Exception Register — Reservation Deposit
Purpose of the register
A reservation-deposit exception register captures unresolved facts that can change whether the buyer should sign, pay, continue, or demand a refund. It is not a general complaint list. Each exception should identify one concrete conflict between the reservation terms and reliable evidence: property identity, seller authority, recipient account, refund event, reservation period, price-credit treatment, mandatory consumer form, or the document expected next. The register turns vague pressure such as “we will fix it later” into a defined issue with an owner and closure test.
Write factual exceptions
Good entries are testable: “reservation form states Unit A-42; seller’s current allocation sheet states A-24,” or “deposit is described as refundable in email but non-refundable in the signed form.” Bad entries say only “unit issue” or “contract unclear.” Record both sources, the date and the exact field that conflicts. This lets a reviewer understand the issue without asking the sales representative to interpret a private conversation.
Prioritize authority and money risks
Unverified seller/developer authority, an unrelated receiving bank account, last-minute beneficiary changes, cash payment requests, or a request to pay before required formalities are high-priority exceptions. They can expose the buyer to both recovery and fraud risk. The closure evidence should come from the authoritative source: ownership/authorization records, the contracting entity, issuing bank, or current legal requirement—not from repetition of the same sales claim.
Track refund ambiguity separately
A common error is to label a deposit “non-refundable” without mapping the events that make it refundable or retainable. Create separate exceptions for financing conditions, due-diligence failure, seller default, project-document failure, missed deadline, buyer withdrawal and any statutory consumer right that applies. If the parties later amend the refund logic, preserve the old and new wording and record when the change became effective.
Check pre-paid housing scope
If the reservation is connected to a consumer’s pre-paid housing purchase, current Ministry of Trade guidance is critical. Within that scope, the transaction has mandatory pre-information and formal-contract rules, and payment cannot simply be demanded before a valid contract. If the file is unsure whether the arrangement falls within this regime, the uncertainty itself should be an open legal-classification exception. Do not close it by renaming the document.
Give every exception a transaction consequence
State what is blocked while the issue is open: signature, deposit transfer, release of the deposit to the seller, expiry of a cooling-off or withdrawal period, or progression to the next contract. A severity label alone is not enough. The consequence helps the team resist deadline pressure and prevents an issue from being marked “minor” while an irreversible payment proceeds.
Define closure evidence in advance
Examples include a corrected reservation document signed by the right entity, bank-account verification, written refund clause, official project/unit identity evidence, a valid formal contract where required, or legal confirmation of classification. “Sales manager confirmed by phone” is generally weak where a written or official inconsistency exists. If the buyer elects to proceed despite a non-regulatory risk, record authorized risk acceptance separately from closure.
Control status and history
Use statuses such as open, evidence received, under review, closed, or risk accepted. Never overwrite the original exception. Preserve the time it was raised, the evidence received, who decided, and any deadline extension. If a new document creates a new contradiction, open a new linked entry rather than hiding the previous history.
Quality test
The register is effective when an independent reviewer can see the precise conflict, authoritative sources, financial or contractual consequence, responsible owner, closure evidence and current state. If the team still relies on memory or chat messages to know whether the deposit is safe to pay or refundable, the register has not done its job.