Unable to pass Money Laundering checks! Help!!

richardfj

Hi, any advice would be very welcome here

I'm buying a new build property, we are close to exchanging and I will have £60,000 deposit

This deposit comes from the sale of my matrimonial home due to divorce 😕

I have supplied a completion statement for the sale of the house and a letter from my ex wife's solicitors that I will receive approx £63k from the sale. My ex arranged for the whole sale proceeds to be deposited into her account and then a while later transferred funds to me. These funds turned out to be approx £62k due to additional costs not factored in by the solicitors

I have provided my bank statements to the conveyancing solicitor which clearly shows a transfer from my wife's account but for £62k not £63k

The solicitors are saying they can't/won't accept as I do not have any corresponding exact proof of the amount transfered to me and due to money laundering checks they cannot currently proceed. They require my wife's solicitors to confirm the amount sent to me, but they weren't involved in the absolute final calculation and my ex is unlikely to want to help in any way

So what the hell do I do? I understand the Money Laundering laws, I work in Finance but I feel I have proved through what I have provided them that my deposit is NOT derived from the proceeds of crime!!

This seems absurd to me, are they being overly officious, what do I do like I said help from my ex or solicitors is very unlikely

Help?!

xylophone

I have supplied a completion statement for the sale of the house and a letter from my ex wife's solicitors that I will receive approx £63k from the sale.

They require my wife's solicitors to confirm the amount sent to me,

You have a letter from your wife's solicitors saying that you will receive approx £63,000 from the sale of the property.

"Approx" is not "exactly".

You have received £62,000 and have evidence of the source of these funds in your bank account - that seems close enough to me and should satisfy your conveyancing solicitor.

bowlhead99

You say you are using £60k deposit on your purchase, out of these proceeds.

So, whether your wife has transferred you £60k or £61k or £62k or £63k so far, the incoming credit on your bank statement shows she has sent you a big pile of cash which is your source of funds; and there is a clear trail that the whole deposit is financed by the money the solicitors said you were to have been sent post-sale, even if your wife was unable to transfer the full amount noted in the solicitor letter for whatever practical reason (e.g. unexpected costs which you are happy to bear a share of).

That should satisfy your conveyancer and if not, escalate it to a senior person at your firm. If they doubt the authenticity of the original letter from the other firm which said you were allocated £60-something thousand from the property disposal, they could call the person who wrote it and ask if it is a genuine letter. The fact you only received a portion of the amount earmarked for you in that letter, should not be a barrier to you using the received funds in a transaction even if you have agreed with your wife that actually some of the £60-something mentioned in the letter will be used for expenses.

Your solicitors can't need a new letter to the penny because the exact amount of pennies is irrelevant, they are just looking to establish a trail which identifies the source of the £60k plus, which they have already done (as long as the original letter is genuine).

davidmcn

bowlhead99 wrote: »

Your solicitors can't need a new letter to the penny because the exact amount of pennies is irrelevant, they are just looking to establish a trail which identifies the source of the £60k plus, which they have already done (as long as the original letter is genuine).

Except they don't have a trail, because the funds came from a different party (and if the ex isn't co-operating then they won't have confirmation from her bank account or her ID, both of which I would have asked for). I think that's a bigger problem than the amount on the solicitors' letter being different. Not necessarily fatal, but if I were to be picky that's what I would be querying.

OP, you need to ask your solicitors what would help them in the circumstances, there are no universal policies about these things. If they only need the funds to have been in your account for, say, 3 months, then maybe just waiting a while may sort the problem (you don't say when you received the money).

bowlhead99

davidmcn wrote: »

Except they don't have a trail, because the funds came from a different party (and if the ex isn't co-operating then they won't have confirmation from her bank account or her ID, both of which I would have asked for). I think that's a bigger problem than the amount on the solicitors' letter being different. Not necessarily fatal, but if I were to be picky that's what I would be querying.

You are right of course, though I would think a bank statement from the wife showing the outgoing payment and her name and address as presumably being the same as shown on the letter from the selling solicitors - that would form a better trail than just seeing the bank receipt being from a mrsrichardfj which could be coincidence and not the same person.

The ex-Mrs would perhaps be happy to provide the statement if it would help clear her name of being involved in subterfuge and she was well compensated for any costs incurred.

As you say, there are no universal policies as the regulatory bodies demand a risk-based approach. If there is no reasonable suspicion that the funds being used in the property transaction are funds that belonged to Mrs (it is an in-and-out funds flow through her accounts with the out being lower - not higher - than the in), some would take the view that there is no need to conduct a further ID check on Mrs, but it would be down to the specific policy of the conveyancing firm concerned. So explaining the situation and escalating it beyond a junior conveyancer if it is difficult to satisfy their requirement, may be the way forward. The transactional member of staff usually (quite rightly) has no choice to deviate from their standard policy.

ACG

Switch solicitors?
Fire in a complaint about someone being pedantic.

If you had been paid £60k rather than £62 or £63k I would still expect solicitors to accept it.

bouicca21

when we sold the matrimonial home the conveyancing solicitor split the money and paid each of us directly. Why didn't yours? Whilst I agree that the money laundering regs are a pain, I'm not surprised that suspicions have been raised.

2bFrank

Id ask to speak to a more senior person at the practice or move over to another conveyancer. You have the letter from the solicitor stating what you are receiving, this should be enough. You might just have an over-cautious person assigned to your purchase.

A colleague recently had issues when the deposit came from him selling his bitcoins. had to get the solicitor of the company that exchanged the bitcoins to write a letter, they still wouldn't budge, move onto another conveyancer and they accepted the letter no problems.