buyer wants a deposit, is this normal?

[wailywailywaily]

I am starting to feel like I'm being really unreasonable so I could do with some reassurance.

We have made an offer on a house a couple of doors down from us, it was not on sale with an estate agent but we knew they wanted to sell and we really like it so put in a fair offer. They accepted so we instructed our solicitor. Now the sellers are starting to be a bit odd - they haven't instructed a solicitor yet as far as we know but they keep texting us and trying to get us to put down a deposit. Eventually we said yes to a refundable deposit and that our solicitor will sort it. They don't want to do it through a solicitor and don't want to make it refundable. Now they want to make an offer on a house they have found and want to put down a deposit so they have been badgering us again to sort out a deposit.

Its only a year since I last sold a house and it never occurred to me to ask for a deposit before contracts had been drawn up and exchanged, have things changed a lot in that time?

I am not prepared to hand over £10,000 to the seller with no contract and no refund on cold feet but they seem to think that it is a perfectly reasonable demand.

We are in Cornwall so not a massively volatile market.

Think about it this way: they have not had to instruct an estate agent of any sort so have automatically saved those fees and you are chain free and cash buyers. How often does that happen? Do they know you have inherited the money and are they trying it on? If you get that far with them, I bet their fixtures and contents list will be a laugh.

Really not normal. Agree to nothing to do with a deposit unless it's the deposit non exchange of contracts.

They are being particularly greedy feckers as they aren't paying estate agent fees!

On exchange, not non.

£10,000!!!! Do not do this OP. The process of solicitors checking draft contracts and land searches before deposits are paid is there for a reason.

At worst they are trying to rip you off. At best they are total idiots. Either way you need to avoid them.

Are they trying to secure a new build for themselves? And want you to cough up for their deposit. We've just walked away from our dream new build because the developer wanted £10k off contract deposit.

Deposits are normal but that happens at the point of "exchange". They may also need a deposit for the mortgage (which again is sorted out at completion).

They need a solicitor.

I know, we hold all the cards but they still seem to think they are doing us a favour.
Don't worry we won't do it, DH is semi retired and has far to much time on his hands, I'm going to have to find him a hobby . He is getting a worrying amount of fun out of these negotiations .

Absolutely not.

I would suggest you tell them that the transaction must follow standard procedure or you walk. The power is in your hands as they've found somewhere they want to buy but can't make an offer without a buyer. Also if you walk they'll have to pay agents fees so there are more reason for them to need you.

Don't give them a deposit! Sounds very off especially that they want it non refundable. When we moved to our second property we didn't pay anything till the day we actually move as the sale of our flat was the cash we needed for the our house we live in now. We are looking to move again and use the equality in our house to pay for all fee's and part cash for our next house.

OP it is a bit confusing when you name change every time you post!

Oops! Too early in the morning for me.