1. Executive Summarythe title forbids the use you are buying it for
This is a five-bedroom rented house whose title says it must be a single family home. That one conflict runs through everything else in the pack.
- The title forbids the current use. A covenant from 1962 says the property must not be used as anything other than a single private house. It is currently let as five separate rooms. Nothing in the pack says this was ever permitted.
- The local authority search is missing. It is the one search that would show enforcement action, licensing conditions and planning breaches, which are exactly this property's weak points.
- The contract shifts £4,930 of the seller's costs onto you and demands completion in 10 working days, which rules out an ordinary mortgage.
- The rent may not be collectable as described. Two of the five tenancy agreements are unsigned and two rooms have no agreement at all.
- Nothing shows the property is legal to let. No gas safety record, no electrical certificate, no proof the tenants' deposits are protected, and no HMO licence.
A neighbour who benefits from the 1962 covenant could go to court to stop the property being let as five rooms. If that happened, the £28,080 a year of rent that makes this lot look cheap would stop.
2. Property Identification & Tenurefreehold, registered, and owned outright by a company
| Address | 14 Station Road, Weldon Bridge |
| Description | Mid-terrace house, converted to five let rooms (date of conversion not stated) |
| Tenure | Freehold, which means you own the house and land outright |
| Title number | WB123456 |
| Class of title | Title absolute, the best class there is: the Land Registry guarantees the ownership |
| Registered owner | Weldon Property Holdings Ltd, registered as owner on 11 March 2019 |
Nothing about the ownership itself is a problem. The company sells as owner, and the mortgage on the property will be paid off out of the sale money.
3. Title Analysisa 1962 covenant bans the use the property is let for
The title register and the old conveyance behind it disclose four things.
A covenant restricting use. A conveyance dated 3 May 1962 says the owner must "not use the property or any part thereof otherwise than as a single private dwellinghouse". A covenant is a promise attached to the land itself, so it binds you as the next owner even though you never made it. Letting the house as five separate rooms is, on the face of it, a breach of that promise. Whoever owns the land the covenant was made for can ask a court to stop the breach, or claim compensation for it. The pack contains no release, no insurance policy, and no statement of the seller's position.
In practice the exposure is limited by how long the breach has run: if the house has been let in rooms for many years without complaint, an insurer will usually offer a policy covering the risk, and the premium is a knowable cost. That is why this is priceable rather than fatal, but you need the answer before the auction, not after.
A mortgage. A charge dated 14 June 2021 to Bridgegate Finance plc. The contract confirms this is paid off on completion, so it will not follow the property to you. Ordinary.
A shared right of way. A right to walk over the rear passage, shared with numbers 12 to 20, with the cost of upkeep shared between the houses. Ordinary for a terrace.
A fencing obligation. The 1962 conveyance also requires the owner to maintain the rear boundary fence. Minor, but it is your cost once you own it.
4. Leasehold, Service Charge & Estate Chargesnothing here needs your attention
The property is freehold and there is no estate charge, so no ground rent, no service charge and no landlord.
5. Occupancy & Tenanciesfive tenants, but the paperwork is incomplete
The property is sold with the tenants in place, producing £2,340 per month, or £28,080 a year, in total. You cannot ask them to leave on completion; you inherit them as their landlord.
The evidence for that income is thin:
| Room | Tenancy agreement | Signed | Proof deposit is protected |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2 | Yes | No | No |
| 3 | Yes | No | No |
| 4 | No | n/a | No |
| 5 | No | n/a | No |
Two consequences follow. First, a tenant's deposit must by law be put into a government-backed protection scheme within 30 days. If it has not been, you as the new landlord can be ordered to pay the tenant up to three times the deposit, and you cannot use the quickest route to end the tenancy until it is sorted out. Second, no gas safety record, electrical safety report, or proof the tenants were given the government's How to Rent guide is in the pack, and each of those is a legal condition of letting.
