Appalling and inaccurate to the point of what appears to be deception. This is RICs words on code of conduct: RICS members must conduct business in an honest, fair, transparent and professional manner.
Below is an abbreviated version of my experience with Taylor James and it is about as far away from this standard as I can imagine. Taylor James auction house presented a 'detached' building in the west of Wales as freehold. In no way was it described as anything else. The title document attached to the legal pack was inaccurate with the previous owner listed but this seemed to be of little concern to the house when I called. I was led to believe this was just a Land Registry delay and would be covered in a document in the legal pack.
I actually spoke to staff at this house three times and at no point was I given any indication that there might be an issue with this property ... that is was anything other than presented which was for sale with full title. (I based this on the not-unreasonable assumption that a leasehold would be included in the description - which it is still not. (12:18pm Thursday May 12). Up until this morning May 12 there was nothing in the legal pack to indicate any lease, much less payment of rent until four working days before the date of the auction.
Twice I emailed to arrange viewings and each time I was ignored. I was then told there would be no internal viewings. At the same time the company was offering viewings via its website. Indeed it's still possible to register for a viewing of this property on its website. (12:20pm Thursday May 12)
On that date a new legal document was downloaded which is a restrictive lease including payment of £1,000/year in rent. This actual lease is not described as a 'lease' or anything like in the legal pack. It is described as 'Commercial PDF'. If that does not indicate pure opacity then I don't know what does.
This a cheap property sold by Auction House Wales earlier this year for £23,000. Despite this lease which dictates: A1 (general retail) use only Taylor James continues to list the property as: "May suit a variety of other uses'. Strictly speaking legally correct but, obviously, the new owner who drafted this lease is likely to require substantial payment for any change ... if they chose to allow it.
The place is not detached, it is linked by its largest wall and a roof the house next door. There are various types of auction houses and they are not all the same. Based on this evidence, Taylor James is one of those happy to play along with vendors who want to present something as 'A' and then throw out the big negatives at the end in the hope an unfortunate person misses something with the resulting much-higher sale price.
In my case this company has wasted several hours of my time and a certain amount of petrol. I'm not new to this but if you are I suggest there are other auction house out there which will offer a much greater level of transparency and even-handedness. Go elsewhere regardless and if you are an honest vendor please go also go elsewhere. There are plenty of good auction houses, many with much wider reach than this one.
Taylor James has no interest in what I had to say, everything is somebody else's fault and it carries no responsibility to buyers in its mind as long as the disguised lease is belatedly in the legal pack so I'll see if it is a member of RICs and I'll take my complaint there.... Read more
12th May 2022 (7 weeks ago)