House buying - when do they want the deposit?

Saver-Rob

Hi all,

I have a question about deposits. Me and my girlfriend have a large deposit that we will be putting down on our new house, all being well. At the moment the money is tied up in a bond which matures at the end of June. On July 1st the money is 'ours' and hopefully will have transferred, or be in the process of, transferring to our regular current accounts. So that is around 4 weeks away now.

We have our appointment with our mortgage company on Tuesday to get things underway. We have had it approved in principle - this will just be finalizing things. Now I dont want to risk the chain collapsing because we are dragging our feet but we are keen not to take our money out early and loose our interest (which runs into hundreds of pounds). We obviously still have the survey still to do, too.

At what stage do we need to stump up our deposit - can you foresee it within the next 4 weeks if our mortgage appointment is this Tuesday?

Thanks for all help.

shirlgirl2004

You need the deposit when you exchange. Typically the deposit you give is 10% of the purchase price at exchange and any further amount is at completion. It is unlikely for you to get to exchange in 4 weeks.

G_M

You can often negotiate a lower deposit, say 5%, at Exchange of Contracts.

Saver-Rob

Oh so am I right in thinking that at exchange we offer up the standard 10% deposit (so £16,000 for a £160,000 house) at exchange and the rest immediately afterwards? But it is very unlikely that exchange would come within 4 weeks of seeing our mortgage company to do the paperwork, arrange the survey etc?

G_M

we offer up the standard 10% deposit (so £16,000 for a £160,000 house)

or 5% (so 8,000)

and the rest immediately afterwards?

The balance is payable at Completion which is usually 2-4 weeks after Exchange.

exchange would come within 4 weeks of seeing our mortgage company

I've gone from agreeing price to Exchnge in 4 days - but not with a mortgage! Estimate 3 - 6 weeks to get to Exchange.

Saver-Rob

Thanks. That helps alot. Its much easier to understand real people on here than technical talk which is all you get from so-called professionals in branches.

loki13

We had our offer accepted 15th April, ther is no chain, no real issues, and we are about to exchange (hopefully) this week. Completion should be a week later. There is no chain, just lazy vendor and vendors solicitors, who take weeks to reply to any queries. I wouldn't worry about exchanging within 4 weeks. hth

Saver-Rob

So that would be around 6 weeks and that would be ideal.