We request that buyers should do everything possible to complete within 56 days of agreeing to purchase a property.  However, if buyers need a little more time than this (e.g to obtain their finance, extend leases, evict tenants) then additional time may be allowed provided agreement is obtained from the seller.

We provide for a 56 days timescale (versus the usual 28 days through traditional auctions) so that buyers may purchase properties with either cash or mortgage.  All buyers must be chain-free and will be expected to have proven funds.

If buyers are relying on gifted deposits or the sale of assets to fund their deposits they must declare this from the outset.

Buyers will be purchasing a property from a seller who has requested that we achieve a quick and certain sale for their property so buyers must be prepared to do everything they can to complete within the 56 day time-frame.

To meet our target timescales, survey results must be reported to us within 28 days of paying the buyer’s deposit so that we can determine the best course of action where a potential problem is shown.No Deposit and/or Buyers Fee refunds will be considered under any circumstances should survey results be provided after 28 days, regardless of whether they reveal any serious issues or not.

Please note: should a ‘potential’ structural issue be identified by RICS or Home Buyers Report surveyor
carrying out a summary condition survey for the Buyer or for a mortgage lender then the Buyer will agree to
instruct a fully qualified Chartered Surveyor to confirm whether the potential problem exists or not.
Furthermore, if the Vendor is willing and able to remedy such issues to the satisfaction of the Chartered
Surveyor and/or mortgage lender, the Buyer will be expected to accept such remedy and to complete their
purchase in default of which Bidder and/or Buyer will lose their Holding Deposit (and any Buyers Fee if also
paid.)

Please note: should an issue be identified during the conveyancing process, and that issue can be fully
resolved through or a commercial indemnity policy that can be obtained by the seller’s solicitor (which will
be paid for by the seller) to protect against loss arising from the problem, and furthermore that this
indemnity policy is acceptable to the Buyers mortgage lender, the Buyer will be expected to accept the use
of this indemnity policy and to complete their purchase in default of which the Buyer will lose their Deposit)

We do not usually accept offers from people in chains or who have to sell a property before they can buy. Buyers must either be chain-free or have a guaranteed sale going through on their property (ie. has exchanged) before we would recommend our sellers accept their offer.

Please note that sometimes buyers have initially told us they are chain-free only for us to find out they are in fact relying on the sale or refinance of another property to fund their purchase.  Matters may then go wrong and buyers may either lose their deposits because they are unable to raise funds, or buyers have had to raise expensive bridging finance to complete their sales within the agreed timescales.

We therefore request that buyers disclose all the relevant facts relating to their source of funds before agreeing to purchase any of our properties.  Buyers Holding Deposits are at risk otherwise.

There are no additional costs for buyers to purchase MOST* National Residential properties.

*Where a fee does exist, it will be clearly listed in the auction details.

Buyers are required to pay a Holding Deposit of 2% of the agreed purchase price (minimum £5000). However, this Holding Deposit is not an additional cost.  The Holding Deposit is paid by the buyer to reserve a property and forms part of their purchase price funds.  The Holding Deposit is paid to the seller’s solicitor on completion and the buyer pays the additional balance.

Buyers will also be required to pay National Residential or their solicitor £300 on account to order local searches (or to purchase the legal pack if this is available). We pay this £300 to the buyer’s solicitor immediately so that we ensure that the buyers solicitor is formally instructed and they do not delay ordering searches. If the local searches eventually cost less than £300, the buyer’s solicitor will refund the balance on completion.

Buyers will obviously have to budget to pay for their legal fees and mortgage valuation/broker fees if there are any.

We are instructed by sellers to achieve a fast sale and completion for their property.   As a result, we will only sell to committed buyers who can complete quickly.

To ensure this, we require buyers to be chain-free; to have funds available to complete within 56 days; and, to pay a small Holding Deposit to reserve a property.

Most committed buyers are happy to pay the Holding Deposit as it is an affordable fee; it is not an additional cost; and, it is also refundable under some circumstances – please see clause 4 of our Online Bidding Terms & Conditions.

Committed buyers benefit by paying the Holding Deposits, knowing their properties are removed from market and they are at a much lower risk of being gazumped and losing money on wasted costs.

If a buyer attempts to renegotiate the purchase price, or to withdraw from a sale, they risk losing their Holding Deposit.

Holding Deposits are non-refundable for any reason other than the seller withdrawing from the sale and for certain other exceptional circumstances listed in clause 4 of our Online Bidding Terms & Conditions.

Buyers are therefore requested to carry out all their due diligence and obtain mortgage ‘agreement in principles’ that is fully credit assessed BEFORE they agree to purchase the property and pay their Holding Deposit.

Whilst we work to extremely high standards and deadlines to ensure that all sales complete within 56 days, in some exceptional circumstances the Vendor may require more time than this to resolve issues required by the Buyer’s conveyancer, so completion can take place.

In these circumstances, the Buyer and the Vendor will both agree to extend from 56 days for a reasonable time up to a maximum of 12 months to enable issues to be resolved and for exchange and completion to take place. We encourage you to refer to the Online Bidding Terms for more information.

In all sales, we endeavor to get any issues resolved as fast as possible.

Buyers do not have to use any of the panel solicitors we recommend and are free to use whichever solicitors they choose.  Indeed, many of our professional buyers have long standing relationship s with good solicitors so we prefer buyers to use their own solicitors in these cases.

However, where buyers have not previously worked with or built a relationship with a good solicitor, we prefer to recommend that they use a solicitor on our panel.

Our panel solicitors have expertise in achieving fast completions within 56 days will also price-match any other solicitor’s fees so buyers have nothing to lose financially.

We also do not make an referral fees from recommending solicitors – we do so only to improve speed and efficiency of completions.

Buyers do not have to use any of the panel brokers we recommend and are free to use whichever brokers they choose.  Indeed, many of our professional buyers have long standing relationship s with good brokers so we prefer buyers to use their own brokers in these cases.

However, it is often the case when inexperienced buyers use their own brokers a high proportion of these sales drag on or fail to complete at all because their brokers have chosen the wrong mortgage lender and they are either ill-experienced and/or under-motivated to prioritise completing in the quick timescales buyers and sellers require.

We recognise that many buyers do not have relationships with good mortgage brokers and hence obtaining a mortgage can sometimes be tricky and hard work.

We work with the UK’s leading mortgage brokers who are whole of market and who have experience in getting the tough cases through to mortgage offer.

We also work with the brokers within our local Estate Agent partners who also have a vested interest in working hard to get the mortgage offer so the sale completes.

Therefore, we are able to recommend several panel brokers who will go the extra mile to support buyers to get their mortgage offers quickly and successfully.