Timed online auctions with the legal pack on the record before bidding opens, the buyer's costs stated in full, a reserve that is never more than ten percent above the guide, and exchange on the fall of the hammer.
Lots run to a fixed end time. A bid in the last ten minutes extends the lot by ten minutes, and it keeps extending until ten minutes pass without a bid, so nobody wins by a last second bid. Bids placed on this copy of the site are kept in this browser; on the live site every bid is timestamped on the record.
How a Homebinding auction works
From registration to the keys
1
The legal pack firstVendor, vendor's solicitor, Homebinding
No lot goes live until its legal pack is on the record: official copies of the register and title plan, the searches, the draft contract on the RICS Common Auction Conditions with the special conditions, the property information forms, the energy performance certificate, the planning history, replies to the standard enquiries, and an independent RICS Red Book valuation of the lot. Every entry on the register, including any charge, notice or restriction, is disclosed in the pack with the position on it. Your solicitor reads the pack before you bid, because on an unconditional lot you are buying on it.
2
Register to bidBidder, Homebinding
Identity verified to the practice guide 81 standard and proof of funds seen, under the Money Laundering Regulations 2017. A bidder security is held by the regulated stakeholder and returned in full if you are not the buyer. You accept the conditions once, in writing, and every bid you then place is binding.
3
BidBidder
Bid the next increment or set a maximum and let the site bid for you up to it, one increment above the next highest bidder. The page shows the current bid, whether the reserve has been met, and the time left. A bid in the last ten minutes extends the end by ten minutes.
4
The fall of the hammerAuctioneer
When the time runs out with the reserve met, the highest bidder has bought. On an unconditional lot the auctioneer signs the memorandum of sale as agent for both parties and contracts are exchanged there and then; a sale by auction is exempt from the writing requirement of section 2 of the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989 by section 2(5)(b), and the Common Auction Conditions bind both sides. The 10 percent deposit is taken from the stakeholder at once. On a conditional lot the winning bidder signs the Homebinding reservation agreement and pays the reservation deposit, and the sale runs on the record to exchange within 28 days.
5
CompletionBoth solicitors
Completion on the date the lot states, usually 20 working days or 28 days after exchange, with the searches already on the record and the transfer prepared. The record then runs to registration as for every Homebinding sale.
The rules
What the law and Homebinding require of an auction
The particulars must state whether the lot is sold with or without reserve and whether the vendor reserves the right to bid; a vendor who bids without that reservation makes the sale voidable, under the Sale of Land by Auction Act 1867. Every Homebinding lot is sold subject to a reserve and the vendor's right to bid up to it through the auctioneer is stated on the lot. Agreements between bidders not to bid, a ring, are offences under the Auctions (Bidding Agreements) Act 1927 and the Auctions (Bidding Agreements) Act 1969, and a vendor sold to a ring may avoid the sale. The auctioneer is an estate agent under the Estate Agents Act 1979, with the duties on the valuation page, and the listing carries the material information the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 requires, including every fee a buyer will pay. The contract terms are the RICS Common Auction Conditions, fifth edition, published in July 2024 with the seventh edition of the RICS professional standard, together with the special conditions for the lot. The conditions you are bidding on sets out the six documents, which of them prevails, and the conduct conditions Homebinding runs a timed online sale under.
Homebinding adds four rules of its own. The reserve is never more than 10 percent above the bottom of the guide range, so the guide means something. There is no buyer's premium and no buyer's administration fee: the vendor pays Homebinding's fee, and the only money a buyer pays is the price, the deposit that is part of it, and their own solicitor. The legal pack is complete before the lot opens; a lot whose pack is missing a document does not go live. And every lot carries an independent RICS Red Book valuation in its pack, instructed by the vendor from a valuer with no interest in the sale, so a bidder knows what the property is worth before deciding what to pay for it: the guide says where bidding starts, the valuation says what it is buying.
