Gifted deposit from overseas?

[Deleted User] · 16 February 2018 at 12:00PM

Looking for some advice on a mortgage application.

My wife and I have an agreement in principle from natwest for a 60% LTV residential mortgage (joint application). I have a large amount of the deposit in my savings which I have built up over the last 10 years (£40,000). My wife has the remaining amount (£20,000) in her savings account. However, this has been gifted to her by her parents (who live abroad in a non-EU country) over the last few years. The gifts were not specifically for buying a house, but more for her to use as she wishes. The latest amount was gifted about 6 months ago.

I have the following questions:

1) I understand that Natwest (and solicitor) may count my wife's savings as a gifted deposit from overseas. I understand that we may need to provide gifted deposit letters, bank statement s, and ID from her parents abroad (translated into English). Could this cause significant delays to our application and might it be declined on this basis?
2) An alternative, is that my parents can gift me the £20,000 (something they offered anyway). They are UK citizens so it would just be a case of supplying a gifted deposit letter from them. In this case I will pay 100% of the deposit from my own savings. This seems like a less risky option to me. Am I missing anything important here?
3) If I choose to pay 100% of the deposit myself (using parents gift and my own savings), will lenders Natwest or a solicitor look negatively on this? My wife will still be named on the mortgage. Is there any requirement that she puts a deposit towards it as well?

Thank you very much. I will talk to a broker as well, but wanted to get as much advice as possible as we want to get everything processed as smoothly and quickly as possible.