Clive Emson · UK property auction

Bid on Clive Emson lots with the legal position priced in - not exchanged blind.

Clive Emson Land & Property Auctioneers is an independent firm run by auctioneers, selling across southern England from five offices - Kent, London, Essex and Norfolk through to Cornwall and the Isle of Wight, and well above the M4 corridor. It runs eight traditional online auctions a year, and positions itself explicitly against the modern method: these are unconditional sales. Catalogues are large and land-weighted, and the house publishes its unsold lots afterwards with minimum acceptable prices attached.

Region: Southern England - five offices covering Kent, London, Essex and Norfolk through to Cornwall and the Isle of Wight, and well above the M4 corridor.
Auction calendar: Eight traditional online auctions a year. Bidding opens roughly two days before the close and lots end from 11:00; a bid in the final two minutes resets that lot’s clock to two minutes.

Page reviewed 4 September 2026

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Clive Emson

How Clive Emson legal packs are structured.

Bidding opens roughly two days before the close and lots end from 11:00, with a bid in the final two minutes resetting that lot’s clock to two minutes. The addendum is uploaded on the morning of the auction, so the final legal position lands on the day the lot closes.

Legal documentation is hosted free on the Clive Emson site behind a free account, and the account exists partly so that changes can be emailed to you - registering is therefore worth doing early even if the review comes later. The addendum is uploaded on the morning of the auction. Clive Emson is unusual among auction houses in publishing a full administration fee scale by price band rather than a single figure or a lot-by-lot statement, which makes the buyer-side cost of a bid unusually easy to model in advance: it runs from £750 including VAT on lots up to £29,999 to £5,000 including VAT above £750,000. Special conditions may still impose further non-optional fees on top. The deposit is ten per cent and completion is 20 business days, slightly longer than the 28 calendar days common elsewhere. Bidding accounts run through an EIG passport with anti-money-laundering checks via Credas, and full bidding functionality requires Google Chrome.

Pack conventions at Clive Emson

Legal documentation is hosted free on the Clive Emson site behind a free account, which also exists so that changes can be emailed to you
The addendum is uploaded on the morning of the auction
The Administration Fee runs on a published scale by price band, from £750 including VAT up to £29,999 to £5,000 including VAT above £750,000
Special conditions may impose further non-optional fees on top of the administration fee
The deposit is 10% and completion is 20 business days
Bidding accounts run through an EIG passport with AML checks via Credas; full bidding functionality requires Google Chrome
Unsold lots are published afterwards with minimum acceptable prices

What Clive Emson sells

A land-weighted generalist catalogue: houses and flats for improvement, woodland and development land, garages and garage blocks, ground rents, HMOs, commercial and mixed-use investments, and occasional churches, chapels and beach huts. Land and amenity lots shift the review decisively towards access rights, boundaries, covenants and planning history rather than building condition - and on a landlocked or partially-accessed parcel, the rights of way are the whole question.

For how the process works across every house, see our auction legal pack review page.

A realistic example

Three findings from a Clive Emson review.

Anonymised illustrations, chosen to be representative of the issues that arise on Clive Emson lots. Every report rates each finding red, amber or green and sets out what to do about it.

F-01 Red

Land parcel without a documented right of access

The parcel is not shown as benefiting from any registered easement over the adjoining track, so lawful vehicular access is not established by the title as supplied.

F-02 Amber

Addendum uploaded on the morning of the auction

Amendments are published on the day the lot closes, so a review completed earlier should be re-checked against the addendum before bidding.

F-03 Green

Administration fee band confirmed and priced

The published administration fee scale places this lot in a known band, so the buyer-side cost is quantified rather than estimated in the bid calculation.

Anonymised examples · illustrative only · not drawn from any identifiable lot

The review

The Bidq review for Clive Emson lots.

Upload the pack, answer five questions, and an SRA-regulated solicitor reads every document against a structured framework - title, special conditions, searches, leases and tenancies - returning a bid posture, category scores and numbered R/A/G findings.

Standard Report £595 + VAT · average turnaround 28h 24-Hour Report £895 + VAT · expedited SLA Complex Transaction Review £1,495 + VAT · senior solicitor review

The full process is set out on how it works, and you can read a complete report on the sample report page.

FAQ

Clive Emson - common questions.

Quick answers on coverage, turnaround and how Bidq fits alongside your solicitor.

Do Clive Emson packs include the searches?

It varies by lot, as it does at every auction house - searches are supplied by the seller’s solicitor and are not guaranteed to be present or current. Clive Emson hosts the documentation free on its own site behind a registered account. The review establishes which searches are present, how recent they are, and what the absence of any missing search means commercially, together with the questions to put to the seller’s solicitor.

How much is the Clive Emson administration fee?

Clive Emson publishes a full scale by price band rather than a single figure, running from £750 including VAT on lots up to £29,999 to £5,000 including VAT on lots above £750,000, with bands in between. That makes the buyer-side cost unusually easy to model before bidding. Special conditions may impose further non-optional fees on top, which the report identifies for your lot.

Why does Clive Emson complete in 20 business days rather than 28 days?

Clive Emson states a deposit of ten per cent with completion at 20 business days, which is a working-day count rather than the 28 calendar days common elsewhere. Depending on where bank holidays fall, that can be a slightly longer or shorter real window than 28 days - and since your funding is drawn against the actual date, it is worth calculating rather than assuming.

Clive Emson sells a lot of land. Does that change the review?

Yes. On land and amenity lots the value turns on access, boundaries, covenants and planning history rather than building condition. The review concentrates on whether lawful access exists and is documented, what the title plan actually includes, and what restrictions bear on the use you have in mind. Bidq reports on the legal pack and does not give planning or valuation advice.

Clive Emson is traditional rather than modern method. What does that mean for me?

It means the sales are unconditional: the close of bidding binds you, with a ten per cent deposit and completion at 20 business days. There is no reservation period and no reservation fee. The consequence is that everything you would want to know must be known before you bid, which is the entire purpose of a pre-bid review.

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