HOUSE SOLD AT AUCTION

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25139, 21 March 1947, Page 3

HOUSE SOLD AT AUCTION

CONSENT REFUSED BY BID HELD TO BE DOUBLE VALUATION (P.A.) AUCKLAND, March 20. In a case of vital interest to property auctioneers and prospective former ser-vicemen-purchasers, the South Auckland Land Sales Committee refused an application for consent to the sale of a house property at £2550, which was the highest price bid for it at auction. The Crown submitted that its valuation did not come to half that figure. The ultimate bidder was a solicitor acting on instructions from his client, and the penultimate bidder was a former serviceman who bid £2500 .He was immediately overbid by the solicitor. The Crown argued that unless some stand were taken, bidding in auctions might well be brought to £lO,OOO by a person with the nerve to bid as high as that and knowing he would be protected by the Land Sales Committee. It seemed that former servicemen at auctions started behind scratch, although the legislation was enacted in their interests. The Crown asked that the sale be 'granted at the price agreed at auction. There would be no right of appeal and it would be a. very salutary lesson to anyone bidding at auctions. The committee said that, because of the law, the trustees were put in a difficult position; They quite properly felt bound by the trustee law and the committee would refuse conseht to the transaction, and the vendors would be free to come before the committee again with a further application based on a reasonable price.