Changing deposit amount after offer has been accepted

ash086

Hi all, I just wanted to get some advice on this. I’m a first time buyer and had an offer accepted for a house which was for 250k and a deposit of 100k which was through a gift. Solicitors done their searches and checks and that was fine . But about half way through, my deposit that was being gifted had to be changed to 60k due to circumstances changing with the donor. So i changed the mortgage offer I was issued with a mortgage of 60k deposit and 190k mortgage.

I didn’t inform the vendor about this because I thought that the total amount isn’t changing. It’s still 250k total. Now everything has been sorted and I’m a few weeks away from exchange of contracts. But the vendor has started asking questions about the deposit amount and I’m afraid that it might fall through. 

Can the vendor refuse the sale of the house now with the deposit amount changing? 

Thanks in advance for any responses 

user1977

You haven't exchanged contracts so yes, either party can pull out, renegotiate, etc. Nobody is bound into anything at the moment.

Why are they asking questions about your deposit?

Brie

Not as far as I'm aware and I wonder why they would care.  It's the total amount that matters to them.  The only thing is that if they think you have a lot of extra money they might think they could get away with increasing the price.  What will you do if they increase the selling price by 40K?  

fyi - do ensure you have a letter signed by the donor to say they do not expect any portion of the house at any time and that the money is a gift.  Your solicitor should have already asked for this.

ash086

user1977 said:

You haven't exchanged contracts so yes, either party can pull out, renegotiate, etc. Nobody is bound into anything at the moment.

Why are they asking questions about your deposit?

I’m not sure at the moment. I was just asking the solicitors about an update and they were saying the vendor wanted to confirm the deposit amount. They said they will confirm it is 60k rather than the 100k that was from when the offer was accepted. So I’m just waiting on that. 

ash086

Brie said:

Not as far as I'm aware and I wonder why they would care.  It's the total amount that matters to them.  The only thing is that if they think you have a lot of extra money they might think they could get away with increasing the price.  What will you do if they increase the selling price by 40K?  

fyi - do ensure you have a letter signed by the donor to say they do not expect any portion of the house at any time and that the money is a gift.  Your solicitor should have already asked for this.

Yeah the letter is signed. It’s all in the final stages and I’m expecting the exchanges of contract hopefully next week. If they do decide to increase the price then I’ll have to pull out of the sale. I’ve got a bit of money saved up but I was going to use that to decorate the house. So hopefully it’ll all be fine 

julicorn

Is it possible that they are actually asking you to confirm the exchange deposit amount? It's usually 10% for first time buyers, but can be agreed to be lower than that. 

london21

Why does the vendor care if mortgaged amount or deposit as far as they receive their full amount.

Has the property been valued, could it be the seller is concerned might get undervalued and the deposit will cover the difference. 

TheJP

ash086 said:

user1977 said:

You haven't exchanged contracts so yes, either party can pull out, renegotiate, etc. Nobody is bound into anything at the moment.

Why are they asking questions about your deposit?

I’m not sure at the moment. I was just asking the solicitors about an update and they were saying the vendor wanted to confirm the deposit amount. They said they will confirm it is 60k rather than the 100k that was from when the offer was accepted. So I’m just waiting on that. 

I would hazard a guess they are checking that OP will be giving a 10% deposit so as to inform their onward purchase if their deposit will be lower than 10%. This is quite common.

hackneylou

It's still a big deposit, they have no reason to worry. Bit strange that they are even asking for details of this but it shouldn't have any impact at all on the sale.