We connected with a private seller and made an offer, which was accepted. Then, very bad timing, my OH's work contract ended and he's now focused on getting a new one so we can secure the mortgage. This is taking longer than we'd hoped but we are confident that something will come up in the next 1-2 months as he's in a highly sought-after, well paid industry and has a few promising leads.
Understandably, the seller is feeling stressed out about the delay but seems to really like us and wants to find a way to make it work. However, he wants to see 'more commitment' from our side and has suggested that we put down a sizeable, non-refundable deposit of around £50k. He'd let us move into the house (no rent in addition to the deposit) and give us another few months to get the mortgage sorted. We'd have this put into a contract with a solicitor. We think the chance of getting the new work contract organised on our side are pretty good, even so the proposed arrangement seems unusual and I don't think I'm comfortable with that level of risk. Am I right? Has anyone ever heard of such a agreement? I know either side can pull out up until the very end, so would it be possible to lock both sides in in the contract?
The seller is a really lovely guy and we think he's being very sincere about wanting to sell to us. He has emotional ties to the house and sees how much we love it too. So I really don't think he's trying to scam us. But still ... I don't want to lose a huge chunk of our deposit, even if the odds of that happening seem very low. OTOH, if we pull out, then we likely have to move out of the area we love and move further out, which we all find heartbreaking.