I sign today and pay deposit HELP

Stubbsy05

Right I sign contacts and pay my deposit today to my solicitor at 4pm. The solicitor has said I can pay by cheque.

My Estate agent has just called and said that if I pay by CHAPS payment (instant payment costing me £30) I should be able to exchange today.

Does this sound reasonable?

AndrewSmith

Call the solicitor straight away and ask them if you are in a position to exchange today subject to you sending the deposit via chaps.

It's all very well for the agent to tell you to do it but I would check with your solicitor that they are ready and the other parties are ready for exchange today before committing £30 to a transfer.

Andy

Snaggles

I would say that the estate agent has no control over when exchange takes place (this is between you, your solicitor, the vendor and their solicitor) so I would confirm with your solicitor whether this is true. Chaps transfers are usually used to move funds between banks/solicitors for the completion of the sale, because the funds have to be moved from one place to another quickly (banks and solicitors tend to charge £20 - £30 for this), but unless there's any particular reason you want to exchange today, I would pay by cheque and save yourself the £30.

Remember, the estate agent is only really interested in making sure the sale goes through so they get their commission (no offence to any estate agents - it's just business at the end of the day), so they have a vested interest in getting you to send the funds asap so its more difficult for the sale to fall through.

JennyW_2

Snagglepuss wrote:

I would say that the estate agent has no control over when exchange takes place (this is between you, your solicitor, the vendor and their solicitor)

This is so true. I lost count the amount of times the estate agent rang to tell me when exchange was happening.

As snagglepuss said, exchange can only happen when the whole chain is ready, not just one person. Listen to your solicitor, he knows the situation best