Also - even if you had a vendor who was willing to agree to put £180k on the paperwork and 'gift' you a deposit of £10k (I can't ever imagine any of my clients agreeing to do something like this), but for argument's sake...lets say you know the vendor and as a favour they agree to a contractual price of £180k but will gift you a deposit of 10k....this MUST be reported to the lender. The lender will then know you are not paying £180, but 170 and I am pretty sure they will lend against that and will be probably be questioning why the vendor is gifting that amount to you!! If its not reported then = mortgage fraud. Which ever way you look at it, I don't think it would work from a legal perspective.
