Unhelpful. they refunded my money though.
RE: report written by aucspace on lot 198 in McHugh auction 22.02.2022.
Aucspace @ warned me about something that won't happen @ failed to warn me about something that MAY happen @told me to get on with badgering solicitors myself. It's a shame because I thought your service looked so good and helpful.
What a great disappointment.
Aucspace Didn't pick up that clause 17 in the special conditions of sale referring to an OS2 search. an OS2 ensures that no last-minute changes have been made to the property's title. This is because the FREEHOLD of the garages was sold at lot 35. It would have been more helpful to say, something like,simply : 'Steer clear. Clause 17 of special conditions refers to a OS2 search, which may be costly and time-consuming'. That's WHY I didn't bid.
Aucspace says Risk: The freehold title register refers to several flats. Action: You should query with the seller’s solicitors as to whether the leaseholders of the flats have been granted any right to use the garages. Furthermore, you should seek legal advice as to whether the rights of first refusal under the Landlord & Tenant Act 1987 apply to the sale.
I think not. In lot 35 we see: In accordance with section 5 of the landlord and Tenant Act 1987, notices have been served on the lessees. The lessees have not reserved their rights of first refusal.
EVEN if I hadn't seen lot 35 I know that the freeholder, must have offered the lessees 1st refusal some time ago as it's the law and if they had not taken it up there is nothing the lessees can do once the property is sold.
So there is no point in this warning.
Also I am sad that Aucspace writes such things as 'Action: You should query with the seller’s solicitors as to whether the terms of the lease affect the garage being sold and obtain a copy etc etc. It is very difficult for me as a non -solicitor to get answers from a solicitor as they treat me with rudeness and often refuse to answer my questions, and I hoped that aucspace would ask the solicitor on my behalf as I suppose aucspace are solicitors. That's why I was prepared to pay your fees but if you don't do that I can't see the value of your service.
Reply from Aucspace
Hi Lesley,
We're really sorry you were dissatisfied with the service we provided. And because you were unhappy we immediately and without quibble refunded you the cost of the report. We did, however, provide you with exactly what we state on our website and are very comfortable and confident that the report we provided you with was accurate, fulsome and correct. It was unfortunate that it was not what you expected, which would probably have been more in line with legal advice from a solicitor.
I would like to take the opportunity to cover the issues you refer to:
We specifically referred to special condition 17 in our report under ‘Further suggested actions’ in the Special Conditions section. Our report stated: “Recommendation: If your bid is successful, you should highlight the pre-completion task contained in special condition 17 to your solicitor or conveyancer to deal with.”
As mentioned above, an OS2 search is a pre-completion task which solicitors or conveyancers deal with, hence why you may not have come across this before. It is not a search which is carried out by several bidders prior to an auction. It is a search carried out by a purchaser. We cannot offer further explanation as to why this is the case as doing so may amount to legal advice (which we are unable to give, see first page of our report).
We only prepare risk reports for lots where the report has been purchased by a customer on our site and we only cover the contents of the legal report for that lot. This enables us to offer an extremely low fee of £97 plus VAT. The legal pack for Lot 198 did not contain any mention of whether the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 had even been considered, let alone copies of the notices served. It would be incorrect to simply assume that the Act had been complied with without any confirmation or evidence of the same. It is also incorrect to state that the lessees would not have any remedies under the Act.
We understand and sympathise with poor service some people may receive from some professions - It's not something we can control, and our low fee of £97 plus VAT does not cover raising enquiries with the seller’s solicitors. As per our website, the only service we offer currently is the preparation of a Legal Risks & Costs Report.
Our service is there to provide a very easy way to assess the legal risks and costs involved in the purchase of a specific property at auction. It is not to provide legal advice and we are very clear about this. We have many happy customers who purchase our reports and repeat purchase because they find them very valuable.
Once again, please accept our apologies and regret that you were not satisfied, and given that you are now more au-fait with what we produce, and what the limits are on what we are legally allowed to do, may choose to re-assess our product.
Kind regards,
The Aucspace Team.