Cottons · UK property auction

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

Cottons Chartered Surveyors has been trading since 1924 and runs around six property auctions a year from a named permanent venue at Avery Fields in Edgbaston, Birmingham. The catalogue normally comprises property within the Midlands region, though the firm reports a track record of selling lots further afield and across the UK. Ground rent investments feature alongside residential and commercial stock and land, which is a narrower and more particular mix than a general regional catalogue.

Region: The Midlands region as the core market, with a stated track record of selling lots further afield and extending across the UK.
Auction calendar: Around six sales a year, held in the room at Avery Fields Sports and Events Venue, Edgbaston, Birmingham. The forward diary is published well into the following year.

Page reviewed 4 September 2026

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Cottons

How Cottons legal packs are structured.

Cottons runs genuine room auctions at a fixed venue rather than a rotating hotel circuit, and publishes its forward diary unusually far ahead - dates are listed well into the following year, which gives a seller and a bidder more planning room than most regional calendars allow.

Bidder registration runs through an EIG Auction Passport, with identity and address verification handled by Credas - the same infrastructure used across much of the market, so an existing passport account carries over. Cottons publishes relatively little about its pack conventions on its own site: the buyer-side fee names and amounts, the deposit terms and the addendum procedure are not set out centrally, which means the special conditions and the catalogue for the individual sale are the operative source rather than a published default. That is worth knowing in advance rather than discovering on the day, because it removes the ability to model buyer costs from the website before a catalogue is out. Ground rent investments in particular reward early reading, since the value sits in the leases and the rent review provisions rather than in anything visible at a viewing.

Pack conventions at Cottons

Auctions are held in the room at a named permanent venue - Avery Fields, Edgbaston - rather than a rotating hotel circuit
Bidder registration runs through an EIG Auction Passport, with identity and address checks handled by Credas
The forward diary is published unusually far ahead, with dates listed into the following year
Buyer-side fee names and amounts are not published centrally, so the special conditions and the sale catalogue are the operative source
Some auctions may be filmed, solely for the firm’s marketing purposes

What Cottons sells

An extensive range of residential and commercial property, land, and ground rent investments. The ground rent strand is the distinctive one: on those lots the value sits entirely in the leases, the rent review provisions and any statutory rights the leaseholders hold, none of which is visible at a viewing. Residential and commercial lots follow the more usual pattern of title, occupation and planning.

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

A realistic example

Three findings from a Cottons review.

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

F-01 Red

Ground rent portfolio exposed to enfranchisement rights

The leases supplied indicate the leaseholders may qualify to acquire the freehold collectively, which would bring the income stream to an end on terms outside the buyer’s control.

F-02 Amber

Buyer costs not established from published information

No fee scale is published on the auctioneer’s site, so the administration charge, deposit terms and any buyer contribution must be taken from the special conditions for this lot.

F-03 Green

Commercial title clear with the lease consistent with the particulars

Registered title carries no adverse entries and the occupational lease terms reconcile to the income described in the catalogue entry.

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

The review

The Bidq review for Cottons 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

Cottons - common questions.

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

What will a Cottons lot cost me in buyer fees?

Cottons does not publish a buyer-side fee scale on its website, so the figures must be taken from the special conditions of sale and the catalogue for the individual auction rather than modelled in advance from the site. That makes reading the special conditions unusually important here, and the review identifies and quantifies every buyer-side cost they impose on your lot.

Do you review Cottons ground rent investments?

Yes, and they are among the more specialised lots in the catalogue. The review focuses on the lease terms, the ground rent and any review mechanism, whether the rent carries a doubling provision that affects lending, the service charge and management arrangements, and whether the leaseholders may hold statutory rights capable of bringing the income to an end.

Cottons runs a room auction. Can I bid if I cannot attend?

Bidding arrangements for a room sale are set by the auctioneer for each auction, so remote options should be confirmed with Cottons directly for the sale you are interested in. What the review addresses is separate and applies however you bid: what the legal pack establishes, what it leaves open and what your ceiling should be.

I already have an EIG Auction Passport. Will it work for Cottons?

Cottons runs bidder registration through an EIG Auction Passport with identity and address checks via Credas, which is the same infrastructure used by many other houses, so an existing account generally carries over. Registration is a bidding matter rather than a legal-pack one, but leaving it late is a common and avoidable source of difficulty.

How far ahead can I plan for a Cottons sale?

Further than at most regional houses - Cottons publishes its forward diary well into the following year. That gives a genuine advantage, because it lets you order a review as soon as a pack appears rather than compressing everything into the final week. Where a pack does land late, the 24-Hour Report covers the shorter window.

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