Home buyer angry after ‘winning’ Bayleys auction before home sold to another bidder

• Matthew Poyntz believes Bayleys Realty Group reneged on a house sale when it reopened bidding after he initially won.
• Poyntz’s $1.305 million bid was initially declared the winning bid, before the auction was reopened for a $1.4m bid.
• The agency selling the home said witnesses had seen the $1.4m bid being made in time and its auctioneer acted correctly by reopening bidding.

An Auckland home buyer has sent a legal letter to Bayleys Realty Group after he won a house auction but the bidding was later reopened and the property sold to someone else.

Matthew Poyntz had been locked in a bidding war for the Greenhithe home at a December 12 auction when he made a $1.305 million bid.

After taking time to call around the room for higher bids, the auctioneer banged his hammer, announcing the home had “sold” to Poyntz.

Matthew Poyntz heard the hammer come down on his $1.305m bid for the home but then another bidder was allowed to bid $1.4m. Photo / Supplied

However, he then began talking with others in the room, before deciding to reopen the bidding to a person willing to pay $1.4m.

Bayleys said its auctioneer acted correctly because witnesses had seen the higher bidder make their bid before the hammer came down.

But an upset Poyntz, who didn’t match the $1.4m bid, believes it came after he already won the auction with a bid of $1.305m and that Bayleys was reneging on a contract to sell it to him.

“They know they did wrong, but they also know the little guy can’t afford a minimum of $50,000 to go to court over it,” he claimed.

A recording of the auction can be seen on Bayleys' YouTube channel.

A camera focused on auctioneer Travers Smyth shows bidding for the 12 Outlook Rd home reaching $1.305m.

Smyth makes repeated final calls for more bidders, warning he will not accept bids after the hammer falls.

“No late bids in the auction room,” he tells those gathered.

“It sells here at $1.305m if there is no bidder.”

“It’s going, gone, selling, it is sold now, congratulations, well bid, well bought,” he said with a bang of his hammer, pointing at Poyntz.

However, Smyth then looks to the back of the room where people are talking to him, but what they are saying is inaudible.

“I did warn you, I did say no late bids,” Smyth says before then asking: ‘What was your bid going to be sir?"

Smyth then announces he will take the missed bid as a “disputed bid” and restarts the auction at Poyntz’s $1.305m bid.

The other bidder then submits their $1.4m bid - a $95,000 jump Poyntz told the Herald he couldn’t match.

Matthew Poyntz had been bidding for the 12 Outlook Rd home in Greenhithe with his brother. Photo / Supplied

Poyntz’s lawyer John Waugh from Dev Law sent Bayleys a legal letter the next day.

“It is entirely without doubt that the auctioneer accepted the offer from our client after making it clear to all present in the room that no late bids would be accepted,” Waugh said.

Waugh said the $1.4m bidder had “at no stage signalled” they were taking part in the auction and did not make any bid before the “fall of the hammer”.

That meant the seller must go ahead with the sale to Poyntz at $1.305m, Waugh’s letter said.

Tony Bayley, compliance manager at Bayleys, said he fully investigated the matter.

“Disputed bids” are rare but Bayleys handles them in accordance with the Real Estate Institute’s Auction Code of Practice, he said.

Smyth had explained this on the day, making “it very clear” before the auction started what would happen should there be a disputed bid, Bayley said.

He said witnesses had seen the $1.4m bid being made in time.

“At the same time as the fall of the hammer one of our senior managers spotted another bid,” Bayley said.

Auctioneer Smyth then correctly declared it a disputed bid and restarted the auction at the last undisputed bid of $1.305m, he said.

“I have no doubt that the underbidder was disappointed, but the auctioneer acted correctly and professionally,” Bayley said.

Mark Sumich, a judge of Reinz’s National Real Estate Auctioneering Championships, said while rare, auctioneers do sometimes miss seeing bids.

He agreed that once a bid is declared disputed, it is common practice to reopen bidding at the last undisputed bid.

He also said that if the home was sold at the lower bid, the seller could lose out.

“You can imagine what would happen in those circumstances if the guy who’s bought it at $1.305m ... then walks over to the guy at $1.4m and says, I’ll sell it to you now at $1.380m,” he said.

“That isn’t a good look either.”

Industry regulator the Real Estate Authority said it could not comment on the case.

Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.