Help! - Deposit for first time mortgage - gifted or not

eddie_would_go

Hi,
my partner and I are in the process of buying our first house together. We have the mortgage offer and currently we are awaiting conveyancing activities.

We have a slight issue however regarding a gifted deposit from my partners parents.

When we applied for the mortgage, our mortgage broker stated that we should get a declaration from the parents stating that it a gift, that they had no interest in the property and that it was non-refundable etc. This I have no problem with as it all makes sense and tidies everything up from a legal point of view. We also have a bank statement proving that the money exists.

Now that we have our convenyancer. They are now charging us £50+VAT to contact the parents to get a declaration from them (which in my mind has already been done). The parents have had contact but are unhappy with what is being asked off of them as they are worried it is going to increase costs further!
They're asking for certified bank statement, passport etc from the parents (which probably incurs cost on their part).
Would it not have been easier if they just gave us the money and just added it on to the deposit we had saved ourselves? A friend of the parents just gave their son money for his deposit and no questions were asked... so why are we having these issues?

I'm worried that there is unnecessary legal b*****ks happening here just to keep the convenyancers costs up.

Any help appreciated!

PS I forgot to add that the conveyancer we are using is BPL

welshwizard1927

You may find this is to protect the solicitors - money laundering regulations mean they have to be confident where money is coming from and where it's going. If you're getting money as a gift, from your parents, that money will ultimately turn into the deposit which will at some point end up in the solicitors client account.

The solicitors don't know your parents from Adam and Eve, thus they want to make sure they are who you say they are. Bit annoying, but for all they know it could be laundered money - and it's the solicitor who is liable if it is.

eddie_would_go

welshwizard1927 wrote: »

You may find this is to protect the solicitors - money laundering regulations mean they have to be confident where money is coming from and where it's going. If you're getting money as a gift, from your parents, that money will ultimately turn into the deposit which will at some point end up in the solicitors client account.

The solicitors don't know your parents from Adam and Eve, thus they want to make sure they are who you say they are. Bit annoying, but for all they know it could be laundered money - and it's the solicitor who is liable if it is.

Thanks for the reply WelshWizard - I assumed it would be something like this - but is this the norm? I question as other experience isn't the same and seemed a lot more straightforward (and less costly!).

Building_Surveyor

How large is the deposit? Maybe that's a factor.

eddie_would_go

they're gifting us £30k, we have an additional £10k ourselves

Building_Surveyor

Tbf £50 is nothing in comparison. They will need to verify id, check whether they've ever been bankrupt etc. as someone said they don't kno your parents from adam so not just gonna take your word for it. All these checks will take up the solicitors time and time costs money. Solicitors time costs even more money. If your parents are handing over £30k are they really grumbling about £50 pay it for them if you want. Forget about principles, discuss any adhoc costs with the solicitor and move on. Some solicitors charge some don't. Sounds like your too far ahead to change now. You might just have to suck it up and move on I'm afraid. S

eddie_would_go

I know in the grand scheme of things that £50 isn't a lot of money when you're dealing with a mortgage, i think the concern here being the possibility of additional costs adding up that wouldn't be incurred if it had been done another way or used another conveyancer. It's more the parents than anything just trying to protect us.

Building_Surveyor

Think it's the conveyancer really. Were the fees explained upfront? Are they fixed? The only thing you can do is ask if there are gonna be any more 'hidden extras' but I suppose in your case you would have rather of known from the outset. My conveyancer didn't charge, I guess some do.

gazter

eddie_would_go wrote: »

Thanks for the reply WelshWizard - I assumed it would be something like this - but is this the norm? I question as other experience isn't the same and seemed a lot more straightforward (and less costly!).

A slightly similar situation with a large deposit from family overseas. It is for the money laundering more than anything else. My building society were perfectly happy with a letter signed by the person giving the money that they had no interest in the property.

Yorkie1

Is this the online conveyancers BPL solicitors? Why did you decide to use them?

People have not infrequently said on here that online conveyancers charge for things that no other conveyancer would do so. I've never seen any report on here of any other conveyancer insisting on charging for such work. The vast majority of lenders are happy with a simple letter.

Who is the lender?

eddie_would_go

Yes, it's the online conveyancer BPL.
We went with them by way of suggestion of our local independent mortgage broker and their reports of past customer experiences sounded positive. Admittedly I didn't think to research the company beforehand. We did compare their quote with a local solicitor and BPLs was considerably lower than the local solicitor.

The lender is Halifax.