First Time Buyers - More Mortgage/Personal Documentation required by Estate agents?

george_g_3

Hi,

new to the forum, sorry if this has been posted but it didnt turn up in a search.

my wife and i are first time buyers with a deposit from savings. Alot of those savings have come from very generous gifts given to us as wedding presents (we got married in june this year and didnt expect the size of the gifts to be this big) as well as our own savings taken over a year or two and some given from parents. it totals a bit more than the 10% needed for the mortgage and fees (we worked it all out whilst getting an AIP and the application is now underway)

the estate agents however (not the mortgage company) now want:

Estate_Agents wrote:

SAVINGS

12 months bank statements from both or your accounts, or joint account if that is the case, to show your money accumulating over a period of time.
1 final bank statement towards the point of exchange to show all monies still available in your account.

PARENTS

Photographic and residential ID for all parents.
Bank statements showing money available in their account. If it has been saved then 12 months will be required from all parents.
Bank statement from both sets of parents showing the money being transferred from their account to yours.
Bank statement from you showing the money going in to your account.
One final bank statement from you towards the point of exchange to show all monies are available in the account and unspent.

All bank statements must be ORIGNALS and showing full name, address and account numbers. We cannot accept any print outs or mini statements from the bank.

now we dont mind giving the details of our accounts, but our parents are not guarantors, nor have anything to do with the mortgage other than gifting us some money for our wedding, which we chose to put towards the mortgage instead... i can understand the mortgage company wanting to check that our parents havent taken a loan out on behalf of us - even if they have it shouldnt be their issue but our parents - but why would the estate agents want this info?

as almost purely a go between, why would they want so much personal info that they could apply for a passport on behalf of me?

they already have copies of our proof of address, pay slips, proof of wages, marriage certificate & ID. We both have had regular employment (permanent contracts) from our respective employers for more than 3 years.

what more can they want it for? to top it off, the estate agents want it on exchange, so they cant be checking we havent stolen the money from somewhere.

we are happy to give/sign to say its our own money etc - evan get our parents to sign something - and to give them our details, but reluctant to give our parents as they have nothing to do with the mortgage directly and it would cause more issues than answers.

has anyone else come across this recently?

many thanks

George

daisiegg

The ESTATE AGENTS want to see all this?! Not the solicitors...the estate agents?

Dear god, we are first time buyers (completing 2nd September) and never had to show the estate agents a thing - no proof of funds, not even proof of identity, nothing.

george_g_3

daisiegg wrote: »

The ESTATE AGENTS want to see all this?! Not the solicitors...the estate agents?

Dear god, we are first time buyers (completing 2nd September) and never had to show the estate agents a thing - no proof of funds, not even proof of identity, nothing.

yeh the estate agents, not the mortgage lender... which is why we are trying ot work out why they want it... its on exchange too, not before we apply or to take the property off the market...

daisiegg

In fact we've never met or had any dealings with the estate agent save the first phone call asking to view the house...

daisiegg

george_g wrote: »

yeh the estate agents, not the mortgage lender... which is why we are trying ot work out why they want it... its on exchange too, not before we apply or to take the property off the market...

I'm baffled...I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will come along and be able to shed some light!

Doozergirl

Refer them to your mortgage broker and solicitor because these are the people who really need to check you by law with regard to money laundering etc. - that is exactly what all of those questions relate to.

Whilst it's good practice for an EA to establish the identity of buyers, there is no law that says that they have to do it. Asking for all of that information is just waaay over the top, goes far beyond best practice and tantamount to prying, in my opinion. The money moving through has nothing to do with the EA and therefore they have no legal right to ask for that amount of info; I'd absolutely tell them where to get off.

InLimbo_2

Hmm... I wouldn't give them anything and do as above posters have said.

ReadingTim

I believe the EAs are under an obligation under anti-money laundering regulations to assure themselves that the funds are legit, but this seems a little excessive.

With regard to the info required of your parents, they've either misunderstood the source of your finances, or cut and pasted too much information from their pro-forma checklist - common or garden incompetance in other words!

Doozergirl

The money isn't coming from your parents anyway. It's your money now; it wasn't directly gifted for the deposit.

Either way, it's none of the EA's business.

Doozergirl

ReadingTim wrote: »

I believe the EAs are under an obligation under anti-money laundering regulations to assure themselves that the funds are legit, but this seems a little excessive.

They have no obligation. They are not dealing with any of the money. It is considered best practice to obtain verification of identity, but even then, there is no legal obligation for them to do that. There's certainly no obligation for them to go through the entire money laundering process.

george_g_3

cheers,

we have asked why they need the info, but as yet to get a reply. i wanted to see if it was common - obviously not!

the money is ours and i think the parents info would be if they are taking the money from their account or guarantors for the mortgage, but waiting for clarification of that...

we are reluctatnt to give any more info than needed as we are not going to be able ot get everyone who gave us a wedding gifts bank details (thats just rude to ask for them to be fair...)

thanks for all the info though!

George