DIY Conveyancing - Selling at Auction

[WessexMario]

I have done a number of my own DIY conveyances both buying and selling, but the most recent was over 10 years ago so I'm a little rusty, and things might have changed.

I'm getting the legal auction pack together.
It's a commercial property, with a commercial tenant on one floor (the other floor will be vacant at the time of sale), so copies of leases being included.

I have requested Official Copies of the Register and Plan from the Land Registry, so that's in hand.

What other searches will I need?
and what's the most cost-effective way to get them?
Eg: I'm sure I don't need a mining search but what would be today's auction buyer's expectation?

It seemed to be much easier the last time I did it, every search I do now produces forms with "sample" written across them and demands for cash!

[Clitheroekid]

I have done a number of my own DIY conveyances both buying and selling, but the most recent was over 10 years ago so I'm a little rusty, and things might have changed.

The first thing to say is why bother? Conveyancing can now be acquired so cheaply that it hardly seems worth the hassle of doing it yourself.

If you were buying it’s a totally different matter, and for that it is worth paying for a decent solicitor. But when you're selling at auction it's pretty difficult for even the crappiest conveyancing factory (which is what you will end up with if you take the cheapest option) to mess it up.

However, if you're determined to DIY then the auction house will normally have rules telling you what’s required in the seller's pack. You will certainly need a contract, and that should incorporate the Standard Commercial Conditions, though again you need to check that there’s no conflict with the auctioneer's own conditions.

You will also need to be careful to ensure that the contract makes it clear that the sale is subject to the lease. The standard conditions grant vacant possession on completion, and if you forget to amend this you could find that you've saved a few hundred in conveyancing fees only to face a claim for tens of thousands for failing to give VP.

What other searches will I need?

The normal searches are a local search, a water and drainage search, a mining search (if it's in a mining area, and possibly other mineral searches depending on the area) and perhaps a basic environmental search.

and what's the most cost-effective way to get them?

I don't know. When I buy them I get them online from a search provider rather than going to each individual supplier. I use PSG - https://www.psgconnect.co.uk/ - but I know there are several others. It's a very competitive market, and the prices are all quite similar, so I never bother shopping around.

I think you'd need to open an account with them, so the alternative is just to go to each provider individually. They nearly all have online services now, though be warned that local authorities will often charge a lot more for a local search than a specialist provider.

One other thing that I always look for when buying commercial property at auction is completed replies to the relevant CPSE enquiries. These are standard form commercial property enquiries, and I’d expect to see replies to them where the property was anything decent. The relevant forms are here, and the ones you’d need are CPSE.1 and CPSE.2 - http://uk.practicallaw.com/6-502-2923?service=property

A word of warning though. They’re long-winded, and most solicitors who deal in commercial property have sets of standard replies to be tweaked as necessary. Preparing the replies from scratch would be a fairly gruesome job, particularly for the CPSE.1.

The best of luck!

[WessexMario]

many thanks for your detailed reply clitheroekid.