Terms of engagement for a sale by auction

Part oneThe parties, the property and the words used

You, the Seller

The person or persons named in the Schedule as owner of the Property, and anybody signing on their behalf.

We, Homebinding

The company named in the Schedule, acting as auctioneer and as an estate agent within the meaning of the Estate Agents Act 1979. Our company number, registered office, redress scheme and client money protection are in the Schedule and on the site.

The Property

The property described in the Schedule, with everything the Special Conditions include and nothing they exclude.

The Lot

The Property as offered for sale under one entry on the site.

The Fee

The sum stated in the Schedule. It does not change with the price the Lot makes.

The Guide

The price, or range of prices, at which bidding is expected to start, agreed with you and published on the Lot. It is not a valuation.

The Reserve

The least you will accept, agreed with you in writing before the Lot opens and never published.

The Legal Pack

The documents published against the Lot before bidding opens, prepared by your solicitor: the official copies, the searches, the draft contract with the Special Conditions, the property information forms, the energy performance certificate, the planning history and the replies to enquiries.

The Management Pack

On a leasehold Lot, the pack obtained from the freeholder or managing agent: the ground rent, the service charge and its accounts, the buildings insurance, any major works planned or billed, and what a buyer must do to be registered as the new leaseholder. It is part of the Legal Pack and it is obtained by you.

The Auction Period

From the date you sign this agreement until fourteen days after the Lot's end date, unless the Schedule states otherwise.

The Conditions

The RICS Common Auction Conditions together with our auction conduct conditions and extra general conditions, published at the conditions you are bidding on.

Part twoWhat you are appointing us to do

1. 2.1The appointment. You appoint us to offer the Property for sale by auction on the site, on the Conditions, for the Auction Period.
2. 2.2Sole agency, not sole selling rights. During the Auction Period we are your sole agent, so you will not instruct another agent to sell the Property. You may still sell it yourself to a buyer you find yourself, and if you do, no Fee is payable. We do not take sole selling rights. Sole selling rights is the clause that makes a seller pay commission on a buyer they found without the agent, and we do not think an agent should be paid for a sale it had no part in.
3. 2.3What we do. Photograph and film the Property, write and publish the particulars, set the Guide with you, publish the Legal Pack against the Lot, run the Lot to its end time, hold the bidder securities, report every offer to you in writing, and, where the Lot sells, sign the memorandum of sale as agent for both parties and hold the deposit as stakeholder.
4. 2.4What we do not do. We do not prepare the Legal Pack, we do not advise you on the price, and we do not advise you on the contract. Those are your solicitor's and your valuer's, and the agreement is written so that we are never paid more for telling you one thing rather than another.
5. 2.5Board. We will erect a board at the Property only if the Schedule says so. There is no charge for it either way.

Part threeWhat it costs

1. 3.1The Fee. The sum in the Schedule, agreed in writing before the Lot is entered. It is the same sum whatever the Lot makes. It is not a percentage and there is no minimum.
2. 3.2When it is payable. On completion, out of the proceeds. You authorise your solicitor to pay it from the proceeds on completion. If the Lot does not sell, nothing is payable.
3. 3.3If the sale fails after exchange. If contracts are exchanged and the buyer does not complete, the Fee is payable out of the forfeited deposit and not otherwise, and only up to the amount of that deposit.
4. 3.4Nothing else from you. No entry fee, advertising fee, board fee, photography fee, pack fee, contract signing fee, identity check fee, withdrawal fee, or administration fee on late payment. We do not charge interest on the Fee.
5. 3.5Nothing from the buyer. There is no buyer's premium and no buyer's administration or reservation fee on any Homebinding lot. A buyer's premium is a cost a buyer takes off their bid, so the seller pays it in the end and only the arithmetic is hidden.
6. 3.6What you pay somebody else. Your solicitor's work on the Legal Pack, the energy performance certificate if you do not have a valid one, and the independent valuation at 5.4. Those belong to you, go with the Property whatever happens to the auction, and none of them is paid to us.
7. 3.7Referrals. If we recommend a solicitor, surveyor, broker or any other service, we tell you at the time whether we receive anything for it and how much. You are never obliged to use anybody we suggest.

