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should a buyer leave a deposit as guarantee
Deals_2
Posts: 2,410 Forumite
they want the house? we have 2 potential buyers. should we ask whoever is keen to leave us a deposit. how much and what are the legalities. we had one buyer but they then disappeared so we dont want to get caught again.
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Comments
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No you wouldn't ask to leave a deposit in my opionion. Nothing is binding in house buying untill exchange of contracts, so either side are free to pull out at any time.
If you've got 2 interested parties, then they should be making offers & you chose which you feel is the better offer or the more proceedable buyer.
You say you had a buyer but they disappeared, but were they truly interested buyers, had they had a survey done for instance? After making an acceptable offer a survey is the marker that shows the buyer is a properly interested on at that point. If the survey comes back & lots of issues have shown up then some buyers will pull out or try to negotiate the price down, but you are usually in the know when this happens via the estate agent or buyer's themselves.
It's very unusual for a serious buyer to just disappear & the estate agent would normally be acting as a go between to find out why a buyer is no longer interested if this is the case.The bigger the bargain, the better I feel.
I should mention that there's only one of me, don't confuse me with others of the same name.0 -
Their survey is theoretically their deposit (they arent free). ASking them for a seperate deposit might make them wonder what are you hiding and why are you worried (not saying you are either).
I had a buyer disappear, he never supplied legal details and the EA were lax chasing him until we had had an offer accepted completing our chain. the b00gers. Then he disappered for a week and finally said sorry not interested. If we had forced him to do the survey immediately, he would have had to decide about losing money or getting lost
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there is nothing stopping you asking for a non-refundable deposit, but i guess most if not all buyers will give you strange looks. i have known it done, but it will have to be a very special house with a queue of buyers banging on your door to get away with it.0
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There was a time when a gentlleman's word was his bond. Sadly, those days are long gone and a financial bond would be a sensible way to go. Until this becomes the norm, time-wasters will continue to cost genuine sellers £££s and vice versa.
GGThere are 10 types of people in this world. Those who understand binary and those that don't.0 -
Isn't there a system where you both can sign a solciters document to say that neither of you will pull out or you will have to pay an agreed amount, eg £5K.
If you have two buyers that are both offering similar you should choose on the following criteria:-
1. Cash buyer is king, no house sale to sort out, no chain below you.
2. House sale agreed, small chain or bottom of chain.
3. House sale agreed but longish chain
4. Neither has house sold, then the first one to come back to you with sale agreed, you have nothing to lose and can keep marketing the property.0 -
This system of buyer deposit would just make unscrupulous vendors rub their hands with glee!! Subsidence problem you forgot to mention/didnt know about?? buyer finds it on their survey, you say I'm not renegotiating the price, they obviously pull out, you keep their £5k. Rinse and repeat until you pocket enough cash to buy the house you wanted outright.....
You might say a contract can be drawn up to cover say survey etc, but then why bother with a deposit at all?0 -
david29dpo wrote: »there is nothing stopping you asking for a non-refundable deposit, but i guess most if not all buyers will give you strange looks. i have known it done, but it will have to be a very special house with a queue of buyers banging on your door to get away with it.
Doesnt have to be non refundable though.0 -
I think 5k is perhaps too much. I think a few hundred pounds would be quite reasonable. This is amount that builders use to "reserve" new build properties.In case you hadn't already worked it out - the entire global financial system is predicated on the assumption that you're an idiot:cool:0
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After being messed about when buying and selling, I think a deposit subject to survey & mortgage is a good idea if you can get one.0
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