Proof of Deposit - Santander

FiFiTrix

My husband and I are selling our city centre flat and buying a cottage. Our offer on the cottage has been accepted, the sold sign has gone up and we are waiting on the mortgage offer from Santander. The vendors are not part of a chain and are keen to exchange asap.
However, we have been advised by our IFA that Santander require proof of deposit from our buyer as it is a private sale (no estate agents involved) and he will be paying cash via his business. He has sent an email from his official business email account with details of how the purchase will be made but the IFA are saying this isn't acceptable and are asking for a scanned copy of a letter on headed paper. Our buyer can't see the point and is starting to be difficult about providing it.
I know that the mortgage application has already been submitted and we have a limited amount of time to get all the evidence to them. This is the last outstanding document and I am running out of ideas to try to convince the buyer to do what he needs to do. Help!

snowscreamer

Tell the buyer you will have to pull out of the sale and put the house back on the market if he doesn't provide the letter! If you can't get your mortgage due to this letter (and other banks will have similar requirements) then the sale won't be happening!
If you tell the bank you can't provide the letter then they will assume something dodgy is going on with the sale (that's what it looks like to them at the moment as it's an unusual sale) and will decline your application.

kingstreet

Let me get this straight. Your mortgage lender, the one providing the mortgage for your onward purchase is asking for personal and private information from your buyer, who is not applying to Santander for anything?

If that's the case;-

I've never come across that in 30 years

They will be lucky. I would tell them to do one.

If Santander requires something, it should ask the solicitor representing it (and you probably) to enquire of the purchaser's solicitor.

amnblog

I also don't know why an IFA is telling you about the buyers application.

I can tell you there is most likely more to this scenario than a letter on headed paper.