house buying - holding deposit? Help

PasseySam

Hi,

Having had our house on the market for just over a month with no offers we have just received an offer today for just below the asking price! :j

The buyer has to sell his property but is very keen to get our flat and has offered a good price with the request that we remove ours from the market for a period of time (4 weeks was suggested by the agent) to give him a chance to sell.

As a gesture of goodwill he has offered to put down a nonrefundable deposit now as a holding deposit, in addition to the buying price he has offered.

The EA says it is up to us whether we accept this and that they cannot get involved in holding money in this way so we would have to arrange it between ourselves.

I am unsure about this sort of thing - does anyone have experience of this and if we do accept it what should we do to cover our backs and get all the right conditions etc in writing?

Any advice from people who have experienced of deposits etc would be great, thanks

Emmzi

Your solicitor, not the EA, would hold the deposit, I think. And the best person to ask for advice is your solicitor. (You do have one?)

MissMotivation

The EA cannot get involved in the handling of deposits. You need to speak to a Solicitor to get an agreement drawn up.

In my experience, Buyer's often offer a 'non-refundable' deposit initially but then when it comes down to it, and often on the advice of their Solicitor, they get cold feet.

How much deposit has he offered?

Richard_Webster

Obviously such a deposit cannot be totally non-returnable - that would be like incinerating cash. Buyer gives seller's solicitors £1,000 on a non-returnable basis. Seller decides not to sell to buyer and keeps £1,000! No, I can hear everyone saying, that would be unreasonable.

So the problem with this kind of thing is that the buyer and seller's solicitors can spend some time discussing the terms on which the deposit will be returnable (if either party acts in what might in general terms be called unreasonably or some unexpected matter crops up) and this adds to the costs for all concerned and distracts from getting on with the legal work in relation to the purchase.

The seller's solicitors can hold the money on a returnable basis - which doesn't mean a lot except that the buyer is prepared to have the inconvenience of not immediately being able to use it for a period - but he can get it back when he asks for it.

PasseySam

OK thanks for the suggestions - I think we will perhaps speak to our solicitor for advice as you suggest. Our conveyancing is being done by a specialist conveyancing company, will they be able to advise or does this fall outside their remit?

The deposit offered is in the order of £1k. Why do people get cold feet? I know it is not normal practice but is offering/accepting a deposit in this way a bad idea?

Richard_Webster

Our conveyancing is being done by a specialist conveyancing company, will they be able to advise or does this fall outside their remit?

If it is local licensed conveyancer he should be able to advise you just as well as a solicitor. If it is a remote set up that uses case-handlers then they won't know what you are on about, but you pay peanuts and you get.....

PasseySam

OK it sounds like a lot of hassle to get sorted out and probably not much benefit at the end of the day, especially if solicitors need to draw up documents for the terms and conditions of the deposit!

I think we'll probably not go with the deposit idea to be on the safe side, tempting though it is!

Thanks so much for the advice and suggestions, its great to get help on these things, especially when we're new to this! :T