modern auction fees after auction finished

cedarcroft

Hi, I enquired about a property for sale by mmo, didnt really know what that was, after looking it up realised it was not suitable for us as we are not in a position to buy in a set period until our house sale goes through.

In the meantime we viewed the house with said company, if the house does not sell at auction and I try to buy it as a private sale after the auction direct with the vendor, or an estate agent if they use one am I liable for the £7000+ auction fees because we viewed it through thier marketing?tia

user1977

The seller will (probably) be liable for those fees, not you.

Martico

I know that @RHemmings has documented doing kind of a similar thing (private sale of an up-for-auction property). Search their posts, or wait and see if me mentioning their name magically summons them from the ether.

cedarcroft

user1977 said:

The seller will (probably) be liable for those fees, not you.

Think that would be thier fees, mmo ask for an extortionate amount of non refundable money from the buyer also.

eddddy

cedarcroft said:

In the meantime we viewed the house with said company, if the house does not sell at auction and I try to buy it as a private sale after the auction direct with the vendor, or an estate agent if they use one am I liable for the £7000+ auction fees because we viewed it through thier marketing?tia

It could be quite complicated.

Were you made aware of any terms and conditions before viewing the property? For example, something to the effect of: "By attending the viewing of this property, you are agreeing to our standard auction contract terms (which include you paying the auctioneer £7k if you eventually buy the house)"

So if you then do a deal directly with the vendor you would probably owe the auctioneer £7k.


If that's the case, you would be better off making your offer through the auctioneer - but stating the terms of your offer in writing. For example (in simplified terms)...

• 1) I am offering £243k for the property. I will only pay your fee of £7k if and when completion occurs

or

• 2) I am offering £250k for the property. I am not prepared to pay any fees to you in addition to this. (In this case, the seller would probably have to pay the £7k fee)

Expect the auctioneer to push back very hard - especially with option 2.

user1977

cedarcroft said:

user1977 said:

The seller will (probably) be liable for those fees, not you.

Think that would be thier fees, mmo ask for an extortionate amount of non refundable money from the buyer also.

Their fees (in respect of a buyer introduced during the MMO period) are equivalent to the MMO fees. Which might not help you much, if the sellers expect to find the £7k out of the price you offer.