Part fourThe guide, the reserve and the bidding

1. 4.1The Guide. Agreed with you and published on the Lot. It says where bidding is expected to start and is not a valuation.
2. 4.2The Reserve. You set it in writing before the Lot opens. It is never published. You authorise us to sell at the Reserve or above it, and we may not sell below it.
3. 4.3Ten percent. The Reserve may not be more than ten percent above the bottom of the Guide. This binds you as well as us. A guide bidding cannot reach wastes a bidder's solicitor's time and their money, and they do not come back.
4. 4.4Your right to bid. You, or we on your behalf, may bid up to but never at or above the Reserve, and the particulars say so. We say so because a seller who bids without reserving the right makes the sale voidable under the Sale of Land by Auction Act 1867.
5. 4.5The auctioneer's discretion. You authorise us, where a bid is disputed or unclear, to reopen the Lot at the last undisputed bid; to refuse any bid; and to withdraw the Lot where it cannot be run fairly. Anything we do under this clause is recorded on the Lot with the reason.
6. 4.6Offers before the end. Every offer is reported to you in writing. You may accept one, in which case the Lot is withdrawn and the sale runs on the ordinary record. No fee is payable for withdrawing in order to sell.

Part fiveThe pack, the valuation and the information

1. 5.1Your solicitor prepares it. You instruct your solicitor to prepare the Legal Pack and to send it to us. It is yours, it is your responsibility, and we have no responsibility for what is in it.
2. 5.2Complete before the Lot opens. A Lot whose pack is missing a document does not go live. This is the rule the rest of the auction rests on, and we will not waive it, including at your request.
3. 5.3Everything on the register. Every entry on the register, including any charge, notice or restriction, is disclosed in the pack with the position on it.
4. 5.4An independent valuation. Every Lot carries a RICS Red Book valuation in its pack, instructed by you from a valuer with no interest in the sale and no connection to us. The Guide says where bidding starts; the valuation says what the Property is worth.
5. 5.5Accuracy. You confirm that everything you tell us about the Property is accurate, and you will tell us at once if you become aware that anything published about it is not. Neither we nor you may publish anything false or misleading about the Property, and the material information a buyer needs is published on the Lot. That duty is in the unfair commercial practices provisions of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, which repealed and replaced the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 on 6 April 2025. We rely on what you tell us to prepare the particulars, so if any of it is wrong you tell us the moment you know.
6. 5.6Energy performance. A valid certificate must be in the pack before the Lot opens. If you do not have one you instruct the assessor yourself and pay them directly.

Part sixWhat you confirm to us

1. 6.1You own the Property or are authorised to sell it, and everybody whose consent is needed to sell it has given it, including every co-owner.
2. 6.2There is no other agency agreement in force for the Property, and no other agent is negotiating a sale of it.
3. 6.3You have told us about every tenant and occupier, and you will tell them of the sale and of our appointment.
4. 6.4You will give us the access we need to photograph, film and show the Property, and any keys we agree we should hold. We keep keys securely, we record every time one is taken, and they are returned to you if the Lot does not sell.
5. 6.5You will tell us if you are connected to anybody who works for us, so that it can be disclosed on the Lot.
6. 6.6Risk and insurance. The Property remains yours until completion, and so does the risk. You keep it insured and in the condition it was in when the particulars were taken. Neither we nor anybody acting for us is responsible for its maintenance, repair or condition at any time. If it is vacant, keep it heated or drained in cold weather and tell your insurer it is empty, because most policies restrict cover on an unoccupied property and a burst pipe in an empty house does more damage than anything else that happens to one.
7. 6.7Leasehold. If the Lot is leasehold you obtain the Management Pack from the freeholder or managing agent and give it to your solicitor for the Legal Pack. It usually takes several weeks and the freeholder or managing agent charges for it. Ask for it the day you instruct us: it is the single thing most likely to hold a leasehold lot back.

