3 months bank statements to solicitor/fee will be around £1,500?

[RockandRollsuicide]

Just wondering if other people have had to do this? I can understand money 💰 laundry for large amounts but have others had to show 3 months statement's for such a small amount?

The fee will be about £1500 ?

What small amount? TBH my solicitor was happy to take my word for where money was coming from when I bought my house. Deals with my Uncle's affairs so was recommended.

Your post doesn't really make sense.

"for such a small amount of money" - what amount, you havn't said.

"£1,500" fee - to who? The solicitor or the bank?

I’m not sure I understand the question. Is this to buy a house? I had to show bank statements but I just printed them off online banking.

Sorry.

I am having some work done with a solicitor.

The solicitor fee will be around £1500.

( No this isn't a small amount of money but in this situation when solicitors take hundreds of thousands for house sale's it's a small amount).

To show them re money laundering issues I am having to give them 3 months of bank statements? It feel very intrusive to me?

Has anyone else had a small ish job for solicitor like me , fee around 1,500 and had to show 3 month's bank statements??

I can understand it for tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands!?

There is no house sale,no other monies are needed just this fee!!

That's unusual. It's usually just a passport or driving licence plus a utility bill from the past three month. It sounds like they are trying to show prof of funds for something?

If they don't do the due diligence they risk disciplinary action, fines, potential impact on ability to work in the future, criminal investigation and potential prosecution if it turns out you are money laundering.
It is fairly standard practice for money launderers to start with a small transaction to test the robustness of the due diligence.
They don't turn up on day one saying "please launder £15m for me".
TLDR: YABU

It's unusual but not unheard of to ask for proof - there will be something that has flagged the need for doing so. For whatever reason, their rules make this work a bit higher risk than normal (could be for a whole range of factors) and so they need to get a bit more info. Most of the reasons that it tends to happen are totally innocent, eg your nationality or where the transaction is happening, but the rules mean they have to get the evidence on file that everything is legit.

It's the law. They have no choice and really aren't asking you to provide it for shits and giggles.

No it isn't. Anti money laundering regulations require verification of identity. Not three months' bank statements. Sounds like they are asking for proof of funds. I'd refuse and find another solicitor if they don't adjust their requirements.

I'm confused. You say that the fee is £1,500. Do you mean the amount that you're paying to the solicitors or the amount of the underlying transaction? The solicitors' fees are neither here nor there.

More info needed. What work are you asking the solicitor to do?

@Moonriver22 Source of funds are a legal requirement under money laundering regulations in certain circumstances. Identity verification is only one element of AML procedures. Source of funds can also be used in lieu of identity docs to verify identity in some cases.

Op - nobody pays “hundreds of thousands “ of pounds for a house sale/purchase (unless they are buying billion pound houses.
Usually for house purchases the solicitor doesn’t have a fixed fee and charges at the end.
Ive never had to produce 3 months bank statements either.
Is the work the solicitor doing something to do with you purchasing something?

I completely understand money laundering stuff it's the total amount I'm paying them.

They are not buying or selling a house they are creating a legal document that will cost just over a thousand.

I just wondered if it was a generic document sent to me for larger amounts?

@Blue4YOU

Sorry..

I mean, hundreds of thousands of pounds if the solicitor was going to be receiving that money from or for a house sale , not the actual fee..

There is no other money here just that few. They are not buying or selling anything.

The only monies will be me paying that fee.

It seems like over kill and I just wondered if this is usual practise??

Source of funds generally applies in relation to the funding of a transaction, not a small amount in respect of legal fees. If OP can verify her identity with other documents then bank statements likely to be unnecessary and intrusive. I wouldn't supply mine for a £1,500 legal fee!

This is still confusing, what explanation have they given you for needing the information? How can anyone comment without knowing that?

That's still not enough info.
And what is the issue - the solicitor's fee or the three months statements?
Solicitors have to be transparent about what you are paying for so should give you an estimate of costs, like fees for copying, registering something, transferring funds, and their time, associates time etc.
as for bank statements- that is down to what document you are asking them to draw up. It will be dictated by law as to what they need you to provide - they are not looking over your statements and judging you because you get a takeaway three times a week or spent £1000 at Ann Summers.

I'm also doing fresh Id documents.

I'm sending verified documents of I'd and three months bank statements!

To show funds on a few of 1500.

I work in a firm of sols. We require ID but not bank statements, outside of conveyancing etc

We paid hundreds of thousands for a house purchase, it wasn't a billion-pound house either - over 200K is hundreds of thousands. And we did have to produce 3 months bank statements.

We usually ask for driving licence or passport and any utility bill or a bank statement dated within the last 3 months - could this be what they mean and not actually 3 months worth of statements?
The only reason we would ever ask for bank statements is to show source of funds, which could be what they are asking you for.

It all boils down to type of matter they are dealing with for you

Easy.

I'm querying having to send three months bank statements to them when the only monies involved here are their few which is 1500.

I personally think the fee is high but it's not my gripe.

Eg I've just paid for a sofa ....IKEA didn't ask for three months Bank statement

So you're asking a solicitor to do a small amount of legal work for you and they're asking you to prove that you're paying for it with legally acquired funds not laundered money?

Seems strange, after all you could launder money by paying cash for a similarly priced laptop or ipad in John Lewis and then sell it and launder the money that way and no-one would ask any questions.

Unless what @DameCelia says in that they have to do this for all transactions (or random ones, new clients, certain types of work or whatever) then it seems odd, but I don't know what rules/codes of conduct solicitors work under.

But surely if you were money laundering, you'd have more than one bank account and just give them the statements for the legit account and let all the hooky stuff go unnoticed?