If your plan is to empty the property and sell it, assume that will be slow and contested, because two of the five rooms have no written agreement setting out what was agreed.
6. The Contract and Special Conditions£4,930 of the seller's costs land on you, and you must complete in 10 working days
The general conditions. The contract incorporates the RICS Common Auction Conditions (4th edition), and the pack does contain them. Three of their standard terms matter more than people expect:
- You buy with full knowledge of everything in the legal pack, whether or not you have read it. You cannot later complain about something the pack disclosed.
- The property becomes your risk the moment the hammer falls, not on completion. You need buildings insurance in place from that moment.
- If you cannot complete on time you lose your 10% deposit, you pay interest, and you can be sued for the difference if the seller has to resell for less.
The special conditions. These change the contract in the seller's favour and add cost:
| Item | Net | VAT | Gross |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contribution to seller's legal costs | £1,950 | £0 | £1,950 |
| Auctioneer's administration fee | £1,200 | £240 | £1,440 |
| Reimbursement of search fees | £390 | £0 | £390 |
| Insurance apportioned to completion (estimated) | £250 | £0 | £250 |
| Buyer's premium | £750 | £150 | £900 |
| Total | £4,540 | £390 | £4,930 |
Budget at least £4,930 on top of your winning bid for these items alone. Two further conditions are worth naming: completion is required within 10 working days rather than the usual 20, with interest at 8% above base rate if you are late; and condition 27 lets the seller cancel the sale if it cannot answer your solicitor's questions. That last one is unusually one-sided, and you should ask what it is there to cover.
7. Searches, Planning & Compliancethe one search that mattered is missing
Two searches are provided and both are clean: a drainage and water search, and an environmental screening showing low risk of contamination and flooding.
The local authority search is not in the pack. It is the search that would reveal enforcement notices, licensing conditions and planning breaches, and this is a property with a use its own title forbids. Its absence from an otherwise professional pack should be treated as deliberate until the auctioneer explains it.
Nothing in the pack shows the conversion into five rooms had planning permission or building regulations approval. Councils can require unauthorised building work to be undone for up to ten years after it was done, and unsafe work indefinitely, so this needs an answer.
The EPC is rated E (score 42) and expires in four months. E is currently the lowest rating at which a property can lawfully be let, so this one only just qualifies, and any renewal that comes back at F or G would stop you letting it until you spend money on insulation or heating.
8. What to Check at the Propertysix things, and four of them from the pavement
The documents raise these specific checks. Take this list with you, or send it to whoever views on your behalf.
- Walk the boundary against the title plan. The plan edges the property in red, including the rear yard. Compare that line to the fences and walls actually there. If the fence sits inside the red line, you may be buying land someone else is using; if it sits outside, you may be buying less than the plan shows. Either way it must go to a solicitor before you bid.
- Count the front doors, letterboxes and gas or electricity meters. The tenancy schedule claims five separate lettings. Five lettings in a converted terrace usually means multiple meters and a bank of letterboxes. If you see one meter and one letterbox, the property may not be set up the way the schedule says. Visible from the pavement.
- Find the rear passage and check you can actually get down it. The title grants a right to walk over the shared passage behind the houses. Check it exists, that it is not blocked by bins, a shed or a new fence, and that it reaches the property. A right of way you cannot use is a dispute waiting to happen. Visible from the pavement.
- Look at the rear extension against the roofline. No planning permission or building regulations sign-off for the conversion is in the pack. Look for anything that appears newer than the original house, flat roofs, a rear addition, or a loft window. Anything you spot is something to ask the auctioneer about specifically. Visible from the pavement.
- Check the windows and the loft hatch. The EPC records single glazing and no loft insulation. Confirm what is actually there: if the windows have been replaced since the EPC was done, that is money you do not need to spend, and if they have not, the £3,000 to £8,000 estimate above is the right order of magnitude.
