Buyers Deposit

charlamine

So we are having a bit of a nightmare...

We are ready to exchange and have been for over 2 weeks. The hold up is waiting for the buyers deposit to arrive at his solicitor.

All last week we kept being told by the buyers solicitor via our solicitor that they were waiting for the deposit to arrive, this went on until Thursday where they said well the funds should have arrived by now not sure what is happening. A call to the estate agents established that the buyer had not transferred his deposit as he had not received the detail of how to do so.

On Friday the buyer went into the estate agents to pick up the invoice (countrywide solicitors, countrywide estate agents). The buyer then confirmed to the estate agent on Friday he had transferred the funds.

Now all 3 days this week we have been told the deposit has not arrived,

How long does it typically take..solicitor says it sounds like he transferred by BACs but surely if that was done Friday it should clear today

The whole process has taken 19 weeks and keen to not keep wasting time...

Guest101

Why would a buyer get an invoice to transfer a deposit? That makes no sense.

3-5 days is the 'standard' in practice it's instant.

G_M

Could be a financial problem with the buyer - ie he is struggling to find the money.
Could be hesitancy - unwilling to finally commit.
Could be inefficiency - solicitor failed to tell him where/when to send the money
Could be banking issue - 3 day BACS payment, 7 day cheque, or even transfer to wrong account
Could be poor communication - buyer thought his wife had done it, she thought.....

Not a lot you can do unless you want to strt looking for a new buyer......

Pixie5740

It's odd that he would use BACS instead of a same-day CHAPS payment. I wonder if your buyer has tried to save money by making daily Faster Payments using online banking which is causing the holdup.

charlamine

Thanks, I thought it strange about the invoice but they are putting a large deposit down..I think their mortgage is only 30% and I have heard countrywide typically do exchange and completion same day so assumed it was completion statement as opposed to invoice,

Was just wondering at which point should we start assuming the money isn't going to turn up and we should just start over, seriously considering it but want to allow a reasonable amount of time before doing so

KRB2725

Whilst he may have a 70% deposit for the purchase, he will still only be required to pay 10% for exchange.

Try to find out how it was sent & if it is outside of reasonable timescales for that method, what is being done to chase it.

charlamine

I have asked both solicitors and estate agents to chase how it was sent but so far I have not recieved clarification so I presume that haven't contacted buyer.

All I know and keep being told is buyer transferred deposit on Friday.

I have been chasing twice daily with estate agents as they have direct line with both buyer and solicitors.

My solicitors have been pretty rubbish at chasing it through any channels. I get the impression that they don't like dealing with countrywide so can't be bothered to contact them

obviousftb

Hiya,

I've just bought a house and transferred my large deposit over to my solicitors via faster payments rather than CHAPS as I had 3 days to send payment. The faster payments was processed instantly. The only slight hold up was my bank contacting me to verify that it was me who made the payment and why. The funds reached my solicitor by the next day morning once my banks fraud department removed the block.

Hope this helps

Hoploz

Solicitors don't chase. They ask once for information, then they wait for a reply, however long that takes. There is no point your solicitor (or you) keeping on asking the same question ... 'has the money arrived yet' ... because as soon as the answer is yes, and the money is received, they will get a call to say the first person is now in a position to exchange contracts. In reality although you can tie yourself up in many knots with ifs and buts, it is none of your business how or when the money was supposedly sent. It is between the buyer and his solicitor. As soon as his solicitor has the funds they will be in touch. Alternatively as soon as the buyer confesses he does not have access to the funds until x date (or not at all) the solicitor will report that.
Good luck, I'm sure it'll get sorted very soon and you can relax in your new home

Hoploz

P.s. it is often the case in my experience that a BACS transfer is free, but a CHAPS payment costs £35. If they buyer didn't quite get the implications of using one rather than the other (easy mistake if it isn't explained clearly) then they might have just used BACS to save the fee.

charlamine

[QUOTE=Hoploz;6904509_In_reality_although_you_can_tie_yourself_up_in_many_knots_with_ifs_and_buts,_it_is_none_of_your_business_how_or_when_the_money_was_supposedly_sent.__It_is_between_the_buyer_and_his_solicitor._[/QUOTE]

Although I appreciate its none of my business, I am running out of time and don't have the luxury of just waiting. The issue is we are approaching 20 weeks now and my help to buy authority to proceed expires shortly, I have developers chasing me for updates as to when I can exchange.... And I need to know whether it is going to arrive!

If we were only 8-12 weeks in I wouldn't give a monkeys and would be happy to just let it play its course