exchange and completion

[mummynumnum]

Buying/selling property and solicitors not communicating esp well. Person who is buying ours said we are exchanging on Fri. We will be talking to our solicitor first thing tomorrow as not been told, but just wanted to clarify when you exchange-do you pay deposit and when do you pay the estate agents and the solcitors-on completion or on exchange.

Any advice from people in the know would be gratefully received/

Deposit paid at exchange usually - but it doesn't have to be 10% - could be any amount that the vendors agreed to. So when we moved we receieved a desposit of 10% on the house we sold which immediately went up the chian to our vendors as our deposit, it was less than 10% of our purchase but that was fine.

Everything else is paid on completion.

I am not sure why solicitor not told us this!