Unconditional or conditional
Two kinds of lot
Unconditional. The traditional auction. Exchange on the fall of the hammer, 10 percent deposit at once, completion on the stated date, and no way out: a buyer who fails to complete loses the deposit and is liable for the vendor's loss. The price is usually lower for it, and the buyer must have the money and the solicitor's reading done before bidding. A mortgage lender will not usually lend inside 28 days, so unconditional buyers are cash buyers or bridging borrowers.
Conditional. Sometimes called the modern method. The fall of the hammer creates a binding reservation rather than a contract: the buyer pays a reservation deposit to the stakeholder, the vendor stops marketing, and the buyer has 28 days to exchange with the ordinary conveyancing and a mortgage if needed. On Homebinding the reservation is the same reservation agreement every sale uses, so the buyer's protections and the causes for return of the deposit are the same, and there is no non-refundable fee.
Register to bid
Before you enter a lot
The questions sellers actually ask
How long does the auction last?
The lot runs to a fixed end time, set with you, usually between fourteen and
twenty eight days from the pack going live. A bid in the last ten minutes moves the end
by ten minutes and keeps moving it until ten minutes pass with no bid, so a lot ends
when the bidding stops rather than when the clock says so.
What is a reserve, and who sets it?
The least you will accept. You set it, in writing, before the lot opens, and it is
never published. We are authorised to sell at it or above it and at nothing below it.
On Homebinding it is never more than ten percent above the bottom of the guide, which
is a restriction on us and on you: a guide that bidding cannot reach has wasted a
bidder's solicitor's time and their money, and they do not come back.
Do I have to accept the highest bid?
If it reaches the reserve, yes. That is what the reserve is: the figure at which
you have already agreed to sell. If the highest bid is below the reserve the lot has not
sold and you are not bound by anything, and we will tell you what the bidding said about
the price.
Can I accept an offer before the lot ends?
Yes. An offer before the end is reported to you in writing like any other, and you
may accept it, in which case the lot is withdrawn and the sale runs on the ordinary
record. You are not charged a withdrawal fee for selling.
Are the bids legally binding?
On an unconditional lot, completely. The winning bid is the contract and the
auctioneer signs the memorandum for both parties there and then. On a conditional lot
the winning bid is a binding reservation: the buyer pays a reservation deposit, you stop
marketing, and they have twenty eight days to exchange.
What happens if the reserve is not met?
Nothing is sold and nothing is owed on commission. The lot can go again at the next
end date with the pack already prepared, or come off and be sold in the ordinary way
with the same pack, which is the part of the work that costs money and it is already
done.
What does it cost me if it does not sell?
Homebinding's fee is agreed in writing before the lot is entered and is payable on
completion. There is no entry fee, no advertising fee and no withdrawal fee. What you
pay for either way is your own solicitor's work on the legal pack, because that belongs
to you and goes with the property whatever happens to the auction.
Do you take sole selling rights?
No. Sole selling rights make you liable for commission on a buyer you found
yourself. Homebinding takes sole agency for the auction period only, which means we are
paid if we sell it and not if you do.
What does the buyer pay you?
Nothing. There is no buyer's premium and no buyer's administration fee on any
Homebinding lot. A buyer's premium is a cost the buyer takes off their bid, which means
the seller pays it in the end and only the arithmetic is hidden. Ours is in the open and
it is yours.
What has to be ready before the lot opens?
Official copies of the register and title plan, the searches, the draft contract on
the Common Auction Conditions with the special conditions, the property information
forms, the energy performance certificate, the planning history, the replies to
enquiries, and an independent Red Book valuation. A lot whose pack is missing a document
does not go live, which is the rule that makes the rest of it work.
A set fee, agreed in writing, whatever the lot makes; no percentage. Homebinding prepares the legal pack with your solicitor, sets the guide with you, films and photographs the property, runs the lot to its end time and holds the deposit as stakeholder. Choose unconditional for certainty and speed, conditional for the wider market of mortgage buyers. Selling with Homebinding explains the fee and the instruction.
