iamsold reviews: who pays, and what happens if it falls through
Read from iamsold's terms, its pages for buyers, sellers and agents, and the public registers on 23 September 2026.
On this page
The short answer
iamsold reviews on Trustpilot scored 4.5 of 5 from 5,342 reviews on 23 September 2026, with 79 per cent at five stars and 12 per cent at one.13 iamsold runs conditional auctions, usually reached through the seller's estate agent, and the seller typically pays no selling fee.4 The winning buyer pays the auctioneer a non refundable reservation fee instead.6
iamsold: fees, terms and records at a glance
- Seller fees published Typically none, as the buyer pays; the auction pack price is not given.4
- Reservation fee published The live fees page gives no percentage; 4.5 per cent comes from a March 2024 article.8
- Fall-through terms published A buyer who does not complete loses the fee, and none of it goes to the seller.9
- Reservation period stated Left to the reservation form, with no number of days in the terms.6
- What your agent is paid An average agent share of £5,438 is advertised; how the fee splits is not.5
- Company behind the brand IAM-SOLD Ltd, 07051399, active with accounts not overdue.1
- Redress scheme The Property Ombudsman register lists it for residential and commercial sales.11
- Client money protection The certificate on its site ran to 31 March 2026, with no replacement published.12
- Reviews invited It invites customers to review on Trustpilot.13
Who owns iamsold?
iamsold is owned through a chain of companies, all registered at one address in Gosforth. Intelligent Services Group Ltd holds IAM-SOLD Ltd, the company behind the brand. ISG Holdings Limited sits above that, and Timec 1667 Limited above that.23 IAM-SOLD Ltd, number 07051399, was incorporated in October 2009 and is based in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne.1 The group trades as iamproperty and also sells software and onboarding services to estate agents.5
IAM-SOLD Ltd at Companies House, 23 September 2026
How does iamsold work?
iamsold sells homes by conditional auction, also called the modern method of auction. A seller usually reaches it through their own estate agent. The IAM-SOLD Ltd seller page describes an auction specialist working with you and your estate agent to agree the route.4 The winning buyer pays a reservation fee, set out in who pays what.
Most sellers do not choose iamsold. They choose an estate agent, and the agent offers auction. The group's agent-facing page shows what the estate agent gets from that arrangement.
What iamsold tells estate agents
- £45.6m Paid in partner agent fees5
- £5,438 Average fee, described as the agent's share
- 7.5% Penetration rate: the share of an agent's instructions that go to auction
None of that is hidden, and it means the agent recommending auction to you is paid when you take it. The ombudsman's code for estate agents requires advice to be in the seller's best interests and the benefits and disadvantages of any recommended method to be explained.18 So if your agent suggests auction, ask in writing what they receive if you say yes.
Does the seller pay anything with iamsold?
Usually only for the auction pack. IAM-SOLD Ltd says the buyer typically pays the selling fees, leaving no selling fee for you. The seller does pay for an auction pack, and its price is not published.47 A seller who withdraws after a sale is agreed will likely be liable for auction fees.9 How the buyer's fee works decides what a bidder can afford to offer, so look at it before you agree.
| Payment | Who pays | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Reservation fee | The buyer, to the auctioneer | Pays the auctioneer's fee for running the auction. Non refundable. Typically 4.5% of the price including VAT, with a £6,600 floor, per the March 2024 article76 |
| Reservation deposit | The buyer, where the seller pays the auction fee instead | Non refundable, but forms part of the price on completion8 |
| Buyer information pack | The buyer | £349 including VAT, on top of any fee or deposit8 |
| Auction pack | The seller | Described as a legal requirement with pricing that varies. No figure published7 |
| Selling fee | Typically nobody, on the usual arrangement | The buyer's reservation fee covers the auction and estate agency fees instead7 |
Northern Ireland is priced differently: a 2 per cent reservation deposit with a £6,000 minimum, a buyer administration fee of 1.8 per cent including VAT with a £2,400 minimum, and a £50 registration fee.10
The current iamsold fees page publishes no percentage. It says the fee is a percentage of the sale, with a minimum shown on each property's own page.8 So the 4.5 per cent figure is the company's stated typical, from its own article dated March 2024, and the figure that binds is the one on your listing.7 Ask for it in writing before marketing starts, because it is the number bidders will subtract from what they offer you.
