Monetary wedding gifts and mortgage application

Peony2016

My husband and I are looking to purchase a house between now and May next year. The fixed rate on our current mortgage ends 31st April meaning no ERC from 1st May, so we’re just starting to look but haven’t found anything suitable yet. We got married on 24th August and received a very generous amount in cash and cheques, enough to cover our conveyancing and survey fees on our purchase. I’ll be going into my banks on Thursday to change my surname on all of our accounts so we can pay in the cheques made out to ‘Mr & Mrs X’.

I know money laundering regulations have tightened over the past few years since we bought our flat and mortgage companies can be particularly thorough when it comes to gifts. Since we won’t be using any of our wedding money towards the house deposit, will the lender still ask to see proof of where the money has come from? Of course it’s all easy enough to explain and we’ve written down exactly who gave us what amount, but it would be a real headache (and somewhat rude!) to ask our guests for proof of where the money has come from. Approximately half of the money is in the form of cheques and the other half is cash.

Since lenders generally only require 3 months of bank statements is it best to wait until at least January to apply for a mortgage so they don’t see the large deposits on our bank statements? And is it wise to pay the cash into an old dormant current account that I never use (it has £10 in there just to keep the account open) and leave it there until we pay it over to our solicitors? Will I need to provide the bank statement for this account even though it isn’t used?

foxy-stoat

I doubt you will have a problem to be honest, unless you will be paying in £10K in one go into one account in cash, the bank may ask where you got that from. You can say it was wedding gifts.

Peony2016

foxy-stoat wrote: »

I doubt you will have a problem to be honest, unless you will be paying in £10K in one go into one account in cash, the bank may ask where you got that from. You can say it was wedding gifts.

Thank you. So an explanation that the money is from wedding gifts should be enough, even though the deposits into our bank accounts will be 5-6 weeks after the wedding?

LRmortgage

Don’t over think it.
Pay the money in, if you get asked a question, answer it truthfully.

foxy-stoat

LD2016 wrote: »

Thank you. So an explanation that the money is from wedding gifts should be enough, even though the deposits into our bank accounts will be 5-6 weeks after the wedding?

Just be truthful and you should be fine.