Screen auction properties before you bid
The hammer falls, contracts exchange, and there’s no going back. Check the flood and ground picture before auction day.
At a traditional auction, contracts exchange when the hammer falls, and completion usually follows within about 28 days. There’s no chance to walk away when a problem turns up afterwards. Auction lots are also more likely than most to be unusual — riverside, rural, long-empty or priced low for a reason.
What to check before you bid
The questions a screening answers
Read it alongside the legal pack
Legal packs often include the local authority and drainage searches. Environmental and flood searches are included less consistently, and any searches may be months old. Check what’s there and when it was produced, and read the special conditions for buyer’s fees.
Questions we get asked
When should I order?
As soon as you’re seriously interested in a lot — ideally before you pay for a survey or for legal advice on the pack.
Does the legal pack already cover this?
Sometimes in part. Packs vary; flood and environmental coverage is often missing or dated. The screening also adds context the searches don’t, such as EPC, schools and broadband.
Does this apply to the modern method of auction?
Yes. With the modern method you usually pay a non-refundable reservation fee and then have a fixed period to exchange. Screening before you reserve protects that fee.
See the flood & environmental picture for your property
Every open flood source, plus ground, environment, value and context — a plain-English PDF report for the exact plot you draw, for £20.