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Buying a house - When do we pay the deposit?

We are ftbs and have had an offer accepted on a house, survey done, mortgage offer arrived, searches done, house taken off the market so next we need to exchange.
The sellers don't want to complete until the end of March due to work committments which is fine with us, but have been advised by the solicitor to try to exchange contracts asap to protect ourselves, which is fine. We have paid for the searches already.
We have a 25% deposit and so far haven't been told when we need to pay it. Do we have to pay it to exchange or can we wait until we complete? It's a fairly important factor as we have about 10% of that freely available but have to wait until probate is granted on husbands grandfathers will to get the rest, or borrow it from my parents. Haven't been able to get hold of solicitors yet.

Comments

  • AndrewSmith
    AndrewSmith Posts: 2,871 Forumite
    Hi Heth,

    The deposit payable at exchange of contracts is usually 10%, and in a situation like yours it would be normal not to pay the remaining deposit to the solicitor until the week before completion, to allow him to have cleared funds to complete on.

    A quick call to your solicitor will tell you all you need to know.

    Hope this helps

    Andy
  • NAR
    NAR Posts: 4,863 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Good advice from solicitor, get the contracts signed and the sellers are comitted to the sale. Completion date can be included in the papers you sign. Means sellers can't change their mind, nor can you be gazumped!
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