[Anonymous]

Hi There

I have recently returned from a trip to Spain, house searching to the east of Malaga. A number of AE’s I was in contact with stated that their policy , after an offer had been accepted was to ask for a pre-contract deposit. Which would then be added in with the contract deposit. I assume it would not be returned if all fell through before that stage.
This seems to be against all the advice abounding on this forum, it does not appear to be in any way in the buyers interest to pay this money. Has anybody had any practical experience of this practice.

Ditter

[Anonymous]

Once you pay it it ties you in …or you loose it. (I thought this applied just to off-plan.) The REA will probably say that this pre-deposit is to take the property off the market.
We paid 6000 euros to the “promoter”… before the 30% deposit. That was in 2003..before these forums were in existence !!

[Anonymous]

The norm is to pay a 3,000 euro holding deposit to remove the property from the market and secure the agreed price. The deposit is non refundable ecept in the event that the vendor pulls out of the deal or the property cannot be sold for legal reasons. On occasions purchasers have requested that no holding deposit is paid and that they procceed direct to contract however until the contract (compra ventra) is signed and accepted by both parties the vendor could (altough unlikely in current market conditions) accept a higher bid and/or sell to party offering to pay a holding deposit.

[mariadecastro]

Legally, any deposit given before the private contrat needs to be returnable under determined conditions, unless you are completely decided and give the sum as ” part of the price”.

I wrote an article on deposit contracts according to Consumers Law because generally they have very close, tied terms in favour of developers.

You can check it out here: http://www.costaluzlawyers.es/eng/?p=33

Best,

[Author]

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