Help with what’s probably a stupid question from a solo buyer

Fionaanne141

Hello all

I know this is probably really stupid but i’m in process of buying a new home solo and a bit clueless on it all and nervous i’ll make a mistake

Sale and purchase just agreed to now completing solicitor forms. The instruction questionnaire asks if i have the full 10% deposit available to be paid on exchange. My ‘deposit’ so to speak is the equity in my existing home which far exceeds £10% of the property i’m buying and it’s being topped up with a low LTV mortgage.

I assume I can tick the ‘yes’ box to this one?

Thanks! I should probably complete these forms earlier than 11pm so my brains working 🤣

bradders1983

Yes of course, you can clarify this by just writing that next to it if you wanted.

illbeurhuckleberry

Yes is the answer.

eddddy

Ummm - No.  You won't have any equity available from the sale your house when you exchange contracts.

But... whoever buys your house will pay you a deposit when they exchange contracts, and you can use that deposit as the deposit on the house you are buying.  (It's often called passing the deposit up the chain.)

That deposit might work out to be less than 10% of your purchase price. But often your seller will accept a reduced deposit. If not, they might ask you to top it up to 10% of the purchase price.

Fionaanne141

Thanks for guidance, unfortunately it’s a really basic tick box at this stage with yes and no. This is followed by, if no, what deposit are you able to provide.

Should I request details of what i could provide from my estate agent whose been dealing with my buyers?

Appreciate the guidance 

davidmcn

If you're instructing the solicitor for both the sale and purchase simultaneously then they'll figure this bit out themselves anyway.

Fionaanne141

davidmcn said:

If you're instructing the solicitor for both the sale and purchase simultaneously then they'll figure this bit out themselves anyway.

Thank you! I’ve ticked yes and will let them do the guess work. It is indeed the same solicitor

eddddy

Fionaanne141 said:

Should I request details of what i could provide from my estate agent whose been dealing with my buyers?

Presumably, your using the same solicitors for your sale and purchase - so they'll get the info from your buyer's solicitors.

If I were you, I'd tick "NO", and where it asks how much you can provide, write "Deposit from sale".

It sounds like the solicitor hasn't done a brilliant job of designing the form - "passing the deposit up the chain" is normal practice.

Fionaanne141

eddddy said:

Fionaanne141 said:

Should I request details of what i could provide from my estate agent whose been dealing with my buyers?

Presumably, your using the same solicitors for your sale and purchase - so they'll get the info from your buyer's solicitors.

If I were you, I'd tick "NO", and where it asks how much you can provide, write "Deposit from sale".

It sounds like the solicitor hasn't done a brilliant job of designing the form - "passing the deposit up the chain" is normal practice.

Fab, that makes sense! Yeah it’s very inflexible the form. Even a tick box to explain where deposit funds are coming from would help. 

Thanks again 

bradders1983

The form may be inflexible but absolutely nothing stopping you providing further details on it or in the email/letter when you send it back, they are hardly going to ignore them.