Holding deposit when buying house

Poppy2012

We have found a property and made an offer which was accepted. So went ahead and appointed solicitors and paid for their service, paid for mortgage application and valuation survey.

However, since then agent became unreachable and we could not get in touch for about 3 weeks. He has recently contacted us asking for £2K non-refundable holding deposit which should be transferred into their account, otherwise sale would no go ahead. We have never heard of such a deposit unless its auction property.

Question is: should we pay it as we really like the property and already paid for the survey (not done yet)? Any advice will be much appreciated!

ValHaller

Never heard of such a thing. Money on a house purchase should always go via your solicitor and never via the Estate Agent. This stinks, frankly - in your position, I would contact the vendor direct and find out what is going on.

amnblog

VH is right. Tell the vendor their agent is out of order and could cost them the sale.

suestew

Poppy2012 wrote: »

Question is: should we pay it as we really like the property and already paid for the survey (not done yet)? Any advice will be much appreciated!

Nooooooo! I agree with valhaller any transactions go via your solicitor and you only pay a deposit around exchange time. sounds really dodgy to me, I would be speaking with my solicitor as well as the vendor.

Poppy2012

Thanks guys. The problem is that agent would not give us vendors details unless we pay this deposit. He says he is acting on behalf of vendor because vendor was messed us in the past and that is why deposit is required. I just wonder why they have accepted the offer in the first place?.. Looks like we have to start looking again...

thelem

Your solicitor should have details of the vendor's solictor by now, so you can contact the vendor that way.

This smells very fishy - if it's an independent agency then I wouldn't be surprised if they've got cash flow problems and are trying to use this as a short term loan, if it's part of a chain then the manager may have personal cash flow problems. Was it definitely the agent who contacted you, and not someone pretending to be the agent?

Guest101

That's their tough luck to be honest.

But where's the contract about this deposit. What's the non refundable details? What about price changes, etc etc. they want a deposit, tell them to get the contracts done tbh

It sounds very dodgy to me. Defintely tell your solicitor and possibly report them to ombudsman

ValHaller

Poppy2012 wrote: »

Thanks guys. The problem is that agent would not give us vendors details unless we pay this deposit. He says he is acting on behalf of vendor because vendor was messed us in the past and that is why deposit is required. I just wonder why they have accepted the offer in the first place?.. Looks like we have to start looking again...

In your position, I would now be looking on the Land Registry for details of the owner - that might in itself turn up an interesting surprise. And then I would be posting a letter to the owner - by name - if the LandReg gave one - hoping that a mail redirect would be in place. And if there was no name, I would be dropping a note through the door for the attention of the owner.

I would be mentioning the Agent's request and stating that all money will go through your solicitor and asking the seller to get his solicitor to arrange whatever is required via your solicitor.

If the deal is going ahead, your solicitor should have received papers from the vendor's solicitor including contact details.

Something is very wrong here and despite my suggestions you should expect to be looking again.

Poppy2012

It is definitely the agent. We have been to this agency twice when viewing and then making an offer. You are right, our solicitors have got vendor's solicitors details but as agent said, the vendor would not proceed until gets this £2K from us. We have actually offered to pay it into our solicitors' account as a proof that we are serious about the purchase but vendor still would not accept.

Guest101

Poppy2012 wrote: »

It is definitely the agent. We have been to this agency twice when viewing and then making an offer. You are right, our solicitors have got vendor's solicitors details but as agent said, the vendor would not proceed until gets this £2K from us. We have actually offered to pay it into our solicitors' account as a proof that we are serious about the purchase but vendor still would not accept.

They'll soon learn they wont ever sell under these circumstances. What happens if they then up the price, do they keep your deposit etc.

What's the paperwork about this deposit say??

monty-doggy

You know the address, can't you go round there and find out first hand what's going on?