The conditions you are bidding on

Part oneThe words used in these conditions

Where these words are used with a capital letter anywhere on this page or in a Homebinding lot, they mean this and nothing else.

The Lot

The property offered for sale under one entry on this site, together with everything its Special Conditions include.

The Seller

The person or company selling the Lot, and anybody entitled to sell it on their behalf.

The Buyer

The bidder whose bid is accepted when the Lot ends.

The Auctioneer

Homebinding, acting as agent for the Seller, and as agent for both parties only for the purpose of signing the Memorandum.

The Legal Pack

The documents published against the Lot before bidding opens, including the draft contract, the General Conditions and the Special Conditions. The Legal Pack is the contract; this page is not.

The Guide

The price, or range of prices, at which bidding is expected to start. It is not a valuation and it is not the Reserve.

The Reserve

The least the Seller will accept. It is not published. On a Homebinding Lot it is never more than ten percent above the bottom of the Guide.

The Bidder Security

The sum held before a bidder may bid, returned in full to every bidder who does not buy and applied towards the Deposit if they do.

The Deposit

Ten percent of the price on an unconditional Lot, or the reservation deposit stated on a conditional Lot, held by the stakeholder named in the Legal Pack.

The Memorandum

The memorandum of sale signed when an unconditional Lot ends, by which contracts are exchanged.

The Addendum

Anything published against the Lot correcting or adding to the particulars after the Lot was catalogued. It forms part of the contract from the moment it appears.

Part twoThe documents, and which of them prevails

A lot is not sold on one contract. It is sold on a set of documents that fit together in a known order, and the later and more specific one prevails over the earlier and more general one. This is the order the auction profession has used since the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors first published its common conditions, and it is the order Homebinding uses.

1. 2.1The glossary. The defined words. Where a word appears in the conditions with a particular meaning, this is where that meaning is fixed, so that the same word means the same thing in every document below it.
2. 2.2The auction conduct conditions. How the auction itself is run: who may bid, what a bid is, when the lot ends, what the auctioneer may and may not do. These govern the sale process rather than the property, and they bind everybody who registers, whether or not they buy anything. Homebinding's are at part two.
3. 2.3The general conditions of sale. The ordinary terms of a sale of land: title, risk, insurance, the deposit, completion, interest on late completion, and what happens if either side fails. These are the RICS Common Auction Conditions, and the text that applies to a lot is the one bound into that lot's legal pack.
4. 2.4The extra general conditions. Terms an auctioneer applies to every lot it sells. Homebinding's four are at part three, and each of them is a restriction on the seller and on us rather than on the buyer.
5. 2.5The special conditions of sale. Everything true of this lot and no other: the completion date, what is included, rights and reservations, tenancies, the position on anything on the register, apportionments, and any variation of the general conditions. Drawn by the seller's solicitor. These prevail over everything above them, which is why the legal pack is the document that matters and this page is not.
6. 2.6The addendum. Anything that has changed since the lot was catalogued. An addendum is published on the lot page and forms part of the contract from the moment it appears. A lot with an addendum says so at the head of the listing, and the time it was published is on the record.

The general conditions are the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors' Common Auction Conditions. They are not reproduced on this page because they are not ours to reproduce. The text that binds a buyer is the one in the legal pack for the lot, which is where it is read.

Part threeAuction conduct conditions

Conduct conditions written for a saleroom answer questions a timed online sale does not ask, and leave unanswered the ones it does. There is no rostrum, no moment when the auctioneer looks round the room, and no leaving the building without paying. These take their place, and they bind every registered bidder from the moment registration is accepted.

