Solicitors making odd requests?

halagr

It's safe to say I've had an absolute NIGHTMARE experience with my solicitors when buying my first house - finally we have reached an exchange position but now they have requested screenshots of my bank statement before I transferred funds and then again after instead of just looking and seeing the money is there before they will exchange, is this an odd request or just normal?

Guest101

halagr wrote: »

It's safe to say I've had an absolute NIGHTMARE experience with my solicitors when buying my first house - finally we have reached an exchange position but now they have requested screenshots of my bank statement before I transferred funds and then again after instead of just looking and seeing the money is there before they will exchange, is this an odd request or just normal?

Did you put a reference on the transfer?

halagr

Yes all referenced with the same reference number as my case, as you would expect.

vic_sf49

Yep, I agree that's odd. They should just check their bank account like you suggested.

benjus

This sounds odd to me. There was a link posted on here recently about a case where fraudsters got access to a solicitor's email account and told a customer to send the deposit to a different bank account, so be vigilant.

If you do send it, I recommend blurring out everything on the statement apart from the relevant transaction.

davidmcn

halagr wrote: »

It's safe to say I've had an absolute NIGHTMARE experience with my solicitors when buying my first house - finally we have reached an exchange position but now they have requested screenshots of my bank statement before I transferred funds and then again after instead of just looking and seeing the money is there before they will exchange, is this an odd request or just normal?

It's normal. They need to know that the money came from your account in order to comply with anti money laundering regulations (the reference on your transfer isn't sufficient).

Giddypip

I've never had to do this nor have I heard of anyone else having to do this.

ReadingTim

It's probably just their interpretation of, or attempt to demonstrate compliance with anti money laundering requirements. By all means ask them (rather than an internet forum) why exactly they need it, but assuming they feel they need it, and won't progress without it, then provide it you must, regardless of what you feel about it.

Besides, attaching 2 screenshots to an e-mail is hardly an onerous task is it?

davidmcn

Giddypip wrote: »

I've never had to do this nor have I heard of anyone else having to do this.

Solicitors are getting tighter with their money-laundering requirements - in the good old days they were happy with the funds being in their account, nobody cared too much where it came from, but now they want paper trails showing which accounts the money has been passed through, what the ultimate source of the funds was, etc.

But there are no standard rules, so some firms will be more lax than others.

agrinnall

Have they previously asked for evidence of where funds are coming from? If not, or if you have transferred funds from elsewhere to the account where you are doing the final transfer, then it's not unreasonable for them to ask for this. I didn't have to provide it but I'd already sent lots of screenshots before transferring the money.

wwl

I'd be concerned about using a solicitor who was so stupid they didn't know that a screenshot is worthless.