Money laundering checks on gifted deposit

[MiffyPurple]

My daughter and partner are buying their first house. The deposit is from savings. Solicitor asked where savings are from and she said from parents. Thing is, we gave this money years ago from a house sale and she just never spent it. So I can sign the Gifted Deposit Declaration but it says I am providing the sum of £ being part of the deposit for the property etc. - but that's not strictly true is it? I mean she could have spent it all on holidays for all I would know and this could now be 'different' money. I haven't got details of the house sale the money came from as it was ten years ago and the bank can only get statements to me showing the money coming in (and presumably going out) if I can give them a date.
I also gave regular money each month for ten years (about £100 a month which was really pocket money) and they want to see proof of that going in and out of the account too! Which would mean getting 12 bank statements each each for ten years?? It just seems overkill to me. Every time the solicitors get in touch there is something else they are asking for.
I guess what I am asking is - how far back is too far or do we just have to request these statements?
Really grateful for any advice.

do you online bank? you can go back much further and print out whatever you need. Would getting a landregistry document showing the change of ownership of the house help? That should give you a rough idea of date.

I guess what I am asking is - how far back is too far or do we just have to request these statements?

Surely the only answer to this is, if she wants the house then you’ll need to request what’s been asked for. The solicitor isn’t going to care a bit what random people on Mumsnet thought was reasonable, it’s the solicitor that’s putting their name and reputation to having validated the source of funds sufficiently to satisfy AML regs.

Exactly what @Justcallmedaffodilsaid. I'm a residential property solicitor. I no longer have my own clients but my role involves checking and signing off funds evidence. Each transaction is unique.

if you can find the property online it should give you a sale date, that you can give to your bank to find the statement with the money going in. If you gave to your daughter at the same time, then it should all be there in one place.

AML regulations are very tough now and your DD needs to prove that this was a gift from you. Mortgage companies also need confirmation that it was a gift and not a loan to be repaid

Thanks all. I guess it just seemed weird that I have this money back in 2016, she saved it and ten years down the line I have to prove how I got it. LOL If I was giving it NOW as a gifted deposit then I would understand it. But thanks everyone for your comments ;)

Maybe the solicitors are confused about the timeline. You are not gifting the deposit as a lump sum for purchase that can be evidenced as a recent gift.

You gifted the money 10 years ago with no specific intent. The savings are your dd’s. She can provide statements of starting lump sum provided by you. You can provide a single statement showing the lump sum leaving your account. She can also provide statements of the £100 a month received by you and being paid into her savings if it was. She was free to use this money as she wished. Her statements should be sufficient. Solicitors are just wary where income does not explain the savings that the buyer has for deposit and want to check the source.

The source is savings she has had for the past 10 years. Not a gifted deposit.

Our house deposit was from inheritance my partner received upon his dad’s death, had been sitting there for about 10 years. Luckily my MIL keeps everything - even had the cheque slip from when she paid it out, but yes we had to provide bank statements of where it came from, why it was transferred, legal bits from that time etc

I think your DD would have been ok if she had not mentioned money from parents, just showed her bank accounts for a few years.
We gave DS a lump sum 6 years ago and he bought a house last year. He just said the money was his savings and he had to show evidence for about three years I think.

I am an MLRO. Under current legislation a lawyer can ask for as many years evidence as they deem fit to be able to evidence both Source of Wealth and Source of Funds. Your daughter has confirmed that your gift from a house sale forms part of her savings. You need to evidence the source of that gift. It can be as simple as providing the financial statement from the sale of the property, the statement showing receipt of funds and the statement transferring it to your daughter. AML compliance is incredibly strict. There will be some posters that come along as say 'we never had to provide that' etc etc. In those cases it was either before the legislation changed, or they had a slack lawyer and I would be worried what other corners were cut!

So in reality, should she have said ‘from my savings’ if she’s had the money for a decade?

Do you mind if I PM you @PomPomSugar?

The laws are ridiculously strict when applied to ordinary citizens, yet we are surrounded by money laundering shops, barbers and restaurants on our high streets and in town centres. There is a shisha place near me that has been dealing heroin for years with impunity, expensive cars with illegally blacked out windows coming and going day and night. Nobody is interested in their finances.

For those saying “why didn’t she just say it was from
savings” - that’s source of funds ie “I’m transferring it from my Barclays ISA” etc. It isn’t source of weath, which is eg “I got those savings from my salary plus an inheritance from my grandma”.

If you earn enough that the level of savings makes sense to just be accumulated from salary then you could probably not mention the lump sum and no one would bat an eyelid if you said it was just from your salary (not that I would advise it) but if you eg had someone earning £30k pa putting down a £150k deposit then that would raise questions.

@MiffyPurple- as others have said, what you need to provide is what they would be content covers their obligations. That’s their assessment and even those of us with experience in this area can’t tell you what that will be. Best option is for your DD to explain the facts, including the time frames etc and work out with them what they need.