Do I have a gifted deposit or not? Help!

Leebs

yes it's a joint mortgage with my partner, lender is abbey santander. the issue is the fact they only lend to married couples with gifted deposits, and the fact there are discrepancies in information between what was stated on mortgage application form (because i genuinely did not believe the deposit was gifted as it was coming from savings that had been in my account for years) and what has been said to the solicitor (because he phrased the question in such a way by asking if the money had 'ever' come from someone else, eg a family member). I really don't want to lose this house

ACG

So your mum supported you whilst at uni.

It was a gift but not a gifted deposit - ie not gifted with the aim of buying a house.

Leebs

no, none of it was ever gifted for the purpose of buying a house, half of it was originally meant for basic living costs, then potentially a holiday but i chose to save it for a deposit. a small amount mum gifted to me after my gran died 4 years ago and left her some inheritance money, the rest was gifted to me over 10 years ago as - ahem -a bribe from my parents to re-take my flunked a-levels instead of disappearing off backpacking. so yes, the money has been gifted, and i've been really fortunate in that respect. but it has not been gifted for the purpose of buying a house, and unless we can clear this up with the solicitor, we might not be able to buy a house for a very long time!

mak12345

If the money wasn't given to you with the view of using it for a deposit then you don't have a gifted deposit. The fact that you have had the money go into your account in differing amounts and over a long period of time will be enough proof in the eyes of the law.

Source/ my company solicitor who I'm on a train with

amnblog

Hi Leebs

The problem for the lender is that they are legally bound to identify where your deposit has come from as part of the fight against letting 'dirty money' become 'laundered' into the legitimate economy.

If they can see funds in your savings account built up over a period of time or funds that have been there some time, they can consider them your own funds. If a large sum arrived in the account recently they need to satisfy themselves where it has come from.

If the new sum is a gift from immediate family of one of the borrowers, the lenders will not have a problem with it. The lender will require a gift letter in a prescribed format from the donor. This will evidence that the 'gift' is not a loan.

In your case, I would not consider this a gifted deposit, it is your accrued savings over a period which you can evidence via your statements.

Your conveyancer is being over the top. Also your broker is being lazy is in suggesting that the lender will reject the case if there is a gift element - probably just to trying to avoid any extra work!

In your case the best route would be to confirm to the conveyancer that the deposit funds are monies you have saved over a period of years and leave it at that.