When do I need my deposit?

m0t

Offer accepted on a house today which is chain free, the EA gave an estimated completion date of 6 weeks.

At what point will I need my full deposit? It could take me 3 weeks to get it all together, will this delay anything?

G_M

Define 'deposit'! There are two meanings.

1) At 'Exchangeof Contracts' you will need to pay the seller 10% (or another amount agreed) as a deposit.

2) At Completion, you will need topay the balance of the purchase price(90%). This may come from
* a mortgage lender (if you are getting amortgage) plus
* whatever 'deposit' is the cash you are putting in

Do not listen tothe EA about timescales. They are meaningless till the legal work starts, and you find out how long the chain is.

Go to your library and borrow (free) a bookon house buying. It will help over the next 2 months or so.

moneyistooshorttomention

My solicitor said "5-6 weeks" - but that's to Exchange of Contracts.

The time between Exchange and Completion comes on top of that. Thus - it will be taking 9-10 weeks in total. It would probably be longer in a longer chain than mine is. Everyone in your chain may be prepared to agree to a shorter time between Exchange and Completion than everyone in my own chain is.

However, even that is an estimate rather than cast in stone (in case searches or someone else's solicitor slow things up).

Richard_Webster

My solicitor said "5-6 weeks" - but that's to Exchange of Contracts.

The time between Exchange and Completion comes on top of that. Thus - it will be taking 9-10 weeks in total.

The time to exchange is a reasonable guesstimate based on experience. Generally, the longer the chain you are involved in the more likely there are to be delays.

However, although it does happen, 4 weeks between exchange and completion is fairly unusual. More typical is a period of between 7 and 14 days.