Gifted Deposit Charge

Branagorn

Hello Forum,


I am currently 3 weeks into a Flat purchase, having had my offer accepted, welcome pack completed and returned to my Conveyancers. I will be purchasing with a mortgage, and help from my parents in the form of a gifted deposit, which is not expected to be paid back.


I have just received a letter from my Conveyencers, asking that I supply them with a gifted deposit letter, where it also outlines that I will be charged £75 to do so. I will now put below my email, and reply from the solicitors.




"Good Morning Conveyencer,

My name is Buyer and we will be working together towards my
purchase of Property.

I have received your latest letter regarding my gifted deposit and wanted
to get some clarity.

I have familiarised myself with the Conveyencer Company Terms of Engagement section
relevant to this, and as far as I can understand, supplying you with a
gifted deposit letter will not be necessary.

My mortgage broker/processing agent has walked me through this step, and
such a letter has been already forwarded to HSBC. On that point, to keep
you in the loop, the latest word from HSBC is that my mortgage application
has been approved, subject to acceptable professional valuation. Also
just to clarify, I will not be paying you conveyancing fees via a third
party (my parents), with all money coming directly from myself. So to my
knowledge, no further identity checks should be required.

If my understanding of this is incorrect, please do let me know.

If I can provide any further information/actions at this point to progress
the purchase, also do let me know.

I look forward to our future correspondence and I wish you a pleasant day.

Many thanks,

Buyer

Hi Buyer,

Many thanks for your email.

In relation to your gifted deposit, we will require a letter signed by the
person/s providing the gift confirming the amount of the gift, their
relationship to you and that the gift is non-refundable or interest
bearing. We will also require copies of their ID documents in the same
format as you have done for us.

We are required to obtain the above to comply with our legal requirements
and those of your mortgage lender.

Please note we have now received the draft contract documents from the
seller's solicitors. These will shortly be reviewed and reported to you by
our title checking team, they will also raise necessary enquiries with the
seller's solicitors.

Please can you confirm in the meantime that you are happy for the property
searches to be requested?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind Regards, Conveyancer"

I understand that supplying the lender a gifted deposit letter is necessary, however I am not fully convinced that this response as satisfied me in explaining it is for my Conveyencer, and more importantly to pay them £75 to do so.


I would be happily to be told differently, so that I could drop this inquiry. I'd simply like to draw on the experience of the forum before I go on holding this further. I am weary that too much 'extra' communication with the Conveyencers may cost me more in the long run.

davidmcn

It is additional work for them as they have to check the ID of your parents and the source of their funds, so not unreasonable that they charge you more than clients for whom they don't need to carry out those steps.

Pixie5740

Branagorn wrote: »

Hello Forum,


I am currently 3 weeks into a Flat purchase, having had my offer accepted, welcome pack completed and returned to my Conveyancers. I will be purchasing with a mortgage, and help from my parents in the form of a gifted deposit, which is not expected to be paid back.


I have just received a letter from my Conveyencers, asking that I supply them with a gifted deposit letter, where it also outlines that I will be charged £75 to do so. I will now put below my email, and reply from the solicitors.




"Good Morning Conveyencer,

My name is Buyer and we will be working together towards my
purchase of Property.

I have received your latest letter regarding my gifted deposit and wanted
to get some clarity.

I have familiarised myself with the Conveyencer Company Terms of Engagement section
relevant to this, and as far as I can understand, supplying you with a
gifted deposit letter will not be necessary.

My mortgage broker/processing agent has walked me through this step, and
such a letter has been already forwarded to HSBC. On that point, to keep
you in the loop, the latest word from HSBC is that my mortgage application
has been approved, subject to acceptable professional valuation. Also
just to clarify, I will not be paying you conveyancing fees via a third
party (my parents), with all money coming directly from myself. So to my
knowledge, no further identity checks should be required.

If my understanding of this is incorrect, please do let me know.

If I can provide any further information/actions at this point to progress
the purchase, also do let me know.

I look forward to our future correspondence and I wish you a pleasant day.

Many thanks,

Buyer

Hi Buyer,

Many thanks for your email.

In relation to your gifted deposit, we will require a letter signed by the
person/s providing the gift confirming the amount of the gift, their
relationship to you and that the gift is non-refundable or interest
bearing. We will also require copies of their ID documents in the same
format as you have done for us.

We are required to obtain the above to comply with our legal requirements
and those of your mortgage lender.

Please note we have now received the draft contract documents from the
seller's solicitors. These will shortly be reviewed and reported to you by
our title checking team, they will also raise necessary enquiries with the
seller's solicitors.

Please can you confirm in the meantime that you are happy for the property
searches to be requested?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind Regards, Conveyancer"

I understand that supplying the lender a gifted deposit letter is necessary, however I am not fully convinced that this response as satisfied me in explaining it is for my Conveyencer, and more importantly to pay them £75 to do so.


I would be happily to be told differently, so that I could drop this inquiry. I'd simply like to draw on the experience of the forum before I go on holding this further. I am weary that too much 'extra' communication with the Conveyencers may cost me more in the long run.

The solicitor needs to be satisfied that the money is not from ill-gotten gains in order to comply with anti money laundering regulations. That it turns means more work for the solicitor which you've got to pay for.

CocoLouie

If you refuse to pay the fee the solicitor can refuse to continue providing their services and bill you for the works already carried out.


Due to money laundering regulations the solicitors need to be satisfied that the money is coming from a legitimate source which is separate to the banks requirements. This requires work on their part so there will be a fee for these services.

jonnygee2

I understand that supplying the lender a gifted deposit letter is necessary, however I am not fully convinced that this response as satisfied me in explaining it is for my Conveyencer, and more importantly to pay them £75 to do so.

Welcome to the world of conveyncers :rotfl:

Mine charged me £1.50 for postage of the contract, pretty ridiculous when your are paying them £1000s already that they would not include a stamp!

Everything you do will incur extra charges of some sorts.

HampshireH

Its quite normal and the next conveyancing firm your employ will request the same.

Challenging it further will only hold up your purchase. Most conveyancing firms provide a quote with a breakdown of costs. The gifted deposit fee is usually part of that quote if you have notified them

Throwaway1

It's a normal request from your solicitor. They have to comply with anti-money laundering regulations and doing so requires them to complete extra work - hence their charge to you. It's not something you will be able to negotiate away or refuse to pay (unless you decide to not use the gifted money).