Solicitor's requesting deposit & remainder of fees - no exchange date

Callie810

FTB here and I'm a little confused.

We received a letter from our solicitor today which states the following:

'I am pleased to inform you that the purchase of the property is now well progressed.
I have received your Mortgage offer and satisfactory results to all searches submitted on your behalf. I am merely awaiting replies to some inquiries I have made with the seller's solicitor. In the meantime I take the opportunity to enclose a completion statement together will bill of costs.

I would be grateful if you would arrange to let me have such amount at your earliest convenience.'

After reading many threads on this forum and doing research elsewhere I thought that we would have to arrange and agree on an exchange date before paying our deposit money and other fees.

Is it normal for the solicitor to ask for these early and without even having had a conversation about exchange/completion?

In the same letter she is asking for proof of the source for the deposit so how can she be asking for it to be sent? (which we gave to her when we returned our initial forms)

She has asked that we ring the office to arrange an appointment to go through the contract documents and to sign relevant deeds, so we will be doing that next week.

Any thoughts?

marksoton

Depends on your contract. But i can't see any reference to the deposit for a start....

Callie810

'You will observe there is a balance of £14,265.26 and I would be grateful if you would arrange to let me have such amount at your earliest.'

£13,500 of that is our deposit.

SmlSave

As there's only a small amount needed over your deposit it may be that it's just simpler to ask for the whole amount at once.

Some people have to arrange funds to be transferred from savings so asking for it before you sign docs, so that (hopefully) your funds, replies to enquires and your meeting all coincide so that you may even be in a position to exchange on the date of your meeting. Best case scenario, of course.

There's nothing 'funny' about asking for funds at this point.

if you've only got the deposit now and need a week or two to find the rest then just transfer the deposit you have to hand.

SmlSave

Also, I've just remembered, many people don't transfer the funds in one go, often to avoid a £20odd fee from the bank, so a few days are needed for that too.

Miss_Samantha

Just reply that you will transfer the money nearer the date of exchange.

SmlSave

Miss_Samantha wrote: »

Just reply that you will transfer the money nearer the date of exchange.

But the date of exchange isn't arranged, it happens when everyone has everything ready. Should that be the date of them signing the contract extra, then they could be the reason exchange is delayed.

Newbiebuyer2016

Why don't you reply with all those questions you asked?

Something along the lines of ' Thanks for your email, could you please let me know an estimated timeframe for exchange.'

Miss_Samantha

SmlSave wrote: »

But the date of exchange isn't arranged, it happens when everyone has everything ready.

Exactly.
OP doesn't need to know the date to reply what I suggested, which obviously means that once the date is known and that date is reasonably near then payment will be made.

SmlSave

Callie810 wrote: »

I have received your Mortgage offer and satisfactory results to all searches submitted on your behalf. I am merely awaiting replies to some inquiries I have made with the seller's solicitor.

See, I read the solicitors letter as saying exchange is literally a few days away from exchange, so get your funds ready.

The next big question is... why don't you want your deposit ready to exchange at a moment's notice in your solicitors bank? If you don't trust them with your funds are you sure you trust them to purchase a property for you? :rotfl:

I think the OP would be best to call their solicitor tomorrow.

Callie810

SmlSave wrote: »

See, I read the solicitors letter as saying exchange is literally a few days away from exchange, so get your funds ready.

The next big question is... why don't you want your deposit ready to exchange at a moment's notice in your solicitors bank? If you don't trust them with your funds are you sure you trust them to purchase a property for you? :rotfl:

I think the OP would be best to call their solicitor tomorrow.

This has nothing to do with me not 'trusting' my solicitor.

It is more to do with the fact that I know sales can still fall through right up until exchange. Because we have no idea of dates and I had read that the deposit is normally transferred once the exchange date is confirmed I was asking whether or not it is normal for the money to be transferred this early.

As a first time buyer who still lives at home this is all very new to me, forgive me for not understanding the process.