what stage do you pay deposit

endisforever_2

were buying a house and going to sign the contarts next week but what stage do you hand over the deposit

is it at completion

penguine

No, at exchange of contracts.

ad9898_3

If your "deposit" is part of the house you are selling it is on completion

Richard_Webster

There should be a sticky on this.

A lot of people think of the deposit as the difference between the price and the mortgage being obtained on the house being bought.

Solicitors refer to a deposit as the amount put down one exchange of contracts to bind you to the deal. This definitely does need to be paid to your solicitor before exchange.

If you are selling and buying you can normally use your buyer's deposit - it just goes up the chain. If there is big difference between what you are selling for and what you are buying for, you might have to put in some more money to make the deposit offered respectable. In theory this deposit on exchange should be 10% but it is very often negotiated down to 5% or even less.

The balance of the purchase money not provided by the mortgage and not part of the exchange deposit, together with SDLT (Stamp Duty), Land Registry Fees and the solicitor's costs will have to be paid just before completion.