Hello, I've found a house that I like and have offered a price that both of us agreed.

1. Upon 1st viewing, I found some red flags that might be a bigger problem like roof leaking and whatnot. So the seller agreed he will fix all of them.
2. On the 2nd viewing which is yesterday, I jotted down all these defects and informed the seller again of my list and again he agreed. I also told him I will compile this into my letter of intent and pay 2% to my lawyer because he is not the owner of the house but his daughter is. And I never met or talked to his daughter.
3. This is where the problem comes, he handed me a simple letter printed out from fax machine that on the behalf of the house owner, he will be taking the deposit. And the letter is signed by him and not the real owner of the house.
4. I insisted on going with the lawyer because he promised to fix the defects and that's what I'm going to write in my LOI. He was arguing with me that it is not necessary.

What is the proper procedure? Do I pass the deposit to my lawyer and he received the money from the lawyer? Or can I bank in to the owners bank account after the LOI?

No, it a trap. You pay deposit at the signing of sale and purchase agreement. Dont pay anything yet to him. Ask your lawyer for advice.

This post has been edited by faern: Nov 19 2017, 03:46 PM

it is better to nego lower price & take the house 'as is where is basis' rather thab trusting the seller to fix.

he may fix it at cheap cost n after u stay for few months.. the leaking come up again.

try nego min 30% below

Dont be stupid. Deal directly with lawyer

Beware 3) & 4), which may be red flags.

Normally, subsale is done on the basic of "as is where is".

Putting a clause to repair the defect in the LOI is not advisable, as sometimes, it is hard to "justify whether it is repaired or not".

As other said, if see the defect, negotiate with the seller that you will accept the defect, but at a slight lower price, win-win for both parties.

Finally, most importantly, deposit money only can be paid to the real owner, not other parties.

Thanks everyone for the advice!

Here's what happened...
1. On saturday I rejected paying the seller any amount of deposit directly to him.
2. On sunday, he sent his daughter's (owner name) bank account to me and explained to me that he wouldn't cheat, and he is genuine, he gave me his lawyer's name and telephone number which I called google searched and couldn't find (Called and nobody picked up).
3. On monday, I talked to my lawyer and decided to pay the deposit to my lawyer as solicitor directly and called the owner. He grumbled to me not to pay to the lawyer and I explained I just follow law. I dont know anything. Gave my lawyer his number to explain to him.
4. On tuesday, he scolded my lawyer and say he dont wanna sell already because I didnt pay the deposit to him. He said not the lawyer book house for you, its his house he book it so pay to him not lawyer. Wow. Just wow. My lawyer said he was very rude and my lawyer returned me the money fully.

walk away better than stuck in sh1t, great job.

before this i thought subsale seller must fix their house first, learn something new today. thanks all