Estate Agent requesting full bank statement for POF

sillyhilly

jenand8285 wrote: »

I am getting myself a bit wound up about this. My husband thinks I should just send them over, after all we have nothing to hide.


But I really do not want to send my full bank statements over email and I don't think it usual practice in our situation! It is not like its a transaction I would consider high risk for ML. We are a couple with a joint employment income of £60k buying a house for £220k using £40k from an house we have owned for almost 5 years and contributing a measly £4k!! I would expect more thorough due diligence if we were cash buyers, but it is £4k!!


It would have been easier for me to get a bigger loan on the AIP!!


I suppose I will end up just sending them as what else can I do?? We don't want to lose the house...

I personally think you're being a bit melodramatic. You don't want to lose the house, and yet you're refusing to send a bank statement over which proves that you have source of funds, which will be relayed back to the seller as something around the lines of:

EA: "the buyers are not providing information which proves that they can afford this house"

Seller: "put it back on the market then"

And the property market is high risk of money laundering. Not every money launderer is Al Capone with millions under the mattress.

Just send the thing over, and then worry about the next 17 hurdles you're going to have to jump over.

[Deleted User]

I would just send the bank statement over, or drop a copy into the local branch if your not comfortable sending via email.

I'm not sure what you think they are going to do with it?

Lokolo

sillyhilly wrote: »

I personally think you're being a bit melodramatic. You don't want to lose the house, and yet you're refusing to send a bank statement over which proves that you have source of funds, which will be relayed back to the seller as something around the lines of:

EA: "the buyers are not providing information which proves that they can afford this house"

Seller: "put it back on the market then"

And the property market is high risk of money laundering. Not every money launderer is Al Capone with millions under the mattress.

Just send the thing over, and then worry about the next 17 hurdles you're going to have to jump over.

The OP has shown they have the deposit though. Just because they haven't shown a months worth of transactions. Why does this make a difference?

There's showing the balance, and then there's showing a months worth of transactions. The EA do not need to see the latter, and it doesn't necessarily prove the source of funds either.

sillyhilly

Lokolo wrote: »

There's showing the balance, and then there's showing a months worth of transactions. The EA do not need to see the latter, and it doesn't necessarily prove the source of funds either.

Yes they do. They need to confirm Source of Funds for the Money Laundering Regulations. And this includes seeing the transactions, too. A balance of £4,000 will prove nothing. You need to see how this is accumulated. For example:

Balance of £4,000 from savings - all good to go, let's do this.

Cash deposit of £4,000 from all the Class A's you were dealing? Bad news for you bro...

Lokolo

sillyhilly wrote: »

Yes they do. They need to confirm Source of Funds for the Money Laundering Regulations. And this includes seeing the transactions, too. A balance of £4,000 will prove nothing. You need to see how this is accumulated. For example:

Balance of £4,000 from savings - all good to go, let's do this.

Cash deposit of £4,000 from all the Class A's you were dealing? Bad news for you bro...

Oh brilliant. So one month will show the source of the funds will it? /s

It won't. Which is my point. 1 day, 1 month, 1 year, doesn't necessarily mean they can prove anti laundering money.

Example of my previous purchase, they asked for 3 months. All it showed was interest transactions, because the money had been in there 6 months. So actually it didn't prove anything!

Surrey_EA

LawAbiding wrote: »

only Guidance for EA's.

Splendid news, I'll let HMRC know!

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/estate-agents-targeted-in-money-laundering-crackdown

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47441554

https://www.accountancydaily.co/hmrc-crackdown-estate-agents-over-money-laundering-failures

https://www.integra-ps.com/news/money-laundering-huge-fines-for-three-estate-agents.html

sillyhilly

Lokolo wrote: »

Oh brilliant. So one month will show the source of the funds will it? /s

It won't. Which is my point. 1 day, 1 month, 1 year, doesn't necessarily mean they can prove anti laundering money.

Example of my previous purchase, they asked for 3 months. All it showed was interest transactions, because the money had been in there 6 months. So actually it didn't prove anything!

Ultimately, you can launder all your drug money in a different account, and just give the EA a 'normal' one and it's statement... They won't know. BUT they need to be seen to be evidencing source of funds to comply with the Regulations, and by the OP redacting/obscuring certain information, this will fall foul of those Regulations.

Your statement still confirmed Source of Funds though didn't it? It's in a low risk savings account, just sitting there with interest accruing on it. Maybe on your next purchase, try a current account and in the preceding weeks/months, deposit lots of rounded cash figures at the bank branch, and see if you get questioned some more...

jenand8285

After all of the above we ended up pulling out of that purchase! Offered on another with Purple Bricks and they accepted DIP, redemption statement and Memo of sale as proof of funds. No detailed bank statements etc.

Looking back the DIP stated the lender would lend up to £279k but we had requested £176k (since we would be going 80% LTV) so I guess for Purple Bricks that was enough to evidence fund or at least access to the required funds.

theartfullodger

Tell agent of course you'll comply when he provides a copy of his personal bank statement likewise.


He clearly thinks it's a reasonable thing to provide: Whatever would stop him?