London solicitor for document certification?

Tiglet2

MaryNB said:

eddddy said:

srosenc said:

For anyone who finds this forum in the future, I recently had the hardest time getting a document certified for a bank account opening (I'm an ex-pat) for cheap; I found this post through googling online but a lot of the advice (walk around/call around) isn't working since a lot of places are closed because of Covid. The bank wouldn't accept post office certification, and then I found a friend of a friend who is a chartered accountant who ended up doing it for cheap; he doesn't do them often historically but told me if anyone wants to use him in the future, that he could do it (Canary Wharf area!); just let me know and I can get you connected - just wanted to share because everything I kept finding was so expensive! 

In my experience, solicitors will only accept ID documents certified by another solicitor - a chartered accountant wouldn't be acceptable.

Perhaps banks are less strict.

My solicitor accepted my parents IDs (for gifted deposit anti money laundering checks) certified by an accountant. 

Unfortunately, that's not the same thing.  An ID1 form has very specific requirements.

TBagpuss

As Tiglet says, it is very dependent on what is being certified and why.

An ID1 involves the solicitors certifying, in effect, that they are satisfied that you are you, so it carries risk for them if you are a fraudster, so many firms won't do ID1s unless they open a file and do their own full ID verification process, and charge accordingly.

If you need confirmation of ID to comply with anti-money laundering rules then each firm will have their own requirements.(so many firms s will accept copies certified by the post office or other professionals, but not all will). Since that is part of their anti money laundering processes they may also have more stringent requirements if the transaction is higher risk for any reason 

Most firms of solicitor swill certify documents - (effectively saying - "I confirm that I saw the original document of which this is a photocop"y), a but may not be accepting walk0in's in the current situation.

If you need something where the solicitor is staying "I confirm that this photo is a true likeness of Mr John Doe" then again many will only do it if they actually know you and know you are John Doe.  

Tiglet2

Sample ID1 Form:

 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/962610/ID1__2021-01-05_.pdf

Go to Section B, page 4 for the requirements for the certifier.