Buying a house - money laundering

jonsmile

Hi

A bit of advice please

Looking to buy a house. Happy that solicitor competed money laundering checks.
However, why as the buyer, does estate agent insist on needing to do the same?
The act says (from memory) it is between the estate agent and the customer. Now we all know that the estate agent has a contract with the seller and not the buyer.

So who is right? Me or the estate agent?

anselld

The Vendor's EA has no need or requirement to do ML checks on buyers.

They may wish to "qualify" an offer to make sure you are capable of backing it up with the finance, but that has nothing to do with ML and can be achieved in ways other than giving them full sight of your bank account.

AlexMac

I was about to say they don't have to- as up to my last transaction a couple of years ago I only had to prove ID and source of funds to my solicitor...

...but that the EA may use BS about moneylaundering to reinforce the common request to get you into the office to chat about your finances so they can reassure their client that you have deposit funds, or at least, a sale in the pipeline and/or an Offer of a mortgage... Which is almost legitimate... Or more cynically, so their mortgage advisor can sell you stuff; loans, insurances...

But then I thought I'd check my facts (silly though that sounds)

... and was surprised to see explicit guidance that the Money Laundering Regs apply to EAs... Advising them about ...

" assessing the risk of your business being used by criminals to launder money, checking the identity of your customers... monitoring customers’ business activities and reporting anything suspicious to the National Crime Agency (NCA)...making sure you have the necessary management control systems in place, keeping all documents that relate to financial transactions, the identity of your customers, risk assessment and management procedures and processes, making sure that your employees are aware of the regulations and have had the necessary training..."

( https://www.gov.uk/guidance/money-laundering-regulations-introduction )

Wow! I wonder just how many drug dealers and international crims have actually been caught as a result of this mountain of procedures in use in Banks and other institutions?

davidmcn

Not aware of any requirement, and I can't see how the EA can prevent your transaction from proceeding if you ignore their requests.

anselld

AlexMac wrote: »

But then I thought I'd check my facts

... and in those facts the Vendor is the EA's Customer. The Buyer has no contract with the EA and is not a Customer (unless they choose to accept some other service, eg mortgage advice).