To pay the deposit or not?

evrardflat

Hello,

We are due to exchange the contracts in 2 days, and we are very excited as we are first time buyers. Unfortunately we also have some problem coming our way: we have learnt from our sollicitor that there are a couple of 'defects' in the lease and our lender Halifax has required a special insurance worth £400.
Our sollicitor has required that the seller pays this insurance but until now, no reply. Moreover the estate agent lied to us, saying that this insurance is worth £40, not £400, I called them telling them they lied to me and that there is no way I pay this money, this is down to the seller. How to make this process go quicker, it seems that everybody is saying this is not my problem, talk to someone else.

Another problem is our sollicitor is asking us to pay the deposit for tomorrow, he said that if the contracts cannot be exchanged, the money will be refunded to us. I am quite tensed about this, can the sollicitor keep some of this money and not refund it entirely?

Thank you for all your advise!

hazyjo

You'll have to pay for the transfer so pointless transferring it to them, then probably incurring the charge (added to your solicitor's bill) if they send it back to you, then having to pay it again. From memory, it's around £30 a time.

Would have thought this would have been found much sooner than 2 days before exchange!

You can make all the demands you want, but the seller can decide not to pay (to the best of my knowledge!).

Our sellers had to spend well over a grand to sort out the lease for our garages. They could have said no, but they knew they'd have to spend it if we didn't as they'd never have sold without sorting out the lease.

I suppose if the EA's desperate for the sale to go through and the sellers won't foot the bill, they could always consider dropping their fees... You never know!

Jx

DVardysShadow

hazyjo wrote: »

You'll have to pay for the transfer so pointless transferring it to them, then probably incurring the charge (added to your solicitor's bill) if they send it back to you, then having to pay it again. From memory, it's around £30 a time.

Would have thought this would have been found much sooner than 2 days before exchange!

You can make all the demands you want, but the seller can decide not to pay (to the best of my knowledge!).

Our sellers had to spend well over a grand to sort out the lease for our garages. They could have said no, but they knew they'd have to spend it if we didn't as they'd never have sold without sorting out the lease.

I suppose if the EA's desperate for the sale to go through and the sellers won't foot the bill, they could always consider dropping their fees... You never know!

Jx

£30 a time is trivial, it is pocket money on this kind of deal. I would transfer the money to the solicitor, without authority to exchange, so solicitor can say 'we have the money for the deposit, now all that is required is for the indemnity to be resolved'. This readiness to exchange but for XY & Z is so much more valuable than an ultimatum 'unless you do Y & Z we are not exchanging'

hazyjo

Good point in that it'll put you in a better position if you can put the ball in their court and say you're all set for exchange and the money's there. I just meant not to transfer it three times - just pay it and let it sit in the solicitor's account. DVS has made a fair point in that it puts you in a more favourable light.

Hopefully they'll see they have no choice but to pay it. Not really your problem, and it's probably something they'd have to resolve to sell to anyone else. They're not going to want to risk losing you at this stage!

Jo