Legal Pack FAQ

A typical pack contains: Title Register and Title Plan (confirming ownership, tenure, charges, and boundaries), Special Conditions of Sale (bespoke clauses that override standard auction terms), Common Auction Conditions, local authority search, drainage search, and environmental search.

For leasehold properties, the full lease is essential. EPC, Property Information Form (TA6), and building regulations certificates may also be present. Missing documents are themselves a significant red flag — their absence does not mean the problem doesn't exist.

Special Conditions are bespoke clauses added by the seller's solicitor. They are the most important — and most frequently overlooked — part of any legal pack, because they can fundamentally change the deal without being flagged in the lot description.

Common things buried in Special Conditions:

• Buyer pays seller's legal fees — often £1,500–£10,000, mandatory on completion
• Shortened completion period — 10 or 14 working days instead of the standard 20
• No title guarantee — you take the property with no legal protection if title is defective
• VAT applicable — can add 20% to the purchase price
• Overage clauses — seller takes a percentage of any future planning uplift

An incomplete legal pack is a significant red flag. Missing searches, absent title documents, or a missing lease may indicate problems the seller is unwilling to disclose. You can ask the auctioneer or seller's solicitor for missing documents, but there is no guarantee they will be provided before auction day.

Bidding on a lot with an incomplete pack means accepting unknown risk. If you buy and subsequently discover a problem that would have been disclosed in the missing documents, you have no recourse against the seller.

A short lease is a leasehold property where the remaining term is under 80–85 years. Under 80 years makes a property increasingly difficult to mortgage; under 70 years typically means cash buyers only. Mortgage lenders become unwilling to lend as the lease approaches 80 years because the property becomes harder to resell.

Extending a lease is possible but requires legal proceedings and costs money — the shorter the lease, the more expensive the extension. Always check the lease length in the title register before bidding on a flat or leasehold property.

Restrictive covenants are legally binding obligations that restrict what the owner can do with the property. They appear in the Charges Register of the Title Register and bind every future owner, regardless of when the covenant was created.

Common examples: prohibition on commercial use, restrictions on extensions or alterations, requirements to maintain boundary features, limitations on subletting. Breaching a covenant can result in injunctions and damages claims from the beneficiary of the covenant — even if the covenant is decades old.

Chancel repair liability is a historic obligation that can require landowners to contribute to the cost of repairs to the chancel of a nearby Church of England parish church. It affects more properties than most buyers realise, can run to tens of thousands of pounds, and binds every future owner of the land.

It is disclosed in chancel repair searches or environmental searches included in the legal pack. Where it exists, indemnity insurance is the standard remedy — commonly required by lenders. Check the search results carefully for any mention of chancel repair.

'No title guarantee' (or 'limited title guarantee') in the Special Conditions means the seller is not warranting that they have the right to sell the property, that the title is free from encumbrances, or that they will reimburse you if title turns out to be defective. You are buying with no legal protection on title.

This is most common with repossessions, estates, and properties where the seller has limited knowledge of the property's history. It does not automatically make a property unbuyable, but it significantly increases the risk and should always be flagged.

According to Property Solvers research across 10 firms, solicitors charge an average of £429+VAT for a standard auction legal pack review. The range is wide:

• Freehold review: £350–£550+VAT
• Leasehold review: £400–£600+VAT
• Same-day / expedited surcharge: +£150+VAT

Including VAT at 20%, expect to pay £420–£720 all in — regardless of whether you bid. If you're researching three lots, that's £1,200–£2,000+ just to do your due diligence.

No — there is no legal requirement to instruct a solicitor before bidding. Solicitors add value when you need professional legal advice: complex title disputes, negotiation with the seller's solicitor, or advice on remedies if something goes wrong post-auction.

For the pre-bid decision — should I bid on this lot? — the core job is reading the pack and identifying the risks. LegalPack AI does this in 3–4 minutes for £9.99, flagging every hidden cost, title defect, and risk with exact page references. If you win the lot, you'll still need a solicitor to handle the conveyancing — that's a separate instruction and a separate fee.

A buyer's premium (also called an administration fee or transaction fee) is an additional charge levied by the auctioneer on the winning bidder, on top of the hammer price. It typically ranges from £1,000 to £2,500+VAT and is payable on the day — you cannot deduct it later.

It does not usually form part of the purchase price for SDLT purposes, but it is an upfront cost that must be factored into your maximum bid. Some auctioneers include their fee in the Special Conditions rather than the catalogue, so check both.

Yes — but only before you bid. You can review the legal pack as many times as you like in the days before the auction and choose not to bid. There is no penalty for not bidding.

Once the hammer falls, the sale is legally binding. You cannot withdraw without forfeiting your deposit (typically 10% of the purchase price) and potentially facing further legal action for the seller's losses on resale.

Yes, but it is significantly harder than a standard purchase. Auction completion periods are typically 20–28 working days — too short for most high-street mortgage offers to be formally issued from scratch. Most auction buyers using a mortgage have a mortgage in principle agreed before bidding.

Many buyers use bridging finance to complete quickly and then refinance onto a standard mortgage. The critical risk: if your finance falls through after the hammer falls, you are still legally bound to complete. You lose your deposit and may face further liability.

At minimum, check:

1. Special Conditions — buyer costs, seller legal fees, VAT, shortened completion, unusual obligations
2. Title Register — tenure (freehold/leasehold), title guarantee, any charges or restrictions
3. Lease length and ground rent — if leasehold
4. Search results — road adoption, planning enforcement, flood risk, contamination, chancel repair
5. Search dates — most lenders reject searches over 6 months old
6. Missing documents — anything referenced but not provided
7. Mortgageability — will a mainstream lender accept this title?

LegalPack AI checks all of these automatically and produces a structured risk report in 3–4 minutes.