Please talk to me about offer-to-completion timescales and exchange deposits. Wobbling!

[alabasterangel]

We had an offer and made a successful offer last Monday. We've already pushed paperwork from our side and are as much up to date as we can be (mortgage application being fully processed, p60 and payslips sent in, property inventories done and IDs verified and so on, solicitor requesting searches tomorrow).

We've made it very clear to both sides that DH has a birthday second week in June, 10 weeks from offer date. If we fail to complete then it tips his mortgage age passed their desired retirement date and we'll have to reappy all over again. Our solicitor says 10 weeks is doable but I'm getting no feedback from our agent over the buyer. Should I be shouting?

Also, thickly, I read somewhere that at exchange you handover 20% of the value as security. Where do those funds come from? Surely you aren't expected to find that in cash? We've saved and saved to cover £10k in moving expenses, but that doesn't include this payment. All our equity is in our existing house of course!

Confused!

Totally depends I'm afraid.
Both our moves, oddly enough, we had offer accepted in February and moved at beginning of July.
This question comes up every now and then so if you need answers quickly you might find them by doing a search on here - there was one not long ago.

We've never had to hand over security / any money before the completion, but we've not moved for 12 years so I wouldn't know about any new legislation - as you say, who has that kind of money lying around doing nothing ?

Forget the agent, it's your solicitor that needs to drive this now.

Proof of a 10% deposit is usually required to secure the deal because if it all falls through between exchange and completion you forfeit it. You don't always have to stump it up first, especially if it's tied up in your property.

Talk to your solicitor, they should be able to explain all of this to you.

Our last two moves have taken between six and nine weeks from offer to completion, but we weren't obtaining a mortgage on either occasion, although in both cases our buyers were.....

That AFAIK is lower than the average time, which is I believe twelve weeks - more often rather longer though.

Often a deposit is coming 'up the chain' - if you're selling your old house then what ever your buyer gives you as a deposit will then be given as deposit on the house you're buying.

We've just sold our house and it took 6 weeks from offer to completion.
The deposit is technically 10% of the purchase price, but of course most people have this tied up in property. That's the amount you are liable for if you pull out of a purchase after exchange. Afaik, it has to be agreed to have a smaller amount (or none) as deposit, but it's very very common.

We're in the middle of this right now; all being well we should exchange today and complete next week. We're selling and buying, in the middle of a short chain of three, and by completion it will have taken 7 weeks. But that was with us pushing both sets of solicitors (ours and buyers) regularly to get a move on and finding all sorts of paperwork ourselves because the solicitors were lazy/slow.

You need a 10% deposit for exchange. Surely you should have this for your mortgage in any case? You may be able to get this by drawing down your mortgage at exchange rather than completion - check with your lender. Or you put down the cash you have, then the solicitors will take their fee, stamp duty, etc from the remaining funds at completion.

I see you're selling as well as buying - you also ask for a 10% deposit from your buyers, and that makes up part of your deposit to the person above you in the chain IYKWIM

Thanks all. Feeling reassured by a progress update from the buyer via the agent this morning. I think we just need to push, push, push. I have the name of the buyers solicitors - should I forward my email to them saying we need to do everything we can? Is that overkill?

As far as the deposit goes, we have £70k in equity and are increasing our mortgage by £30k to total £130k (roughly) on our new house which is £200k. 10% of £200k is £20k - we do not have that. We've saved up £10k to cover all moving costs, solicitors, stamp duty, removals, agent, and a small amount to be spent on decorating when we move. It makes sense that we use what we get as a deposit forwarded on, so to speak. I'll email my solicitor today.

No doubt I'll be back whittling about something else later!!!

Hope all goes well pirate are you packed yet

You should not speak to your buyers' solicitors directly, no, in case you unwittingly say something that jeopardises the legal aspects of the sale (e.g. If you end up needing indemnity insurance or something). Instruct your solicitors to speak to the buyers' solicitors, or get the estate agent to speak to the buyers directly, who can then put pressure on their solicitors if necessary.

No, not packed yet - we don't want to jinx the sale before exchange ;-)