If you are not a resident in Switzerland yet, and do not have your financing sorted out yet, I suggest that you do not put down a deposit. If you do, you are taking a big risk.
It is still a sellers marked with too many potential buyer outbidding themselves. The seller will have the upper hand regarding the pre-sale contract.
Important: The contract must be signed at a public notary or it will be non-binding. https://www.weka.ch/themen/recht/all...t-zu-beachten/
If you don't have the money to pay for the property yourself, you may find it difficult to raise the necessary finances with a limited residence permit.
And then many people come to Switzerland and discover it is not for them, so unless you have previous experience of living here, you may find it is not to your liking.
In Switzerland the general attitude is that you are an adult capable of acting in your own best interests. So how much you stand to loose of the deposit depends on the terms of the contact you sign up to, so read it very carefully because you can expect to be held to it's terms.
The build was to start within 6 months, under the assumption that one more house of the four terraced houses were to be sold, before the actual build would start.
Come 8 months later, still no other buyer. We found another property in the meantime, which we really liked. After a quick phone call, both with the Entreprise Génerale and the notary office, we received the full amount back of CHF 20,000 within 3 days on our bank account. We now live happily in the house of our dreams .
This was our experience, but given what is written in your reservation form (there might be cancellation fees) this might be different for you.
The reality is that you should get it back, less any expenses incurred.
You should rent for at least 2 years in Switzerland before buying to asses the market before considering buying...
When we bought in SZ, 15+ years ago, it was common to ask for 10% of the purchase price as a reservation amount. Which given house prices here is... not an amount you'd want to put at risk.
So if you don't have experience writing a reservation contract, make sure you have someone who does check yours over carefully.
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I agree with AbFab: Unless you can affod to throw money out the window, it really is prudent to wait to purchase until you have been here long enough to get an understanding of the unique aspects of the Swiss market. Especially now, when it is a seller's market, prices are crazy, the market is so dry that what is available often does not reflect any kind of sensible price/quality ratio. If you are not careful you could make some rather costly mistakes.
ETA, with the first thing that one needs to understand about Switzerland:
'Standard practice' in Switzerland is YMMV - and that usually by canton, Gemeinde, whim of the bureaucrat, phase of the moon.
Hence the above advice.
Your lawyer will draw up the contract (or agree to the one submitted to them by the seller) and will insert any clauses, such as subject to mortgage approval. The lawyer will hold the deposit on his client account and confirm to the seller he has received the agreed funds from you.
If you back out you're entitled to the return of the full deposit. This is why they want the deposit paid to them or their lawyer. You then have to fight to get it all back. It only becomes definite when you have both signed the purchase deed.
That's also my understanding. The seller could only deduct / withhold any expenses which they have incurred as a result of you entering into the agreement and then backing out. So I think the burden would be on the seller to prove what expenses they have incurred. However, I could well imagine that this could become a never-ending legal discussion, and it could take a long time for you to be reunited with whatever funds are due back to you.
I paid 2% as a reservation fee a few days after viewing and signing the reservation form. It says that clearly on the reservation form, and that we will get the money back minus "costs" if we fail to make it to the notary stage. You can't do that much with the architect at that stage and the legal docs are pretty standardised, so I would be surprised if these costs would be more than 5k
Then 13% a few months later on the day I signed the sales and purchase agreement at the notary. (so total 15%), but we negotiated it down from 20% with the argument that I get 85% financing from the bank instead of the normal 80%.
And almost 2 years later, when we got the keys, the bank transferred the rest.
I once cancelled after paying the 2% and paid nothing even though some work was done because the seller liked my ideas so much and with the new floorplan managed to easily sell on the apartment. I got all my money back.
I've never cancelled after the second stage, but a friend has, and their fees were a lot more, though I recall it being just under 10k. That's because they already did a lot of work with the floorplans, etc.
Is it always the same? No. In the properties I have sold, I asked for 3% within a week of reserving, and another 17% on the day of signing at the notary, and the rest when we handed over the keys.
With my holiday apartment, I did not have to pay anything whatsover until the day we signed and got the key. The seller is a long time acquiantance though.
Ask the seller, and ask to see whatever in writing.
Edit: At anytime, please be aware of the credit risk you are taking - i..e, make sure that the seller has the financial situation to refund the money to you. The last thing you want is a seller who has gone bust and thus not able to refund anything.
The deposit only reserves the house. In the meantime, until there is a notarized sales contract, the seller or buyer can back out.
How would you feel if the seller cancelled your reservation and refunded your deposit because they got a better price? This can and does happen, especially if the buyer didn't have things on their side sorted out. You see many ads for "reserved" properties still running.
Many private sellers and agents request proof of financing before moving forward with a viewing. This is to avoid time wasters.
So if you are serious about buying a particular property, best not to give the seller a reason to doubt you.
it does seem that 30k is on the high end; bear in mind it is a bog standard house requiring quite a bit of work.
If things go nowhere you risk having to chase your money, whereas it's probably all lost if the company goes belly up (not exactly rare in real estate and construction). And if she thinks her efforts are worth 10k and deducts as much the onus of proof that she's only owed 2.5k will be on you - and of course there'll be lawyers and courts that want payment from whichever loses, too.
It sounds to me like where to pay the deposit is the least of your problems.
The situation with the garage is a bit more worrying. Is it part of the same lot as the house? If so, how can you not buy it? If it is on a different lot, who does that belong to?
In some cantons, but not all, you can look up the owner of the property. I strongly suggest if you can do that then you should.
Pricing the garage separately is a "strategy" agents use to make it appear as the house is less expensive than it actually is. In some cases, the house cannot be sold without the garage. In other cases, particularly where houses are attached, often the garages were built in such a way that they could be sold separately.
If you have a car, consider where you are going to park if you do not have a garage!
The fact that it needs renovating has little to do with the deposit and everything to do with the asking price.
Be aware that "quite a bit of work" in Switzerland means more than quite a bit of money.
In our road, there are 2 houses built in the 1970s which were sold 1 million and 2 million respectively. Both have had to have months of work, including new roof and asbestos removal, new heating systems. Luckily the new owners have contacts in the building trade, even so, they have spent hundreds of thousands...
Always buy a garage if available!
You might not need it right now, but home ownership has a way of changing how you live - you may well need it down the road. And a key consideration: not having a garage can significantly impact your resale value. Especially if this is a house rather than a flat.
You can always rent the garage out if you don't need it yourself, demand for parking outweighs supply in most places.
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Now, this might not be the property for you given red flags. But if you decide it is, do consider buying the garage.
If they go bust your money is safe, and if you pull out the lawyer will ensure you pay they least (if anything) possible.