Source of funds enquiry on buying UK property

cheekykid

I have recently sold some gold bullion I been stocking up for the past 1 1/2 years and I have around £50,000 in my bank account all coming from a well known and legit gold bullion company. I also have the sale receipts for everything.

What I want to do is put this down as a deposit and get a mortgage for a property that is valued at around 150k up in Manchester.

Basically this is my source of funds, I sold gold yet my solicitor isn't having it and want to know how I bought the gold in the first place. Well this was bought primarily by using bitcoins which I had bought many years ago before anyone knew anything about it. She isn't having this either and wants to know how I got the bitcoins etc.

By using this logic we reach a point where there are simply no records as banks don't hold statements over 6 years (right?) and nor do I. How many times it is reasonable to ask "and how did you find this money?" until it becomes completely ridiculous?

wesleyad

Well they normally like to go back as far as it "entered the system" which normally means a bank account. Did you buy the gold using bitcoins directly or did you liquidate the bitcoins into a UK bank and then buy?

If the latter I cant see the problem.

If the former then you'd need to show the amount of bitcoins used, and then show the increase in value over time leading up to that as being your source of income (as I assume the initial value of bitcoins was extremely low)

snilloct1957

I think the solicitor is just trying to cover his/her back and doesn't want to be accused of aiding and abetting money laundering. Do you have a transaction to show when/where you bought the bitcoins, or is that lost in the mists of time?

[Deleted User]

Is there a mortgage involved?

If so then the lender has to be informed of where the deposit has been.

Santander for example will not allow cryptocurrency to be used as a source of deposit so would potentially decline in your case if you were with them

It all depends on what the solicitor declares as source of deposit and they will be goin g back far enough to actually see the source

[Deleted User]

Just had a quick search around while having brekkie. Looks like most lenders will decline with bitcoin involved.
Too big a money laundering risk I suppose as by its nature its impossible to trace.

Rightly or wrongly its the lenders money you are asking for so need to play by their rules

Which lender are you going with?

davidmcn

Deleted_User wrote: »

It all depends on what the solicitor declares as source of deposit and they will be going back far enough to actually see the source

By "source" they ought to mean relatively recent history, not going back years. They need to draw the line somewhere, otherwise they'd be tracing the source back to the invention of money.

I would have thought it more common just to look back a few months.

Depends what the OP means by "stocking up for the past 1 1/2 years" if some of it was bought much more recently than 18 months ago.

[Deleted User]

davidmcn wrote: »

By "source" they ought to mean relatively recent history, not going back years. They need to draw the line somewhere, otherwise they'd be tracing the source back to the invention of money.

I would have thought it more common just to look back a few months.

Depends what the OP means by "stocking up for the past 1 1/2 years" if some of it was bought much more recently than 18 months ago.

Agree that they won't go back to see op buying the bitcoin if it's years ago. I suspect the gold bullion is the deposit but source of this would be noted as bitcoin. And that would leave op hoping the lender is OK with this

AdrianC

Deleted_User wrote: »

Is there a mortgage involved?

If so then the lender has to be informed of where the deposit has been.

Even if there isn't, the solicitor has to do all the know-your-client moneylaundering checks. They have to satisfy themselves that the source of funds is legitimate.

I know if I wanted to hide some illicit money, then putting it round the houses of untraceability via things like cryptocurrencies and gold bullion would be fairly high on my list of ways to do it...

00ec25

this is a perfect example of why the money laundering regs were brought out.
bitcoin converted to bullion converted to the one thing which upon sale will not be questioned as to whether it is "clean" money - a property.

are you really surprised they are going "back" further than normal?

[Deleted User]

AdrianC wrote: »

Even if there isn't, the solicitor has to do all the know-your-client moneylaundering checks. They have to satisfy themselves that the source of funds is legitimate.

I know if I wanted to hide some illicit money, then putting it round the houses of untraceability via things like cryptocurrencies and gold bullion would be fairly high on my list of ways to do it...

Completely agree with that. Was just trying to make it clear to OP that his opinion on his deposit doesn't really matter one jot if there is a mortgage company to satisfy. The solicitor could be completely happy that no money laundering is involved but the lender can still knock it back due it being in cryptocurrency

diggingdude

keep the money in your account for a few years and try again