Trying to buy a house with savings - money laundering regulations

[Touty]

I am trying to buy a small modest house with my cash savings which are my life savings. I’m having problems with solicitors who want to know the origin of the money and this has to be demonstrated with bank statements. How is it possible to look that far back? I don’t know what the solution to this is.

I work in Private Client (wills and probate) so our checks are in order to pay money to people. I know, ridiculous right?

We are getting queries from people who received inheritances many years ago requesting evidence for purchases etc.

It's a farce.

(Sorry I can't answer your question)

We only had to provide 12 months evidence of regular saving.

I've just done this exact thing. I'm downsizing and bought a small house with my savings.
I just had to provide 3 months worth bank statements and 3 proofs I am who I say I am , e g. Passport,photo driver licence, utility bill.
There were a couple large amounts that I inherited from deceased relatives and I just had to give the solicitors details who were winding up the estates and sent me the money. In other words my solicitor wrote to deceased relatives solicitors to confirm the inheritance.

Oh and I gave my son £10,000 to help him buy his first flat

I had to go through the whole flipping process again , 😂. 3 months statements etc etc

I bought a house last year (in London, so a significant amount) using savings that were accumulated since I started work 20 years ago. No mortgage. They asked to see statements showing how the savings accumulated so I sent them every statement for my current account and savings account for the past 20 years. I am quite obsessive about keeping papers so I had it all in boxes in the house.

I had to mail a box of the paperwork to the solicitor's office as it was too much to send via email and kept bouncing back. Must have taken them some time to check through them all but conveyancing was a fixed fee so didnt cost me any more than usual. Do you have the original statements or are you depending on copies from the bank?

The OP doesn't mean actual physical cash as in wodges of bank notes. They mean that they have the money saved, and don't need a loan.

That. Exactly.

I do not work in the area but I'm sufficiently plugged into legal stuff to see and hear about absurd requirements and the professional consequences if they're not complied with and documented.

So all these people throwing away all paperwork and relying on everything being in the online bank account is not a good thing, we need to be keeping relevant bank statements from years ago, all P60s for years then. There was a thread recently where many were advising not keeping anything as it was all online.

I would download statements as far back as possible showing transfers to your savings account plus if you have received any inheritances, redundancy etc the paperwork for them if possible. If you have saved regularly if should demonstrate that have done so beyond the bank statement availability.

My bank only lets you go back 7 years

Ironically when I transferred £200k for my house I just ticked divorce settlement and the only evidence they needed was my decree absolute

I find this extraordinary. I live in an area (leafy part of London) that is rife with money laundering and organised crime. How do these people get away with it in plain sight when ordinary people trying to buy a house get so much grief?

Interestingly when I paid my mortgage off there were no questions about where that money had come from - it was just "oh yes, transfer the cash, lovely, sorted". I was expecting the same questions as I had when I bought the house but there was nothing.

Just provide them with what you have - the 5 years of statements. They will be ok with those, checking there are no signs of money laundering going on.