- Look for damp at the base of the walls, inside and out. The environmental search showed low flood risk, so this is not about flooding. It is about a Victorian terrace with no evidence of a damp proof course in the pack, and tide marks or blown plaster near the skirting are the cheapest thing in the world to spot and the most expensive to fix.
None of this is a survey, and the pack contains no assessment of the building's condition at all. It tells you nothing about the roof, the wiring, the drains or the structure. If you are bidding seriously, pay for a surveyor to look at it before auction day.
9. Financial Summaryabout £202,000 all in at the guide price, before repairs
| Item | Amount | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Guide price | £185,000+ | A guide, not a valuation or a reserve |
| Deposit payable on the day | £18,500 | Credited against the price, not an extra cost |
| Special condition costs | £4,930 | Section 6 |
| Stamp duty | £10,450 | See below |
| Your legal fees and searches | £1,500 to £2,500 | Estimate |
| Making the property lettable | £3,000 to £8,000 | Certificates, deposit protection, licence |
| Ground rent and service charge | None | Freehold |
| Buildings insurance | From the fall of the hammer | Your risk from that moment |
Stamp duty. At a £185,000 price the standard rates give £1,200 (nothing on the first £125,000, then 2% on the next £60,000). Because you would not be living here, the higher rate for additional property applies, adding 5% of the whole price, which is £9,250. That gives £10,450 in total. This figure is illustrative, worked from the guide price: it rises with whatever you actually bid.
What the money says about value. The rent of £28,080 a year against a £185,000 guide looks like a 15% yield, which is far above the market. Treat that as a warning rather than a bargain. The yield assumes rent that two rooms have no signed agreement for, from a use the title forbids, in a property with no evidence it is legal to let.
10. Missing Documents & Pre-Bid Enquiriesnine things to ask for, three of them before you bid
| Priority | What you need | What to ask the auctioneer | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Covenant position | "Has the 1962 user covenant been released, insured, or neither? Please provide any policy." | Before bidding |
| 2 | Local authority search | "Please provide the local authority search, or confirm why it has been omitted." | Before bidding |
| 3 | HMO licence | "Please provide the current HMO licence and its conditions." | Before bidding |
| 4 | Signed tenancy agreements | "Please provide signed agreements for all five rooms." | Before bidding |
| 5 | Deposit protection | "Please confirm which scheme each tenant's deposit is held in, with certificates." | Before bidding |
| 6 | Gas and electrical certificates | "Please provide the gas safety record and the EICR." | Before completion |
| 7 | Planning and building regulations | "Please provide consents for the conversion into five rooms." | Before completion |
| 8 | Condition 27 | "What is the seller's right to rescind under condition 27 intended to cover?" | Before bidding |
| 9 | Rent schedule evidence | "Please provide bank statements or a managing agent's statement evidencing the rent." | Before bidding |
11. Risk Assessment & RecommendationHigh, and only suitable for an experienced cash buyer
RISK RATING: High.
It is High because at least one finding should change the price you pay: the covenant conflict, the missing search and the incomplete tenancy paperwork all point the same way, and together they mean the income this lot is priced on may not be safely collectable. It is not Very High, because the breach appears to have run for decades without challenge, which means indemnity insurance is realistically available and the exposure can be priced rather than being an outright deal-breaker. If the auctioneer confirms there is no insurance and no release, it becomes Very High.
Who this suits. An experienced cash or bridging buyer who has bought tenanted property before, who has priced in an indemnity policy and the compliance spend, and who is bidding well below the point where a 15% yield looks attractive.
Who this does not suit. A first-time auction buyer, and anyone who needs a mortgage. The 10 working day completion is the binding constraint: no ordinary mortgage application will be ready in time, and the covenant conflict would probably fail a lender's checks even if it were.
When we would bid. If the auctioneer confirms an indemnity policy is in place or obtainable, produces the local authority search, and produces the HMO licence, this is biddable at a price that carries £4,930 of contract costs, £10,450 of stamp duty and up to £8,000 of compliance work. If the covenant position is still unanswered on auction day, do not bid.