Urgent advice please

I have no idea why you would think trusting the agent or a lawyer is any safer than trusting the owner you are buying the property from.   He/she might be less likely to disappear with your money    So long as you take reasonable care

I assume you are aware that in spain when one signs the compraventa you are usually tied to completing the transaction.  If he buyer pulls out they will normally forfeit the deposit, if the seller pulls out they will normally be required to refund the deposit and a like sum.

Having bought and sold several times, when no agent nor lawyer has been involved , I have experience of deposits  being paid directly to the seller.  Never had a problem

Hello Dave and welcome to expat.com

This subject has been widely covered everywhere with more opinions and advice than you can shake a stick to. Applying laws and rules in Spain can be very willy nilly even by lawyers.

Your refundable deposit needs to be held in a secure account where it can only be released to the seller on satisfactory completion. Sometimes called depósito en garantía. This can be arranged through your lawyer. It is also advisable to arrange the deposit contract through your lawyer and not the estate agent.

Never pay a deposit to the estate agent, if they go bankrupt or do runner that's your deposit gone forever. I have never heard of a deposit being paid direct to a vendor, that's a new one on me. Just remember at the time of deposit you have bought and own nothing.

If they have accepted your offer already and you have it in writing(preferably) then this fee is a not necessary legally speaking, despite what they will tell you.
It is however a too common practice here in Spain and to be fair if you do things correctly it really should not be a problem but your independent lawyer should be the one who will organise that for you.

JB80 wrote:

If they have accepted your offer already and you have it in writing(preferably) then this fee is a not necessary legally speaking, despite what they will tell you.

When I have been selling there is no way I would have signed a compraventa without having been paid a non returnable  deposit.   

JB.   It is not a  Fee bit a deposit

  Doing so would have meant there would have been no incentive, at any time, to discourage the prospective buyer pulling out and leaving me without a sale. 

That is one thing which is much better in spain than in U.K.

In 35 years in spain I have never known of a no deposit compraventa, and I have reasonable experience of buying and selling both personally and helping family and friends

A compraventa is not a reservation fee that one pays to essentially take the house off of the market which is what the OP is talking about.
The reservation fee is a nonsense one and when challenged on it every agent we dealt with backed down but still said they would continue showing the property, fair enough because the law states you can not sell it to someone else once the initial contract has been made, and in Spain that counts as soon as the offer has been accepted, whether it be verbally, by text and preferably in an email.

And yes any deposits made are to be entirely returnable under the terms of the actual compraventa and should not to be held in the sellers account or an agents.
It should also be written by your lawyer/gestor/yourself/dog or whoever and never sign the first one an agent will give you. The compraventa and deposit should be paid as soon as possible to cement the money aspect but it should never be signed without the appropriate legal checks or property specific terms mentioned.
A buyer should have a good idea of what problems may arise as you should at least have a copy of the nota/copia simple before even submitting your offer. Banks will require it before you even know how much they will lend it, so can't make an offer until you know the total you have available.

The incentive here is the law.