Do I have a gifted deposit or not? Help!

Leebs

My mum has gifted me money over a period of 10 years to use as I please, this has come in various ways eg through sharing some inheritance money with me, graduation gifts etc. No single gift has ever exceeded the £3000 tax-free gift allowance. I saved it all, and have now chosen to use it for a house deposit.
When applying for a mortgage I stated that the deposit money was coming from my own funds, as this is what I considered my savings to be, and not a gift deposit as my mum never gave the money to be used as a house deposit, which is what I understood 'gift deposit' to mean.
When signing some documents with the (trainee) conveyancy solicitor today, he asked me whether any money for the deposit had 'ever' come from anyone else, eg a parent, so I said yes, some of it has come from my mum. He said in that case I had a 'gifted deposit' and he would need to inform my mortgage lender.
He asked me why I had said 'no' to the gifted deposit question on the mortgage application form, so I explained I must have misunderstood what it meant, as I thought he was telling me that if the money had ever originated from another person, then it is a gifted deposit. I didn't explain it had been gifted and saved over many years and not for the purpose of a deposit, as I thought he was telling me this information is irrelevant.
I spoke afterwards to my mortgage broker and clarified how I had acquired the money, and he explained it doesn't count as a gifted deposit, because this means that someone has gifted the money for this purpose. But he also said once the solicitor informs the mortgage lender of his view it is a gifted deposit, the lender will most likely retract their offer because of discrepancies in information. The mortgage broker is hoping that between us we can clarify the situation and the solicitor will realise I don't have a gifted deposit and that he doesn't need to inform the lender as such.
But I am now very stressed!
I can't find much clarification online, and I have 2 different professionals telling me 2 different things. Can anyone confirm whether or not I have a gifted deposit?

ACG

When was the last amount received?

Personally if it was over a year ago, I would probably answer the question as no. There is no answer as far as im aware to say when a gift effectively becomes savings, its a judgement call. But if its been in your account a while and mixed with other money etc then I would say savings.

Kirstyb1987

I have just recently had my mortgage approved and the lender never asked where my deposit came from. Some was my own but a large percentage was from my mum and dad, and inheritance from my grandma over a 4 year period. They never questioned it and I assumed that was because it was a large lump sum!

RickyC_IFSWP

To be fair, it probably does count as a gifted deposit because you didn't save up the money from your own income. Anyhow, it is usually very simple to simply declare it as a gifted deposit and ask the donor (your mother) to sign a form to basically say that she has no interest in that money and that it's an outright gift.

Kirstyb1987 they typically ask the "source of deposit" on all applications (mortgage & solicitors). Maybe you got lucky

Leebs

the mortgage adviser has explained the lender has strict criteria around gifted deposits (ie only accepts them if the couple buying together are married), so our offer will be withdrawn. it doesn't matter whether or not my mum signs a form to say say she has no interest in the property, we would be at serious risk of not only losing the mortgage and house, but in having great difficulty in securing another mortgage for having this one withdrawn. it has huge ramifications if the solicitor assesses the deposit as being gifted. if it truly is a gifted deposit, then there's not a lot we can do. But judging from the differing views in the replies, it seems there isn't a clear cut issue and some of it will come down to his professional judgement. I will also ask him to run it past his supervising solicitor. first time buyer + trainee solicitor = nightmare!

RickyC_IFSWP

Leebs wrote: »

the mortgage adviser has explained the lender has strict criteria around gifted deposits (ie only accepts them if the couple buying together are married), so our offer will be withdrawn. it doesn't matter whether or not my mum signs a form to say say she has no interest in the property, we would be at serious risk of not only losing the mortgage and house, but in having great difficulty in securing another mortgage for having this one withdrawn. it has huge ramifications if the solicitor assesses the deposit as being gifted. if it truly is a gifted deposit, then there's not a lot we can do. But judging from the differing views in the replies, it seems there isn't a clear cut issue and some of it will come down to his professional judgement. I will also ask him to run it past his supervising solicitor. first time buyer + trainee solicitor = nightmare!

Yes, at least clarify if it constitutes a gifted deposit first. Good.

Next step I would take is to speak with the mortgage adviser and ask him/her to speak with the mortgage company's Business Development Manager (BDM) and/or underwriters. It may be possible that they use their discretion for this case... depends on how lenient they are and how good the mortgage adviser's relationship is with them. Fingers crossed.

Leebs

and yes, the last gift was around a year ago. i was undertaking a fulltime postgrad professional qualification for 2 years, and my mum very kindly and generously agreed to give me £200 per month for 2 years, however i saved this as my partner's financial situation improved and he was able to support me. when i finished my course, i offered the money back to my mum, but she suggested i keep it as a graduation/qualification gift - suggested i go on holiday or something after all my hard work, but I kept it back because i knew i wanted to buy a house in the near future. so to some extent i have saved it out of my income, because as an unpaid full time student working 9-5 mon-fri on placement for 6 months at a time, my only sources of income were my bursary and family members.

Leebs

i will also suggest mortgage adviser speaks to the lender if there are any ongoing issues.

Thrugelmir

Leebs wrote: »

i will also suggest mortgage adviser speaks to the lender if there are any ongoing issues.

Would it be that much of a problem simply to provide a letter saying the money was gifted?

Kirstyb1987

RickyC_IFSWP wrote: »

To be fair, it probably does count as a gifted deposit because you didn't save up the money from your own income. Anyhow, it is usually very simple to simply declare it as a gifted deposit and ask the donor (your mother) to sign a form to basically say that she has no interest in that money and that it's an outright gift.

Kirstyb1987 they typically ask the "source of deposit" on all applications (mortgage & solicitors). Maybe you got lucky

I take that back...:-) Looked at my application and I did say some was gifted. To be fair the most recent payments (over 2 years) were deposits from my current account so maybe they just saw that I was saving myself!

GMS

Which lender is it? Will this be a joint mortgage with your partner?