Auction Services

Buying or selling property at auction with confidence

Auction transactions move fast.

For buyers, success depends on understanding the legal pack, the risks and your commitments before bidding.

For sellers, you need a legal partner who can supply the right legal pack documents at the right time to allow sellers to have confidence bidding and then follow through with the transaction following the hammer fall.

At Hopkins Solicitors, we provide expert legal support to help you prepare for auction day and beyond. Whether you’re selling or bidding to buy, we’ll give you clear advice tailored to the auction process.

What’s Involved

For Buyers:

• Reviewing the auction legal pack – identifying risks and helping you assess value and suitability.
• Advising on pre-auction enquiries – including title, tenancies, restrictions or potential liabilities.
• Post-auction support – handling the legal formalities after a successful bid, including Land Registry work.

For Sellers:

• Preparing the legal pack – including title documents, searches, special conditions and property details.
• Dealing with pre-auction enquiries – responding promptly to interest and helping avoid post-sale delays.
• Coordinating exchange and completion – ensuring the legal process runs smoothly once the hammer falls.

In all cases, it is important to involve your other professional advisers – agents, accountants, surveyors – and we can then work closely with these to ensure the transaction progresses smoothly and any commercial or tax considerations are properly factored in.

Things to Consider

It’s useful to think about:

• Auction format: Is this a “traditional” auction where you are committed at the hammer fall or a “modern” auction where the buyer pays a fee to reserve the property, allowing them to exchange contracts within a particular period.
• Binding bids: Auctions can create immediate legal obligations – ensure you’re legally ready before bidding or listing.
• Finance: Buyers should have funding in place before bidding – because completions are usually within 20 business days, it’s usually best to go to auction with the cash freely available but we can help check lender requirements in advance.
• Condition: Properties are “sold as seen” – it’s important to carry out thorough checks on condition beforehand.

Let’s get started

Please get in touch with a member of our team – we’ll be happy to discuss your auction strategy.