Contract signed - no deposit

I'm in the middle of selling a house at the moment and the contracts were signed but no deposit was included. Where do I stand if I sign the contracts without the deposit? The estate agents did receive 2% booking deposit so far. Thanks.

doberden said:

I'm in the middle of selling a house at the moment and the contracts were signed but no deposit was included. Where do I stand if I sign the contracts without the deposit? The estate agents did receive 2% booking deposit so far. Thanks.

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Normally what happens is that one receives the deposit WITH signed contracts. However, with the property market as it is today, the purchaser maybe waiting to sell their property in order to furnish you with the full deposit, or that there was a delay getting the money some how, or that, they decided at short notice to buy seeing that the property market moves soo fast these days (average time to sell a house in Dublin 56 days, 30 days in west Dublin). Signed contracts is an indication from the purchasers that they will buy your property but have problems raising the deposit.

Or the purchaser may have taken a 100% mortgage and is paying everything at the final stage....If this is the case I think you can request proof of the mortgage approval as an indication of ability to proceed....I provided this when purchasing recently to avoid paying a deposit a few weeks before draw down of the loan amount..

It would be the norm for the purchaser to indicate to you why they are not paying the deposit. I had a case before Xmas where contracts came back without a deposit and after weeks of very frustrating unanswered calls, faxes, etc.,etc it became quite clear that the purchaser was sort of interested but not enough to really try to want to clinch the deal.

I think if you sign the contracts without agreement on deposit ( i.e. that the 2% booking is intended to be the contract deposit) that it will be fine if deal closes quickly. However, if problems arise and deal falls apart, you won't have the comfort of the 10% deposit.

mf

If money does not pass at contract deposit stage from the purchaser to the vendor, then the contract is not binding.

The benefit to the vendor of the purchaser paying a contract deposit is that it demonstrates the purchaser's serious intent to follow through on the purchase, as if they don't close the sale without good reason (flaw in legal title is a good reason) then the vendor can retain the contract deposit.

I would insist on payment of some amount of deposit, even if it's not 5% or 10% - even a few grand, as then the purchaser will have to think twice before he pulls out for no good reason.