Just a bit of advice regarding gifted deposit

[DannyAg]

Me and my partner are in the process of obtaining a mortgage..

we were gifted a £15,000 from her mum and dad which was from partners grandmothers estate.

Along with usual gifted deposit letter
We have provided my partners bank statements showing the money coming in to her account, and her parents account showing the money going out. Her parents have reluctantly also provided a bank statement with the initial transaction from the solicitors going into their account and also a letter from solicitors confirming amount to be paid.

However this does not seem to enough as they are now questioning other transactions in my partners parents account which is her dads pension, and they don’t see how this irrelevant when they have already proved the source of money they have gifted us for our deposit... and another transaction from her uncle and my mum.

one is a £5000 gift from her uncle to help towards our wedding and another £1500 from my mum also to help towards our wedding.

We emailed the solicitors saying the £5000 from her uncle is not being used in our deposit whatsoever however she still wants to see their bank statements and source of income!! I totally understand the solicitors wanting to make sure the money we are using for our deposit is not laundered, however why is she questioning other transactions that have nothing to do with our deposit??

Does this sound like normal practice when trying to prove proof of deposit?

Thanks Daniel

That sounds excessive and I'd be querying it.

IIRC, DH's parents had to show a passport or driving licence, and bank statements showing the money going from savings to current account. They also had to write a letter confirming that the money was a gift.

I notice your use of "reluctantly." Perhaps I'm projecting here, and apologies if so, but DHs' parents (also?) took these requirements very personally - to the point of threatening to pull the whole thing. Luckily they realised that the only people they'd hurt by doing that was us, but it certainly added an extra level of stress at the time. If this is the case for you, then you have my sympathies.

Good luck.

Who is asking you for all this information?, I agree its excessive & intrusive.

I would just change broker or solicitor or whoever it is who is making the process more difficult for you.

If you need a broker, go for a IFA rather than a big chain.

PM if you want the name of my London based broker who was very good at cutting out the hassle and getting my mortgage sorted.

Thank you so much for your replies... @SparkyTheCat yes you’re spot on DWs’ took providing the bank statements very personally however realising without it we couldn’t have moved forward they decided to go ahead, however the questioning of their pension income has really cheesed them off as they don’t see how this is relevant! Thank you and hopefully this can be sorted one way or another.

Hello @fastliving this is our solicitor asking for this information, the broker was happy with statements from parents and partners account showing money going out and coming in, we are contemplating changing solicitors if we can’t move forward... thanks again for your reply

We we did this with our DD last year, we just had to show the transfer of the money from our savings to current account then into her account,

I would change solicitors, they are ten a penny, and your current ones are obviously going to be difficult to deal with....its not like you are talking millions of ££££, a £15K deposit gift and pension payments are not usual or look like the proceeds of a criminal empire!

Is this about money laundering?

Thanks for your replies guys really helpful, we have messaged the solicitor stating our apprehension so we ll wait to hear on what they say!

@mumwon apparently yes this is to do with anti money laundering regarding proof of deposit

It looks to me that the solicitor is establishing that you haven't been gifted more than the £15k for the deposit and it isn't a case of you not declaring all the money you've been gifted for the house.

Hi. I am a Licensed Conveyancer and can confirm that these investigations are normal and necessary to satisfy Money Laundering Regulations. It may seem excessive but the duty is on the Solicitor to make the proper enquiries - this usually means identifying the source of all income to ensure that all income is legitimate. I hope this helps.

Thanks for your replies @wowfudge I understand what you’re saying however we were clearly asked how much we gifted and how much we intend to use for the house, it would make sense to me if we hadn’t declared a clear amount we’d been gifted...

@Shellymc76 hi thanks for your reply, I totally understand the need to be able to verify source income, however I was under the assumption we would only need to prove source of income for our gifted deposit.. and after speaking to friends and reading on forums a lot of others have stated providing bank statements for gifted deposit and even just gift letters for some has been enough.. does the extent of proof required vary depending on solicitor?

Thanks Daniel

Yes it's fair to say all conveyancers will deal with things differently - however they see fit. I myself dont accept just a bank statement. I tend to delve a bit deeper to see where income originates from. I'm sure you are a law abiding citizen but imagine you had other credits (in addition to the £15k gift) that were from a criminal source. This would be something the solicitor needs to know about. You cant say 'this £15k is a gift from family towards the purchase of our house but the other credits are cash from selling drugs but we are not using that'. Hence the questions about other credits on your statement. I hope that makes sense!

@Shellymc76 yes it makes sense completely now, I was just concerned as to where they draw the line in tracing funds back as this could be pretty exhaustive! Lol I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what she comes back with. Thanks again