Gifted deposit from overseas nightmare

OreoLikeTheCookie

Hi everyone,

My partner and I are buying a new build and my parents are gifting us a few thousand pounds for the deposit. So far it has been a nightmare, every single step has been difficult and it’s not even over yet.

To prove the source of the funds the solicitor asks (amongst other documents which I think/hope I have) for bank statements showing the funds in my parents’ account for at least 3 months. My parents saved in three different bank accounts. I now have to produce 9 bank statements, certify each one and translate them all in English. My father is difficult as it is and I’m just dreading asking for more paperwork.

So I had this idea. Exchange is not due until November. The money is already in my account. If I save my entire salary for September and October, that would be the equivalent of the gifted deposit. I’m receiving my salary in my current account. My parents gift is sitting in my current account. We’ll pay the deposit from our joint account, where we will at one point transfer all the money from our personal current accounts and savings accounts. So what I’m thinking is to transfer my entire salary into our joint account on pay day, with the reference “salary Sep” or “salary Oct” and then pay rent, bills, food with my parents’ money (still in my current account at this point).

I don’t know how legal this is, though. Can I do this? Will the lender at one point ask “hey, wait a minute, if you saved your WHOLE salary, how did you pay rent these past two months?” Will they ask to see statements for my current account, notice my balance, see the money from my parents in there and want to know about it (I’d then be back where I started, having to prove source of funds, which is exactly what I don’t want to go through).

Any advice is appreciated. And to preempt the question, I did ask our solicitor. There were a lot of mmmm and errrrm and “I’d have to look into it” and I still don’t have an answer from them, so I have to take matters into my own hands and make a decision.

Thank you for reading!

Lianne

Simby

I see no reason you cannot do this.

But I would try to get the documents they want anyway in case you need them

davidmcn

OreoLikeTheCookie wrote: »

I now have to produce 9 bank statements, certify each one and translate them all in English.

This isn't unusual or particularly difficult to sort out - it's not a "nightmare". If it's your father who is the "nightmare" that's not the fault of the lender or your solicitor.

OreoLikeTheCookie

davidmcn wrote: »

This isn't unusual or particularly difficult to sort out - it's not a "nightmare". If it's your father who is the "nightmare" that's not the fault of the lender or your solicitor.

I didn’t say it was my father who was a nightmare. Nor that it was the lender’s or the solicitor’s fault. Have you had to sort out paperwork for a gifted deposit from overseas? To give you just one example, the solicitor asked for a copy of my parents passports, certified. Well, as it turns out, where I come from, notary publics and solicitors DO NOT certify IDs. And an ID certified by any other official was not accepted by my solicitor. It took a lot of effort and sleepless nights to sort that one out and that’s just ONE example.

Dealing with this, with my partner’s cancer and trying to hold down a 9 - 5 job has been a nightmare. I just want it to be as easy as possible for me, hence my post. Please, if you don’t have helpful advice, do not reply at all.

Regards,

Lianne

[Deleted User]

I'm sorry to hear about your partners illness. I hope a full recovery is on the cards

From a business point of view, we deal with these all the time. Every case woth a foreign deposit is a 'nightmare'. Perhaps as we deal with them so often we lose sight of how it feels to the person who has never done it.

On your original question, I expect since you are already in the midst of deposit proof it will be hard to back out. Maybe speak to your conveyancer on Monday to ask if it will work, they won't think you are trying to be dodgy with a question like this so nothing to worry about by approaching them

[Deleted User]

What I meant by 'speak to your solicitor' is that no one else (including you) gets to make the decison at this point. It's 100% in the hands of the solicitor

davidmcn

OreoLikeTheCookie wrote: »

Have you had to sort out paperwork for a gifted deposit from overseas?

Yes, I have. Getting bank statements certified and translated might be a tiresome bit of admin, but it's really not all that onerous.

OreoLikeTheCookie

Deleted_User wrote: »

What I meant by 'speak to your solicitor' is that no one else (including you) gets to make the decison at this point. It's 100% in the hands of the solicitor

Thank you for your kind reply. I do plan to speak with the solicitor as well, but I'm a person who needs plan A, plan B and plan C, which is why I posted on MSE. My partner had brain surgery and I am pretty much the only one who has to deal with all the mortgage issues for both of us. I didn't expect this to be easy, but I didn't expect obstacles at every step either.



I haven't had to produce proof of deposit yet and we're still a few weeks away from having to do that, but I want to be prepared. At the moment I'm inclined to make providing the dozens of pages of foreign bank statements plan B, just because declaring my salary as source of the deposit seems like the path of least resistance.



I can't say I have faith in my solicitor either. I called several times, emailed and asked for a call back on Thursday, to discuss this particular issue and I've heard nothing back. I have this niggling thought that I should look for a different solicitor because things have been shaky with my current one (our names spelled wrongly on official paperwork, emails sent to wrong email addresses, incomplete paperwork sent to us, difficult to reach, etc), but because they've ordered the searches, I don't know how difficult it would be to change them at this point. Anyway, that's probably the subject of another thread


Thank you!


Lianne

OreoLikeTheCookie

davidmcn wrote: »

This isn't unusual or particularly difficult to sort out - it's not a "nightmare". If it's your father who is the "nightmare" that's not the fault of the lender or your solicitor.

David,


Should I understand from your reply that your advice is for me to go the way of asking for the bank statements, getting them certified and translated? If yes, can you think of any reason why I couldn't choose the other option (using my salary as deposit and living off my parents' gift for the next two months)?



I am looking for advice from people who perhaps have the experience to back the advice up and since you have all those stars under your name, I'm assuming you have reasons to advise the way you do.


Regards,


Lianne

davidmcn

OreoLikeTheCookie wrote: »

Should I understand from your reply that your advice is for me to go the way of asking for the bank statements, getting them certified and translated? If yes, can you think of any reason why I couldn't choose the other option (using my salary as deposit and living off my parents' gift for the next two months)?

If your solicitor advises that they're happy with the latter option than by all means go for it. I suspect though that they may regard it as amounting to much the same thing i.e. you're still relying on your parent's money in order for the purchase to happen.

I can't see any real downside with the former option other than you'll have the cost of the translation.

Thrugelmir

OreoLikeTheCookie wrote: »

Should I understand from your reply that your advice is for me to go the way of asking for the bank statements, getting them certified and translated? If yes, can you think of any reason why I couldn't choose the other option (using my salary as deposit and living off my parents' gift for the next two months)?

Common sense says it would a nonsense of the rules if solicitors accepted it.