Conveyancer - Identity Check

Guitar

As part of instructing a solicitor on a my first house purchase I've been asked to provide some documents for an identity check.

These include

Passport or Driving License

and

Two utility bills or bank statements.

There's no problem with utility bills (got plenty of them) but I don't actually have a passport. I do have a driving license but I've not driven in almost 10 years so it's the old style paper license with an out of date address on.

Does anyone know if this will be accepted? Do you know of any alternatives the solicitor might accept? I imagine house purchases aren't limited to motorists and holidaymakers.

pararct

They will want something with your photo upon it. They are required to undertake these checks as part of the Money Laundering Regulations.

A student card or other photo ID may suffice if you have them. If not what an excellent opportunity either to update your driving licence or to apply for your first passport. Depending on how quickly you want the solicitor to start to move on the purchase you should be expedient in acquiring the relevant document.

G_M

Or wait till Monday, give a quick ring, and see what they'll accept?

Guitar

G_M wrote: »

Or wait till Monday, give a quick ring, and see what they'll accept?

[FONT=&quot]It's a repossession so need to move fast and trying to get anything I might need sorted before hand. This is also why I don't have time to apply for a passport or get a new driving license.

I've got another photo ID so hopefully they'll accept that along with the driving license.
[/FONT]

BlueC

Guitar wrote: »

[FONT=&quot]It's a repossession so need to move fast and trying to get anything I might need sorted before hand. This is also why I don't have time to apply for a passport or get a new driving license.
[/FONT]

I reckon your conveyancer will know what to do, but worst case you can normally get a passport same-day from your local passport office. Will cost a few quid though.

Londonsu

pararct wrote: »

They will want something with your photo upon it. They are required to undertake these checks as part of the Money Laundering Regulations.

A student card or other photo ID may suffice if you have them. If not what an excellent opportunity either to update your driving licence or to apply for your first passport. Depending on how quickly you want the solicitor to start to move on the purchase you should be expedient in acquiring the relevant document.

NO NO NO NO they do not
There is NO legal I repeat NO legal requirement in this country for someone to have photo ID.

Therefore where there is no legal requirement to possess photo ID there cannot be any legal requirement to show photo ID

I dont drive I was born in the UK and have never left the same goes for my Husband but we sold our flat, bought a house and retained a solicitor with NO photo ID whatsoever.

Your solicitor will have the ways and means to check out your identity if you produce originals such as Birth certificates and in our case our marriage certificate plus we had our NI numbers on HMRC stationary (P45 will do it or P60) plus proof of our current address on our bank statement, thats all he needed.

Same with our EA we gave the same paper ID that we gave to our solicitor with no problem at all the EA who sold us our house (which we bought for cash from the proceeds of our flat sale) didnt even ask us for any ID (mind you this is on the isle of Wight and we are a bit behind the times here).

People like EAs and Solicitors would PREFER photo ID as your identity has already been checked out by the passport office, so someone else has done all the checking and the work, it makes their life easier granted, but there are ways and means for them to proceed without photo ID.

pararct

Londonsu wrote: »

NO NO NO NO they do not
There is NO legal I repeat NO legal requirement in this country for someone to have photo ID.

Therefore where there is no legal requirement to possess photo ID there cannot be any legal requirement to show photo ID

I dont drive I was born in the UK and have never left the same goes for my Husband but we sold our flat, bought a house and retained a solicitor with NO photo ID whatsoever.

Your solicitor will have the ways and means to check out your identity if you produce originals such as Birth certificates and in our case our marriage certificate plus we had our NI numbers on HMRC stationary (P45 will do it or P60) plus proof of our current address on our bank statement, thats all he needed.

Same with our EA we gave the same paper ID that we gave to our solicitor with no problem at all the EA who sold us our house (which we bought for cash from the proceeds of our flat sale) didnt even ask us for any ID (mind you this is on the isle of Wight and we are a bit behind the times here).

