There must be a valid, written agreement between a vendor and purchaser for the sale of property. The standard sale agreement dictates a deposit – a portion of the sale price of the property which the purchaser is required to pay to the vendor at the time the agreement is signed. If you intend to purchase property, before you sign the agreement, you need to be absolutely certain that you have or will have the balance of the purchase price before the completion date. The reason? Typically, there are only a few and very specific instances when the deposit can be refunded to a purchaser after the agreement is signed. So, if you only have the deposit and have no clue where the balance is coming from, you risk the vendor keeping your deposit and moving on to another purchaser if at the time of completion of the sale you can’t come up with the balance.