What a percentage with a floor does to a cheap house
On a cheap house, a minimum reservation fee takes a larger share of the price than the headline percentage. At the £6,600 including VAT minimum iamsold published in March 2024, the minimum only stops mattering once the price passes about £147,000.7
A £6,600 minimum reservation fee, as a share of the price7
The HomeOwners Alliance made the same point in October 2018. It took listings sold this way, with a 4.2 per cent fee and a £6,000 minimum, and worked the fee out as a share of low guide prices: 12.5 per cent on a £48,000 studio, and between roughly 15 and 17 per cent on homes at £35,000 to £40,000.16 That was a campaign group rather than a regulator, and it is eight years old, so treat it as context rather than a finding. The arithmetic has not changed.
Set the fee on your listing against what an estate agent would charge you on the same house. Our agent fees calculator gives the comparison on your own price.
Below about £147,000 the minimum fee sets what a buyer pays, whatever the percentage, so on a cheaper home I would ask what fee your listing will carry before anything else. At the £6,600 minimum iamsold published in March 2024, that is over 13 per cent of a £50,000 sale.
Haroon Ali Author, The House Desk. Over 11 years in property and renovation What happens if an iamsold sale falls through?
If the buyer does not complete, the buyer loses the reservation fee and none of it is paid to the seller. The iamsold terms call the fee non refundable, and its FAQs say a retained fee covers the auction and marketing costs.69 You are back to marketing, the buyer is several thousand pounds down, and the auctioneer keeps its fee.
What the terms mean for a seller
- The reservation fee is non refundable and paid to the auctioneer For your sale: A buyer who withdraws loses real money, which is why fall-through rates are lower. None of it reaches you.6
- A retained fee is not paid to the seller For your sale: If the sale collapses, you carry the delay and the re-marketing yourself.9
- Completion is 56 days from receipt of draft contracts For your sale: The clock starts when the solicitor gets the contract, not on auction day, so the calendar is longer than 56 days.6
- The reservation period is the one on the reservation form For your sale: No number of days is in the published terms. Ask what the period will be on your sale.6
- A seller who withdraws will likely be liable for auction fees For your sale: The no selling fee promise holds only if you see the sale through.9
Are there bad iamsold reviews?
Yes. On 23 September 2026, 12 per cent of the 5,342 iamsold reviews on Trustpilot were one star and 79 per cent five stars, for a score of 4.5 out of 5, with little in between.13
How iamsold's 5,342 Trustpilot reviews split13
IAM-SOLD Ltd asks its customers for reviews, and Trustpilot labels those as invited.17 A split like this one usually means two groups of reviewers. Sellers often pay nothing and sell quickly. Buyers pay a large non refundable fee. The ombudsman's 2026 report points the same way: across the auction sector, 68 per cent of complaints came from buyers or prospective buyers, against 27 per cent for ordinary sales.14 If you are searching for bad reviews of i am sold, read the one star reviews for which side wrote them before you weigh them.