1. 3.1Who may bid. Only a bidder whose identity has been verified, whose funds have been evidenced, and whose bidder security is held. Registration may be refused or withdrawn without a reason being given. A bidder is responsible for every bid placed from their account, whoever placed it.
2. 3.2What a bid is. An irrevocable offer to buy the lot at that amount on the conditions of sale for that lot. A bid cannot be retracted, reduced or withdrawn.
3. 3.3Bidding on your behalf. A maximum bid instructs the site to bid for you, one increment above the next highest bid, up to but never above your maximum. Your maximum is not shown to anybody. It is an offer at every amount up to it, so it binds you at whatever amount it wins at.
4. 3.4The seller's right to bid. Every lot is sold subject to a reserve and the particulars say so. The seller, or the auctioneer for the seller, may bid up to but never at or above the reserve. No other person may bid for the seller. This is stated because a seller who bids without it being reserved makes the sale voidable under the Sale of Land by Auction Act 1867.
5. 3.5The guide and the reserve. The guide is where bidding is expected to start and is not a valuation. The reserve is the least the seller will accept. On Homebinding the reserve is never more than ten percent above the bottom of the guide. The lot page shows whether the reserve has been met; it never shows the reserve itself.
6. 3.6When the lot ends. At the end time shown on the lot, except that a bid placed in the last ten minutes moves the end time to ten minutes after that bid, and keeps moving it until ten minutes pass with no bid. Nobody wins a lot by bidding in the last second.
7. 3.7The fall of the hammer. When the lot ends with the reserve met, the highest bid has been accepted and that bidder has bought. The timestamp on the record is the moment of acceptance. On an unconditional lot the auctioneer signs the memorandum of sale as agent for both parties and contracts are exchanged then; a sale by auction is outside the writing requirement of section 2 of the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989 by section 2(5)(b). On a conditional lot the winning bidder signs the reservation agreement and pays the reservation deposit.
8. 3.8The deposit. Ten percent of the price on an unconditional lot, taken from the bidder security and topped up where the price requires it, held by the stakeholder named in the legal pack. A conditional lot states its reservation deposit on the lot page. A bidder security is returned in full, without deduction, to every bidder who does not buy.
9. 3.9What the buyer pays. The price, the deposit which is part of it, and their own solicitor. There is no buyer's premium and no buyer's administration fee on any Homebinding lot. Where a lot carries a cost that falls on the buyer under its special conditions, such as the seller's searches or a contribution to a management company, that cost is stated in cash on the lot page before bidding opens and again in the legal pack.
10. 3.10If the site fails. If the site is unavailable to bidders for more than five minutes while a lot is open, the lot is extended by the time it was unavailable plus ten minutes, and the extension is recorded on the lot. If a lot cannot be run fairly it is withdrawn and every bidder's security is returned. Homebinding does not accept bids by telephone or email while a lot is running, so that every bid on a lot is on the same record.
11. 3.11Errors and withdrawal. A lot may be withdrawn or its particulars corrected at any time before it ends, and a correction is published as an addendum. A bid placed before a correction stands unless the correction is one that would have changed it, in which case the bidder is told and may withdraw the bid. If a bid is accepted in error the auctioneer may set it aside and reopen the lot, and will record why.
12. 3.12The auctioneer. The auctioneer acts as agent for the seller, and as agent for both parties only for the purpose of signing the memorandum. The auctioneer is an estate agent within the meaning of the Estate Agents Act 1979 and is bound by it. Nothing said by the auctioneer, and nothing on this site, is a representation the buyer may rely on. What may be relied on is the legal pack and the replies to enquiries given by the seller's solicitor.
13. 3.13Bidding agreements. An agreement between bidders that one will not bid is an offence under the Auctions (Bidding Agreements) Acts 1927 and 1969, and a seller who has sold to such an agreement may avoid the sale. Registration is refused to anybody Homebinding believes to be party to one.
14. 3.14These conditions. They cannot be varied by anything said or written by anybody, including by us, except by an addendum published on the lot. They are governed by the law of the part of the United Kingdom in which the lot is situated.

Part fourExtra general conditions

Four restrictions Homebinding places on itself and on the seller. They apply to every lot and cannot be disapplied by a special condition.

Back to the auctions How the sale runs after the hammer