Part sevenIf the Lot is conditional

On a conditional Lot the end of the auction is a binding reservation rather than a contract, and the twenty eight days that follow are what decide whether the sale completes. Most conditional sales that fail, fail in those twenty eight days and fail on the seller's side, so this part says plainly what they require of you.

1. 7.1You authorise us to sign the reservation agreement as your agent when the Lot ends with the reserve met.
2. 7.2You instruct your solicitor the same day, and you tell them the exchange date so it is in their diary rather than in yours.
3. 7.3Your solicitor issues the draft contract and the papers that go with it to the buyer's solicitor at once, and answers enquiries promptly rather than in the ordinary course.
4. 7.4You give the access reasonably needed for a survey or a mortgage valuation, and you tell any tenant or occupier in time for them to allow it.
5. 7.5You do not send the draft contract or the title to anybody but the buyer's solicitor, and you do not negotiate with anybody else, for as long as the reservation stands.
6. 7.6If the buyer does not exchange by the date in the reservation, the reservation ends, you are free, and what happens to the reservation deposit is what the reservation agreement says. Nothing further is payable to us.

Part eightLaw, conduct and how to complain

1. 8.1Identity. We are required to verify your identity and address under the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 and the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 before we can act. The check is electronic and leaves a record with the agency that only you can see; it is not a credit application and has no effect on your credit score. There is no charge for it.
2. 8.2If we cannot verify you. If the evidence is not provided, or is not enough for us to be satisfied, we may not act and will end this agreement. That is not a discretion we exercise, it is what the Regulations require.
3. 8.3Your information. We use what you give us to sell the Property and to meet our legal obligations, and for nothing else. We do not sell it and we do not pass it to anybody for marketing. What we hold, why, and how to have it corrected or erased is on the privacy page.
4. 8.4Client money. Deposits and bidder securities are held as stakeholder in a client account, separately from our own money, under the client money protection scheme named in the Schedule.
5. 8.5What we must disclose to you. Section 21 of the Estate Agents Act 1979 puts the duty on us as well as on you. If we, anybody who works for us, or anybody connected to us has any interest in the Property or any connection with a buyer, we tell you in writing before you are asked to decide anything, and we tell the buyer too. That includes a payment we would receive for recommending anybody.
6. 8.6Redress. We belong to the redress scheme named in the Schedule, as the Estate Agents Act 1979 requires, and we follow its code. If you complain we will answer in writing under our own complaints procedure first, and if you are not satisfied you may take it to the scheme.
7. 8.7Equality. We will not discriminate against any buyer or seller, and we will not treat a buyer differently because of what other services they do or do not take from us.
8. 8.8Cancelling. Where you are a consumer and this agreement was made away from our premises, you may cancel within fourteen days without giving a reason, by telling us in writing. If you ask us to start within those fourteen days you may still cancel, and because we charge no entry or advertising fee there is nothing to reimburse us for.
9. 8.9Ending it otherwise. Either of us may end this agreement on fourteen days' written notice. There is no withdrawal fee. If a Lot is already open, it runs to its end time unless we agree in writing to withdraw it.
10. 8.10The whole agreement. This agreement and the Schedule are the whole of what is agreed. Nothing said by anybody varies them unless it is in writing and signed by both of us. They are governed by the law of the part of the United Kingdom in which the Property is situated.

The ScheduleCompleted for your sale, and signed

Everything below is agreed with you and written in before you sign. Nothing on this page is a figure until it is in the Schedule.

The Seller

Name and address of every owner

The Property

Address, title number and tenure

Homebinding

Trading company, company number, registered office, redress scheme, client money protection scheme

The Fee

The sum, and whether VAT is payable on it

The Guide

The figure or range to be published

The Reserve

The figure, agreed in writing, not published

The kind of Lot

Unconditional or conditional

The end date

The date and time the Lot closes

Completion

The number of working days after exchange

The deposit

The percentage or sum, and the stakeholder holding it

Your solicitor

Firm, fee earner and reference

The valuer

Firm and date of the Red Book valuation

Board

Whether one is to be erected

Keys

Whether we are to hold them

Referrals

Any payment we receive for a recommendation, and from whom

The conditions a bidder accepts Back to the auctions Selling with Homebinding