iamsold complaints, and what the ombudsman found
Complaints about iamsold go to IAM-SOLD Ltd first, then to The Property Ombudsman, which the company names as the final stage and whose register lists it for residential sales.11
In May 2026 the ombudsman published a report on property auctions, covering complaints resolved during 2025. It is anonymised and names no provider, including this one.14 Its findings on what goes wrong in this kind of sale:
- Over 300 auction complaints were resolved in 2025. Auctions are just over 2 per cent of sales but produced 9 per cent of residential sales complaints.14
- Reservation fee disputes remain a significant area, including buyers who believed the fee would count towards the purchase price or be refundable if the sale did not proceed.14
- Before taking payment, the ombudsman says a provider should explain in writing and out loud how much the fee is, whether it forms part of the price, whether it is refundable in any circumstance, and what happens if the seller withdraws or the sale is delayed.14
- In one case study a buyer was refunded £8,400 after misleading marketing, where the provider also had an undisclosed connection to the seller. The provider is not named and there is nothing to connect it to this company.14
The surveyors' regulator made the same point in April 2025 from the other direction: failing to set out all fees clearly enough for a buyer to calculate the full cost upfront is likely to be misleading.15 Both are about the sector, and neither is a finding about iamsold. We found no advertising ruling, court judgment or regulator action naming it.
Registers
IAM-SOLD Ltd is on The Property Ombudsman's register for residential and commercial sales, and its published Propertymark client money protection certificate ran to 31 March 2026.1112
iamsold's record, by date
- 21 October 2009 IAM-SOLD Ltd incorporated1 Company 07051399, based in Gosforth.
- March 2024 Fees article published7 Reservation fee typically 4.5 per cent including VAT, £6,600 minimum.
- 31 March 2026 End date on its published certificate12 Propertymark client money protection, member C0124686. No later certificate was on its site when we read it.
- 23 September 2026 Fees page gives no percentage8 Only a minimum, shown on each property page.
The ombudsman's register entry reads Iam-Sold Limited, company 7051399.11 On client money, the company says it is in the Propertymark protection scheme, but the certificate on its own site had passed its end date when we read it on 23 September 2026.12 An expired certificate on the website shows only that we could not see the cover continue, not that it lapsed, so ask iamsold for the current one.
What we could not confirm
Questions people ask
How much is the iamsold reservation fee?
Its article of March 2024 gives a typical 4.5 per cent of the price including VAT, and never less than 6,600 pounds including VAT. The current fees page gives no percentage and says the figure is shown on each property listing, so check the listing rather than any general figure.
Is the reservation fee refundable?
No, as a contract matter. The terms call it non refundable, and the company says a buyer who does not complete loses it. A retained fee covers auction and marketing costs and is not paid to the seller.
Does the reservation fee come off the purchase price?
Not in the usual arrangement. The fee is paid to the auctioneer in addition to the price, and counts towards stamp duty. Where the seller pays the auction fee instead, the buyer pays a reservation deposit, which does form part of the price.
How do i am sold complaints work?
Complain to the company first under its published complaints procedure, then to The Property Ombudsman, which the company names as the final stage and whose register lists it for residential sales. The ombudsman reported in 2026 that auction complaints are dominated by buyers and often concern reservation fees.
Before you say yes to your agent
An iamsold sale suits a seller who needs certainty and speed on a property that might struggle on the open market, such as a house with subsidence that lenders are wary of, and it suits an agent who is paid either way. If your house would sell normally, the buyer's reservation fee is money that could have gone into your price instead. The traditional alternative is in selling at auction, and the three ways to sell runs both against an estate agent and a direct sale.
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Sources
(18)
Numbers in the text link to these. Each was read on the date shown. How we research
- IAM-SOLD LTD, company 07051399
- IAM-SOLD LTD, people with significant control
- ISG HOLDINGS LIMITED, people with significant control
- Selling at auction
- Modern method of auction for estate agents
- Terms and Conditions, Modern Method of Auction
- Fees explained: buying and selling with MMoA
- Buying at auction, fees explained
- Property auctions explained, frequently asked questions
- Fees and charges explained, iamsold NI listing
- Iam-Sold Limited entry on the register of businesses
- Client money protection certificate, member C0124686
- iamsold reviews
- Property auctions, insight report
- Practice alert, real estate auction sales
- HomeOwners Alliance investigates the world of online auctions
- Trustpilot's review labels
- Code of Practice for Residential Estate Agents