Proving that you are a serious buyer....
Discussion
Currently negotiating on a property.
Vendor seems concerned about our commitment to buy.
Agent has suggested a small (1%) deposit with the vendor's solicitor as a sign of commitment, non-refundable if we just change our mind, but refundable under certain circumstances (to be agreed)
Is this common? Is there a standard list of circumstances that we should ensure are written down that will allow the deposit to be refunded?
Agent seems desperate to tie this up as the vendor is going to move to another agent by the end of the week as their contract expires.
Vendor seems concerned about our commitment to buy.
Agent has suggested a small (1%) deposit with the vendor's solicitor as a sign of commitment, non-refundable if we just change our mind, but refundable under certain circumstances (to be agreed)
Is this common? Is there a standard list of circumstances that we should ensure are written down that will allow the deposit to be refunded?
Agent seems desperate to tie this up as the vendor is going to move to another agent by the end of the week as their contract expires.
Not common in my experience, but as the previous poster says, it sounds like the buyer has been messed about with in the past and maybe lost a property due to the chain collapsing.
When we put an offer in for our current house we'd not sold our own and wanted to convince the seller that we were serious and would be completing, so I suggested a deposit as a show of faith. We placed £5k with their solicitors on the condition that should we withdraw for any reason the money was theirs, which would cover any costs they had incurred in preparing to move, etc.
If they pulled out then they had to return the deposit plus interest at the bank rate. It wouldn't have been much, but just to put conditions on their side as well and felt a bit more "contract-like". The deal was conducted via our solicitors without the estate agents and we found no problems with those conditions.
If you have a nervous seller probably the best thing is to keep in touch along the various milestones in the process; we did that by email and phone and it worked very well. It was probably the most stress-free house purchase we've ever had.
When we put an offer in for our current house we'd not sold our own and wanted to convince the seller that we were serious and would be completing, so I suggested a deposit as a show of faith. We placed £5k with their solicitors on the condition that should we withdraw for any reason the money was theirs, which would cover any costs they had incurred in preparing to move, etc.
If they pulled out then they had to return the deposit plus interest at the bank rate. It wouldn't have been much, but just to put conditions on their side as well and felt a bit more "contract-like". The deal was conducted via our solicitors without the estate agents and we found no problems with those conditions.
If you have a nervous seller probably the best thing is to keep in touch along the various milestones in the process; we did that by email and phone and it worked very well. It was probably the most stress-free house purchase we've ever had.
We have no property to sell. We are ready to buy as soon as the paperwork can be completed but not in a desperate rush.
Mortgage agreed in principle, 25% deposit available.
We would like them to take it off the market - but that still doesn't guarantee not getting gazumped - as we have been before.
Property is not currently under offer - previous highest offer was £20k below asking, we have offered 10k below. Vendor wants 5k below asking price.
Vendor wants to move the property to another agent, as the agreement with the current agent expires this week.
He is not in a hurry to move as he has not found anywhere to buy yet, but has said that he will not delay completion because of that.
Mortgage agreed in principle, 25% deposit available.
We would like them to take it off the market - but that still doesn't guarantee not getting gazumped - as we have been before.
Property is not currently under offer - previous highest offer was £20k below asking, we have offered 10k below. Vendor wants 5k below asking price.
Vendor wants to move the property to another agent, as the agreement with the current agent expires this week.
He is not in a hurry to move as he has not found anywhere to buy yet, but has said that he will not delay completion because of that.
I think I fall in with B2hbm and swerni.
If you really want the house and want to allay their fears that you'll pull out for no good reason, then I'd agree but on the proviso that BOTH parties put the £5K into an escrow account and agree in writing conditions under which it will be paid to the other party.
Did something similar when i bought my house 2 years ago. The owners were relocating broad and he was going a month ahead of her and the kids so wanted the money early in order to finalise purchase of new house but she was going to stay in the house for another month. So I got the solicitor to hold on to £2K and then if she didn;t move out on the agreed date, I'd charge her £150 per day rent. She actually moved out a day "late" but that wasn;t really her fault and I wasn;t inclined to penalise them but solicitor said i could if I wanted to.
The whole thing about legal contracts and agreements is that you put in to the contract what YOU want in order to make you comfortable with the deal and to protect yourself. No problem in asking for anything and if both parties agree and can see the reasons for any particular clause it can focus the mind tremendously.
If you really want the house and want to allay their fears that you'll pull out for no good reason, then I'd agree but on the proviso that BOTH parties put the £5K into an escrow account and agree in writing conditions under which it will be paid to the other party.
Did something similar when i bought my house 2 years ago. The owners were relocating broad and he was going a month ahead of her and the kids so wanted the money early in order to finalise purchase of new house but she was going to stay in the house for another month. So I got the solicitor to hold on to £2K and then if she didn;t move out on the agreed date, I'd charge her £150 per day rent. She actually moved out a day "late" but that wasn;t really her fault and I wasn;t inclined to penalise them but solicitor said i could if I wanted to.
The whole thing about legal contracts and agreements is that you put in to the contract what YOU want in order to make you comfortable with the deal and to protect yourself. No problem in asking for anything and if both parties agree and can see the reasons for any particular clause it can focus the mind tremendously.
Mrs Cuchillo said:
As I mentioned previously we are not in any desperate hurry, but we don't want it dragging on.
Given that Christmas is approaching, when would it be reasonable to suggest that we would like to complete by? 31st January?
Good luck with that. Given that Christmas is approaching, when would it be reasonable to suggest that we would like to complete by? 31st January?
We were in the same boat as you: nothing to sell, vendor with nothing to buy but ready to start looking the minute our offer was accepted. Which, to be fair, they did.A week after accepting our offer, they had an offer accepted on a house with no chain. Lovely. Except they then decided they didn't like it after all, and withdrew the offer.
A week after that, they put in another offer. Also accepted and we were away!
Well, nearly. Their vendor also needed to buy a place. He decided to buy a "project" house and was submitting planning applications for potential properties, but no offers. Eventually our vendor leaned on him to get his finger out and stop holding us all up.
So he did indeed put in an offer on a house. A house subject to probate being granted.
It's been 4 months now since we put in our offer, and we're approaching exchange of contracts but we're still not there yet. A lot hinges on what house your vendor eventually decides to offer on. Also, we were lucky in that our vendor knew what he wanted and he was willing to devote a couple of weekends to doing nothing but househunting. We didn't have that amount of free time available to us when we were looking, so it took us about 4 months to find a house we both really liked.
So in short - until your vendor has a place to move to, you can't realistically set a proposed completion date, unfortunately. And even when he does, if he then perpetuates the chain your timings will all be down to the last person in the chain.
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