Booking Deposit

Dubsey

Hi all,

We are in the process of buying a house and have paid €14,000 as a booking deposit. The agent is dragging his heels and is proposing that he will mark it as sale agreed once we have our structural survey done and we are happy with same.

Bar threatening to pull out of the sale, does the booking deposit mean that he HAS to mark it as sale agreed or is it more of an indication of the buyers' intent?

Many thanks,

D.

Penguino

Hi

To the best of my knowledge, once a booking deposit is paid the property is yours until you either sign the contract or ask for the deposit back.

An agent cannot take a few deposits on one property.

While he may not be able to take multiple booking deposits on the sale. Either the vendor or the buyer can pull out of the sale at any time until the contracts have been signed afaik.

You may get a surveyor in and find some things wrong with the property that you are not willing to accept. If they change the status of the property to sale agreed before this occurs then noone else will view the property. If they then have to change the status back to for sale, they may have missed out on a potential buyer.

When are you likely to have a surveyor check the property?

quozl

A booking deposit means very little. You can still back out - it gives little security to the vendor or the buyer.

If I was the vendor I would want to leave it as for-sale until you signed contracts.

Dubsey

I'm a qualified engineer myself so I will be doing the survey tomorrow morning.

So what I'm hearing is that the booking deposit does not mean that the agent has to advertise it as being sale agreed or even reserve the house for the person who paid the deposit if they get a better offer?

So what has my €10,000 (sorry - typo in original post) get me?

All you're doing really is letting them know you are very very interested in the property.

Most agents will stop viewing the property once a booking deposit has been paid. However, as long as it is still advertised as for sale, interested parties will still ring, and while they will be told an offer has been accepted, it gives the agents an opportunity to take the contact details of these parties in case the offer falls through. There really isn't very much to worry about from your point of view. It's pretty normal practice.

If you're concerned, have a friend call and request a viewing and see what the outcome is.

Dubsey

Now there's an idea!

3DataModem

Dubsey wrote: »

So what has my €10,000 (sorry - typo in original post) get me?

Nothing, except a receipt.

That's a quirk of the Irish conveyance system.

Looking at the reality of the situation; iIf you really think you are at risk of being gazumped, then you could pressure the agent to take off the market or you will withdraw your offer. This is risky for you and for the agent and not standard practice.

Just rest assured that the agent has to return your loot if you choose to withdraw (or they do).

sodaev

I wouldn't worry about it too much, but if it's bothering you, ring the agent and tell them you want it sale agreed now or you'll walk. the market is fairly dead out there and I wouldn't want to annoy a potential buyer over things like sale agreed signs (which in reality mean absolutely nothing from a legal standpoint).

Kosseegan

The property is not sale agree until you sign the contracts. Why are you trying to force the auctioneer to mark the property as sale agreed? Technically it is a slander of title. The auctioneer could be sued by the owner.

Dubsey

Thanks all.

Over & out.