Do we need to declare deposit funding...?

Nelly321

We are currently waiting for our mortgage to be approved, so I am in the process of going through solicitor forms, putting deposit into 1 account etc.

Me, my girlfriend and her parents are all contibuting to the deposit. We are going to be putting it all into a new joint account this week ready for the transaction in a couple of weeks.

Solicitors want to know where all the money is from, so Lender, savings and any other sources... i.e. parents. My lender (Natwest) seems to think I dont need to tell them that some if from my gf's parents as I have more than enough for the deposit in my own account.

Any advice ?

Paully232000

As we were getting near to approval of our mortgage our lender asked for more bank statements as it had been a few weeks since we sent in our original bank statements, payslips etc. My partners parents had given some money which was for furniture and fittings in our new house and we had to get a letter from the parents sent to our lender stating that this money was a gift and constituted no stake in the house or words to that effect.
Even though it wasn't any part of the deposit (we had already showed our savings for this), they still wanted to know and the proof letter writing.

Yorkie1

If you have sufficient from your own savings then why do you need your parents' money?

If your parents' money is indeed going towards the deposit then yes, it has to be declared and not to do so is mortgage fraud potentially.

The parents have to write a letter declaring that it is an outright gift.

Nelly321

We haven't asked for the money, it is genuinely a gift.

It isn't the lender who is concerned... It's the solicitor, I guess we should declare it anyway, and provide proof of my balance as well..?

Yorkie1

I'm not sure the solicitor actually needs to see proof of the deposit (unless they've asked for it), but as they act for the lender they do need to know the details.

Brodiebobs

We told our solicitors part of our deposit was gifted from parents but they never asked for proof where it had come from, my parents transferred it to our account, then we transferred the full deposit to the sols.

We applied for a mortgage with Natwest who wanted a letter from parent to say it was a gift but they were so slow we went to Halifax who never asked for anything.

Nelly321

Thanks

Natwest don't want a letter as the amount we have ourselves is more than we need. But the help from parents will allow us to have more spare for improvements/security.
I guess if the money is transferred into our joint account prior to the transfer then it won't matter.