Committed Buyer Process

[senua]

This is a new one on me. Is it common? Yopa

"When an offer is accepted, the buyer will be required to pay a non-refundable Buyer’s Premium of £6954 including VAT (in addition to the final negotiated selling price), sign the Reservation Form and agree the Terms and Conditions prior to solicitors being instructed.*

Who gets the premium? - I'm presuming that it's Yopa, not the seller, since it mentions VAT.
Is the seller committed, too, or only the buyer?

I’ve known one agent do this but it came off the price of the property on completion and solicitors hated it

it came off the price of the property on completion
That - a deposit - would be reasonable-ish but not an extra seven grand to disappear off into the ether. Is the buyer effectively paying the seller's EA's fees? The EA must love it - they get paid whether there is a sale or not.

So you get a legal pack containing the searches and title deeds, but you'd need to check your mortgage provider will accept this.
I think Yopa is one of the few doing this - a Google search doesn't pull up any other agencies. Apparently there is a timescale involved too, but the price of searches is no where near the £6k, so what other advantages for the buyer?
I think what you do is make sure you really want this property and that the seller is as tied in as you are, plus there has to be contingencies - if you find out the house is riddled with damp or structural issues you must be able to get this money back, or if you can't get financing or whatever.
I think it will just mean buyers will reduce their offers accordingly, but it's the 'non refundable' part that will be the stumbling block - the fee goes to GOTO, the company that provides the 'service', not the seller or agency.

Is this the "modern method of auction". Steer clear. As far as I can gather you lose that money if you pull out, even for a very legitimate reason.

LOL nope! There was a property near me where the seller was trying this on, and it sat on the market for months. I wouldn't even view a property where they were doing this - as someone else said, where's the seller's commitment?

I wouldn't view this property either. If both the buyer and seller put down a bond it might be considered but why no commitment on the part of the seller?