Anti money laundering checks

[Rolypoly2961]

Posting here for traffic.

Are these checks usual when selling a house? My 89 year old mother is selling her house. Apparently the estate agent visited to collect all sorts of personal information. I thought these checks were for buying a house not selling

Yes, the solicitors' firm needs to make sure that they are not facilitating money laundering by transferring the funds of the sale through their 'clean' client account into your 89 year old mother's money laundering empire.

She is only at the stage of putting the house on the market and hasn't had an offer.

Yeah, totally normal. They also need to make sure that it's her house that she's selling which is done by checking ID docs.

Thanks - that's reassuring. I was concerned that she had let someone into the house and given them all her personal details

It is a standard part of the process, yes.

However I would advise her to ask for some sort of proof of who they are in future, and would be calling the estate agent myself to confirm with them that it was in fact them/a representative of theirs who came to the house just to be sure, in these circumstances.

@dontgobaconmyheart We have had several discussions about the need for caution. Unfortunately, I suspect that she is lonely and likes the company- she has already been scammed out of £££s but insists that she knows what she is doing