KULBINDER SINGH KAMBO said about Clive Emson Auctioneers

Services : Sales( As a Buyer )Date: 6th Aug 2020

I have just concluded my first foray, and probably my last, at buying a property in an auction. Being a beginner, I purchased my first property this June at CE auction. The vendor was a self-employed estate agent in the Chigwell area with usual “accreditations” and their solicitor somewhere around Peterborough.
I thought I had I done most of my due diligence and things were progressing smoothly until I received the completion statement from the vendor/solicitor. On the completion statement the reimbursement of vendors legal fees and auctioneers’ fees came to over £5k+ more than I had budgeted.
On making enquiries with vendor/solicitor I was referred to the following paragraph in the special conditions - “The buyer will reimburse sellers legal fees, disbursements and auctioneers fees incurred in sale of property and such reimbursement …... payable on completion. The seller’s solicitors will not be obliged to produce evidence or invoices in respect of the expenditure”. The vendor/solicitor gave curt response and “firmly” indicated no desire to come to fair compromise.
I promptly called the auctioneers to enquire what fees they had charged the vendor and a kind person who was managing the property sale advised that it was x% plus VAT of sale price and stated a figure of £xk. To this figure I added a generous amount for vendors legal fees (i.e. twice my legal fees for purchase). After adding the two numbers together I advised the auctioneer person managing sale how much I had been charged by vendor/solicitor. The auctioneer person expressed “some surprise” (if you get my drift) and suggested “I ‘may’ want to ask for a cost breakdown from the vendor/solicitor”, which of course wasn’t forthcoming under the guise of the special condition protection. Of course, when I contacted vendor to check he came back after a while and said the after discussing with auctioneers they had said no such thing!! Perhaps they should listen to the replay of the call recording.
My solicitor alluded to “sharp practice” between groups in the wording of the special condition. As far as I can tell, if the vendor/solicitor had added £10k, £20k or whatever figure that popped into their head, I would have been obliged to pay.
Anyway, I am not happy about the way events have transpired but have had to cough up and move on.
I am sharing my experience so that other lesser experienced entrepreneurs, like myself, are not caught out by the “sleight of hand” which some so-called professional “old hands” in the trade may try on.

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