People like EAs and Solicitors would PREFER photo ID as your identity has already been checked out by the passport office, so someone else has done all the checking and the work, it makes their life easier granted, but there are ways and means for them to proceed without photo ID.

In terms if written down legislation there is not but since the regulations which require these checks are quite recent things are evolving over time.
There have already been cases where solicitor firms have been levied some pretty astronomical fines for not ensuring a persons identity properly and many are very careful in what they will and will not accept.
I guess you were quite lucky in that you found a firm that was happy to accept paper copies (were they your family firm thereby establishing a long relationship?)

End of the day to comes down to the time factor and what is less !!!!!!ation. If the OP wants to champion their individual rights to the letter of the legislation over the need to move quickly then they will insist the solicitor accept paper copies. The solicitor though may well not accept this and tell them to find someone that will.

kingstreet

I would accept a current paper driving licence if it showed his current address, as photographic identification isn't required.

The Law Society position appears similar to that the rest of the industry has adopted

http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/productsandservices/practicenotes/aml/455.article#h4method

The following sources may be useful for verification of UK-based clients:

current signed passport
UK identity card
birth certificate
current photocard driver's licence
current EEA member state identity card
current identity card issued by the Electoral Office for Northern Ireland
residence permit issued by the Home Office
firearms certificate or shotgun licence
photographic registration cards for self-employed individuals and partnerships in the construction industry
benefit book or original notification letter from the DWP confirming the right to benefits
council tax bill
utility bill or statement, or a certificate from a utilities supplier confirming an arrangement to pay services on pre-payment terms
a cheque or electronic transfer drawn on an account in the name of the client with a credit or financial institution regulated for the purposes of money laundering
bank, building society or credit union statement or passbook containing current address
entry in a local or national telephone directory confirming name and address
confirmation from an electoral register that a person of that name lives at that address
a recent original mortgage statement from a recognised lender
solicitor's letter confirming recent house purchase or land registry confirmation of address
local council or housing association rent card or tenancy agreement
HMRC self-assessment statement or tax demand
house or motor insurance certificate
record of any home visit made
statement from a member of the firm or other person in the regulated sector who has known the client for a number of years attesting to their identity - bear in mind you may be unable to contact this person to give an assurance supporting that statement at a later date

Londonsu

pararct wrote: »

In terms if written down legislation there is not but since the regulations which require these checks are quite recent things are evolving over time.
There have already been cases where solicitor firms have been levied some pretty astronomical fines for not ensuring a persons identity properly and many are very careful in what they will and will not accept.
I guess you were quite lucky in that you found a firm that was happy to accept paper copies (were they your family firm thereby establishing a long relationship?)

End of the day to comes down to the time factor and what is less !!!!!!ation. If the OP wants to champion their individual rights to the letter of the legislation over the need to move quickly then they will insist the solicitor accept paper copies. The solicitor though may well not accept this and tell them to find someone that will.

No my solicitior was not a family friend just a conveyancing solicitor whose office was in our high street and guess the copies of ID we had was enough for him to do all the ID checks required under ML regs.

Yes ID checks may be evolving due to the fact that most young people under 30 have photo ID and are used to carrying it to get into some manky night club or buy their stella in tescos, but people my age (mid fiftys husband is early 60s ) have already established things like bank accounts well before ML regs and therefore will question ID checks.

BTW I have also got a job with no photo ID and successfully challenged the 'legal' requirement of my new GP to show a passport when I registered.

But then again I can be a bit of a PITA over things like this

dodger1

BlueC wrote: »

I reckon your conveyancer will know what to do, but worst case you can normally get a passport same-day from your local passport office. Will cost a few quid though.

I'm afraid not. Post offices do not issue passports, they just help (for a fee) to fill out the application form. Passports can be issued via a one day premium service through one of the regional passport offices. It's by prior appointment and costs £129.50.

dodger1

Sorry ignore the above, misread your post, tried to delete but couldn't