Conveyancer asks for more than 3000 £ in certified translations

steampowered

staicontento said:

It would be great if any of you could come up with some law/regulation that could help a (still) EU citizen to get his rights.

There's not a particular piece of legislation to help you, as anti-money laundering regulation requires appropriate steps to be taken - i.e., the application of common sense which your conveyancer seems to lack.

I would ask the conveyancer to escalate this to whoever is responsible in their organisation to money laundering matters, or to the relevant partner. Perhaps have a look at the complaints process.

You can also help the conevyancer by pointing them towards the entries which demonstrate your funds (i.e., receipt of salary and the name of the employer).

If that all fails I would appoint a different conveyancer though it is a pain and extra cost to do that mid-way through the process.

davidmcn

staicontento said:

Also, please note that all the money is already in UK, in an UK bank that follows UK money laundering regulations. If there was a suspicious transfer, it would have been reported.

That isn't how it works. A transaction isn't deemed to be "clean" merely because it's been through another regulated institution. Your bank, for example, doesn't really care where that money came from - whereas it is relevant to your solicitor.

theoretica

I agree with asking your conveyancer exactly which documents need translating - surely one translated payslip is much like all the others.

eidand

davidmcn said:

staicontento said:

Also, please note that all the money is already in UK, in an UK bank that follows UK money laundering regulations. If there was a suspicious transfer, it would have been reported.

That isn't how it works. A transaction isn't deemed to be "clean" merely because it's been through another regulated institution. Your bank, for example, doesn't really care where that money came from - whereas it is relevant to your solicitor.

That's exactly how it works. Having just been through that myself, when money is sent from EU, there are strict regulations.
You have to prove the source of the money, you have to show where it's going and who owns all the accounts involved. You don't just send money through a EU bank, especially large amounts. All the checks have already been done at the point of transfer to UK. So, yes, all banks involved care.

princeofpounds

AdrianC said:

princeofpounds said:

As AdrianC suggests, this was an EU requirement, but it wouldn't surprise me if we implemented it to the strict letter when others don't.

Not this guff again...

There is no "implement to the strict letter". It's either implemented or it isn't. And it won't go away with Brexit, unless the UK really wants to become an utter international pariah state in the financial industry, a centre for global money laundering...

And, anyway, how other countries implement it is irrelevant here. The OP is wanting to produce foreign-language documents to satisfy a UK lawyer's legal requirement to follow UK law on a UK transaction... No, there is no reasonable expectation that all UK lawyers should be able to understand the nuances of Italian-language documentation. Or any of the other 22 other non-English EU official languages... Or any of the hundreds of non-EU ones... So, yes, requiring an officially certified translation is perfectly reasonable, and not in any way discriminatory.

Get out of the wrong side of bed this morning?

I didn't say it would go away with Brexit. Or advocate becoming a money laundering pariah state. Or suggest it was unreasonable to have a translation. Or that it was in any way discriminatory. I'm kind of wondering if you're even replying to my post given you seem to have read a whole lot of extra information into it.

I just made an off-hand comment about national interpretation of EU directives. Which DO differ quite frequently. Maybe not in this instance, although my anecdotal knowledge suggests enforcement can be different in different EU states. It's not that important.

I do agree that how other countries implement it is irrelevant to how it works here. I was just speculating as to why someone from Italy may be surprised by a regulation which, in theory, applies in their own country too.

davidmcn

eidand said:

davidmcn said:

staicontento said:

Also, please note that all the money is already in UK, in an UK bank that follows UK money laundering regulations. If there was a suspicious transfer, it would have been reported.

That isn't how it works. A transaction isn't deemed to be "clean" merely because it's been through another regulated institution. Your bank, for example, doesn't really care where that money came from - whereas it is relevant to your solicitor.

That's exactly how it works. Having just been through that myself, when money is sent from EU, there are strict regulations.
You have to prove the source of the money, you have to show where it's going and who owns all the accounts involved. You don't just send money through a EU bank, especially large amounts. All the checks have already been done at the point of transfer to UK. So, yes, all banks involved care.

Solicitors aren't allowed to place any reliance on the fact the funds have already been "accepted" by a bank. Even if the bank is completely satisfied that the money came from Joe Bloggs and that there's nothing intrinsically unlawful about it, that fact put together with the rest of the transaction may mean the solicitor ought to be suspicious about it. Plus if there's a mortgage lender involved, the solicitors will need to check that the remainder of the funds came from the borrower and not a third party.

Jamaicanmelaff

As a translator, who also works in this language pair, £30 per page for bank statements seems quite excessive. There wouldn't be any need to translate every word on the text and using translation memory software any info such as figures etc can easily be copied across and any repeated text across pages (like your name and address) would be automatically filled after they insert and confirm the first instance of it, requiring no more than a quick check if that. In the UK, there is no set system for a body you must belong to to be able to certify translations as exists in other countries. Translation is unregulated in the UK. Any qualified translator can sign a sworn declaration saying that they are able to certify that the text is a true translation and they are qualified to translate it, so I would definitely ask around. It may be that you're approaching a company that is implying only few companies can certify translations.

Jamaicanmelaff

I'm not touting for business btw, I'm fully booked for weeks, just that I have knowledge of this language pair and pricing and it seems excessive to me.

steampowered

eidand said:

That's exactly how it works. Having just been through that myself, when money is sent from EU, there are strict regulations.
You have to prove the source of the money, you have to show where it's going and who owns all the accounts involved. You don't just send money through a EU bank, especially large amounts. All the checks have already been done at the point of transfer to UK. So, yes, all banks involved care.

There are no restrictions on transferring money from a European (or indeed non-European) bank account and back again. I transfer money between my UK accounts and my non-EU overseas accounts all the time (I used to work overseas), I've never once been asked to provide evidence for the source of funds.

Banks do anti-money laundering checks when you open an account, but they do not routinely do checks on money paid into the accounts (unless the transaction is flagged as suspicious for any reason). Solicitor AML checks are quite different as they are verifying the source of funds for the deposit.

AdrianC

princeofpounds said:

I just made an off-hand comment about national interpretation of EU directives. Which DO differ quite frequently. Maybe not in this instance, although my anecdotal knowledge suggests enforcement can be different in different EU states. It's not that important.

No, the implementation does not differ. It cannot differ.

Enforcement might differ. That's a different thing. But any country that takes the mickey with enforcement is going to find the EU coming down on them in the courts. ESPECIALLY if they're being lax about enforcing breaches of money-laundering regs... precisely because that would be turning into a money-laundering haven...