a clear case costs should be paid by the seller (try to agree a conditional fee agreement with the solicitor if possible, and a provision which says that the solicitors costs will be reduced accordingly if their costs are assessed by the court).
  • martindow
    martindow Posts: 10,627 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    There is this very long thread from 2009 which is a similar situation where the vendor refused to complete after exchange, although it was not an auction.

    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1806123

    Make a large pot of coffee and set aside a few hours to read the saga!
  • agrinnall
    agrinnall Posts: 23,344 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    martindow wrote: »
    There is this very long thread from 2009 which is a similar situation where the vendor refused to complete after exchange, although it was not an auction.

    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1806123

    Make a large pot of coffee and set aside a few hours to read the saga!


    You're behind the times :D.


    Already posted by nub in post #7 with the link to the thread by me in post #9.
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