Proof of Where Your Money Comes from for house purchase ?

oneofnine

Hi all - please help if you can .We are buying a house and my mother-in-law is gifting us with £10,000 towards it .The solicitor has asked for mums Passport photocopy , a letter with her address on, and the last 12 months statements of her ISA where she took the money from .

BIG PROBLEM - mum is 81 with frail health .She has managed to get hold of a photocopy of her passport , a letter with her address on but she is not computer literate .She has no idea how to get the statements , or even if she gets them .Her daughter is her guardian , but she has just had a nervous breakdown and she can't handle this now ( she doesn't have or use a computer either .) We are 500 miles away and stuck .Does the solicitor really NEED all this ? it's a gift .My husband can show the money coming into his account with a ref number .That's all .Anyone know the way we can go way with this ?

many thanks

Lauralou79

I've gone through something similar for gifted money and they do need proof for money laundering purposes I think. Contact your solicitor

cashbackproblems

its too late now the solicitors know its a gift, some are stricter than others


My solicitor charged £125 per person for gifts, the way I got around it was by showing I had the funds in another account e.g. shares, then the gift was paid into another of my current accounts from my parents (not main one) and I then transferred it to my main account so it looked like it was coming from myself on the statements. that did the job and saved me £250 in solicitor fees (gift from both parents)

oneofnine

Apparently you only get a yearly statement with an ISA ,so as this is not for the deposit (we have £115 ,000 cash towards the house which is £185,000 ) we are wondering if this new solicitor knows the full rules around the gift .

McTaggus

You have to be able to demonstrate the Source of Funds to for Anti-Money Laundering purposes. For ours, we submitted screenshots of my mum's statements but if she's not computer literate then it may be viable to ask your mother to call wherever the account is held, and then request that copies of the statements be sent through via post. It will take longer than the online option, but may be the only recourse you have right now if you can't get her online (and if she / her guardian can't share the online banking details with you).

Edited to add: ours wasn't for the deposit either, but the stamp duty - you still have to evidence SOF, it's a legal requirement.

Guest101

It's nothing to do with being a gift, it's for money laundering. To make sure that you aren't using drug money to buy a house.

oneofnine

Yes I knew it was for money laundering purpose checking , but I think what we'll have to do is when mum or my sister in law is feeling up to it , we'll have to get the bank account details to do with the ISA and try and sort something out with the bank , once they clarify my sister in law's guardianship role with her .

G_M

The biggest issue here seems to be that your mum-in-law is frail and vulnerable, clearly unable to manage her own affairs and needs a guardian.

Her guardian is clearly unable to perform this role. Indeed by the sound of it may need a guardian herself.

Addressing the support (legal, financial and practical) of the two of them needs to be a priority.

oneofnine

Thanks .Things are much worse than I would convey in an open forum , suffice to say I am a carer for my husband and he is in no position to drive 500 miles to assist them .We have supported as much as we can by phone and rallying closer relatives to help .

It's come at the worst time for us to be asking mum to provide details of her money affairs - she is really not happy about the sol asking for that - older people do not like to share personal info .However , she is happy to help us get a larger house , then we'll be able to help a lot more by having people here , hopefully mum, to give sis-in-law break .

AdrianC

oneofnine wrote: »

Does the solicitor really NEED all this ? it's a gift .

Sure, it's a gift. But who is it really a gift from...? You say it's a gift from your mother, but is it really a gift from your dodgy uncle in Colombia...?

The solicitor is not being gratuitously awkward here - he has to follow the money laundering laws.

The problem is that your mother is not able to provide perfectly reasonable paperwork. Well, that's what power of attorney is for... But your sister-in-law is unable to effectively discharge her responsibilities under the power of attorney. That needs addressing sharpish, for your mother-in-law's sakes...

oneofnine

Panic over , thanks to all replies .Another relative has moved in with mum today , and she will call us over the next few days with info that we need .