Gift Letter and conveyancing nightmare!

richand

Hi All,

After some advice on gift letters and the general conveyancing nightmare me and my partner are facing.

My partners mum and dad are divorced and have given her £1000 and £2000 towards our deposit, I decleared this on the application for our mortgage and also to the conveyancing company.

now, the conveyancing company are looking to charge £95 + VAT for each letter to nationwide. I have to write this letter, get it signed and send it to them and they send it to Nationwide, price of stamps must have increased as this to me is crazy! £200 to forward a letter! Is there anyway around this charge?

Also, they state that they have to do a bankruptcy search on each of my partners parents, her dad was bankrupt around 10-15 years ago, will this cause an issue?

our conveyances are absolutely dreadful at any sort of customer services and I feel like they actually don't work for me at all and work solely for our lender, when I put this question to them for example they said "Well, you will just lose the house then" nice...!

conveyancing company FYI is breezeplus+ (avoid these guys if you can!!).

princeofpounds

how did you find this delightful conveyancing company?

doubt the bankruptcy will be an issue.

the charges are extortionate but it's probably in the terms of service you agreed to, in which case there is nothing to do.

naxtek

Nationwide wanted the same from me, but they asked me for it during the application process. They just photocopied it and that was it - no charge whatsoever.

I'd contact Nationwide if I was you and see if you can send it direct to them. I think your solicitor might be ripping you off.

richand

The conveyancing company are the ones nationwide put us with as we have free legal with them.

Looks like they make the money back from overcharging for simple things!

I don't mind the search fees or the fact they charge £75 to fill in the stamp duty form (the house doesn't apply for stamp duty, yet we still have to pay the application charge...apparently!) but this gift letter charge is a joke.

I spoke to them again and they say its outside of the standard work and they they would have to give and take advice from the lender which is why they charge this!

kingstreet

If you want a template gifted deposit letter in editable word format, PM me your email address and I'll send you one.

Not going to comment on solicitor. Assume it's the "free" one you get by going direct to Nationwide?

kingstreet

FWIW we prepare gifted deposit letters for our clients, get them signed by the donor and upload them to Nationwide, if they are required.

We email a copy to the solicitor so their records are upto date.

A solicitor may wish to ensure the donor is not bankrupt now as the gift can be reclaimed by the Official Receiver to pay the money to the bankrupt's creditors. A former/historic bankruptcy will have no impact on this.

The better solicitors don't charge separate fees for completion of stamp duty return, acting for lender etc and in this case, you may end up worse off and having a load of hassle by going direct.

neas

We had a similar problem with our recent mortgage. Aproximately 2k was gifted in a sense... but they wanted us to jump through hoops for it when the rest of the monies (tens of thousands) was our own.

All I did was tell them over 3 months I will accumulate my own wage into the deposit pot and my parents would be paying for my rent/bills for that period.

Essentially they didn't gift the deposit they paid for 3 months of my living costs if you see what I mean.

That was fine...

richand

neas, That is exactly what I have proposed to the solicitor now, for the sake of £3000 I will save it myself and use the money her parents have gifted to fund our life for the next 2 months.

I have to send a letter retracting my gift comments on the paperwork for me to do this at this stage but as you say, gets rid of the endless added fees.

kingstreet, if I knew what I know now at the point of being appointed a solicitor by nationwide "free" legal fees, I would have found my own.

We rang a local solicitor for a quote, £800 including searches and I said we had a quote from another solicitor which want to charge us £95 per letter for sending a gift letter to the lender, he said that charge was outrageous and I shouldn't appoint them.

Wish I could sack current solicitor and move to someone local without incurring a multitude of fees and delaying the process, but what is done, is done.

Getting a broker would have helped us avoid all this farm conveyancing and call centre hell!

The conveyancers today didn't have the valuation from lender, asked me for it, I don't have it, rang nationwide and they sent it to me.

Not sure why I have to sort out things like this for the solicitor, surely they can ring nationwide and ask for the valuation!

Nationwide said "we don't give customers the lenders valuation normally". Surely if this solicitor gets cases from nationwide often, they should know the process.

Clitheroekid

I'm a solicitor, and I agree that to charge £95 + VAT for a standard form letter is indeed outrageous. I suspect, as has been said, that these firms agree an uneconomically low bulk rate for conveyancing with the referrer and then try to compensate by imposing additional charges such as this.

Bankruptcy searches are only £2 per name, so don't worry about the additional cost. And a bankruptcy from 10 years ago is of no importance.

It would be sensible to put it in writing that you object to these charges, but to avoid rocking the boat wait till the deal is completed and then make a formal complaint.

You should say in your complaint that if the matter is not sorted out to your satisfaction you intend to refer the matter to the Legal Ombudsman. This will instil terror into the solicitors, as the LeO publishes details of complaints, and they will not want to appear on that list.

I've no doubt you'll be offered a useful refund if you follow this advice.

neas

As they wanted proof of deposit I sent them the current statements showing the amount I had but noted that the extra would be saved over the normal 6 week period of conveyancing .

It sounded alot of hassle to get my mum and dads passport etc. (plus they were going on holiday lol)

richand

Well half the money is in my ISA (which is maxed out) and the other in my partners ISA, also maxed out.

so we plan to move this money out of the ISA and into our main accounts for transfer to the solicitors, the money will be then consumed into our normal accounts with more than the parents money coming in and out before completion so using the money for general expenses inline with our normal account usage.

only told them about the deposit as her parents wanted to help us out and gave us it to use against the deposit, we didn't really need it for that and could more than cover the deposit with our own savings, just felt wrong not using it for the deposit.

They today insisted I take out home insurance now....not even near completion yet, local authority searches and enquiries still to be returned! argh!

also a condition of my mortgage offer is that I pay off my credit card, this is fine as its a rolling card that I use for work expenses so its paid of in full each month anyway but to check I meet this condition - £25 per card + VAT.....and the charges continue!