Gifted deposit question about non-relative

KnittedMonkey

I have been given £15k to use as a deposit to buy a house. Trouble is, it's not from a blood relative. I think I can wait a certain period until a mortgage lender considers the money is officially 'mine' and won't ask questions about the donor having a claim on the property. Any idea how long?
It will pass scrutiny of AML checks, nothing dodgy about origins. Just the 'claim' checks. My mortgage adviser is very slow to respond to my emails so I'm asking here.
Thanks in advance.

marliepanda

As long as it passes all the checks it will be fine. 'Blood' doesnt matter.

kingstreet

I disagree. Many lenders insist on blood family relationships and often disallow gifts from cousins etc.

Study your chosen lender's criteria before you apply.

Halifax, for example;-

by birth/blood relative (for example an Aunty has to be via blood and not marriage)
by marriage or civil partnership (including step children, adopted children and in-laws)
as 'Common Law' partners or co-habitees.

There is no minimum period before the money ceases to be a gift. It will depend more on solicitor than lender.

marliepanda

My grandad gifted me a small amount, but he is not blood, he is simply married to my grandmother as of 20 years ago.

Not once were the genetics of the relationship questioned or asked for. He was asked to sign a form stating it was a gift, provide photo ID and that was that.

Note, as far as I am aware it was the solicitor who asked for everything, but maybe the bank had asked them for that. Bank was Santander.

sal_III

Most lenders will only ask for 3-6 months of bank statements. As long as the money has been there for longer and the transfer doesn't show on them you should be fine.

bris

sal_III wrote: »

Most lenders will only ask for 3-6 months of bank statements. As long as the money has been there for longer and the transfer doesn't show on them you should be fine.

Not true, when you hand over 15k they want to know where it came from. They then want to know where the person that gave it to you got it. It's the law, the solicitor has no choice they have to trace the money for laundering reasons. Time has no bearing on this.

davidmcn

bris wrote: »

Not true, when you hand over 15k they want to know where it came from. They then want to know where the person that gave it to you got it. It's the law, the solicitor has no choice they have to trace the money for laundering reasons. Time has no bearing on this.

Of course it has a bearing, otherwise they'd be tracing the source of funds back to the invention of money. They need to draw a line somewhere. If you've had the money sitting in your account for long enough then it's going to be presumed to be your money, rather than someone else's under some extremely slow-moving money-laundering scheme. Where they draw that line will vary from solicitor to solicitor, but three months would be a typical period.