Anti Money Laundering Checks

AnnieGunn

I am supposed to be exchanging in early January and on my last email from my solicitor it said "once we receive your mortgage offer" despite that I had filled in all the paperwork back in early September to the effect that I would be using proceeds from my sale + cash to fund my purchase, I responded to the email that I was not waiting on a mortgage offer and she acknowledged that fact.

So far my solicitor still hasn't asked me for anything, not even a cursory check of my bank balance, in fact no-one has even asked me for a bank statement at all the entire process, not even the Estate Agents I am buying from.   I am guessing they have to do some sort of anti money laundering checks but how would I prove that the £50,000 sat there in my bank as payment is simply a fact of me saving up for 20+ years?  Will my solicitor expect to see 20 years worth of pay statements or bank statements?  Is there anything I can do to anticipate this question, any documents I can get hold of now?

dimbo61

They normally ask for your last 3/6 months bank statements ?

MaryNB

Easiest way is the ask exactly what they need and if it can be sent via email or needs to be posted (my solicitor was a pain for waiting for something to be received by email before saying she needed hard copies by post). 

For my deposit I sent a year's worth of current account statements showing a sum of money going into my ISA after each payday and then my ISA annual summary for three years (my online  statements only go back that far). I also sent a cover letter saying I'd been regularly saving since I got my first full time job over 7 years ago. She could see that my savings were increasing fairly uniformly as I earned money and it the increase was reasonable for my salary. I didn't send the full history.
If you were claiming it have saved £50k over 3 years on a £20k salary that would be a red flag but if you can show a reasonable accumulation that should be ok.
Best to ask to be sure.

davidmcn

dimbo61 said:

They normally ask for your last 3/6 months bank statements ?

This is the most likely method. If it's been in your account for long enough, then it's almost certainly your money, not something you're looking after for somebody else as part of a slow-moving money-laundering scheme.

AnnieGunn

Well I have only been on my Army pension for the past 5 years so not really saved much at all, it was saved before that so I wonder how they will prove it's mine without 20 years worth of bank statements.  Is there a limit to how far they go back or is it as far back as it takes to prove it's mine?

I was interested in what others had been requested to provide who were in different situations to what they were 10 years ago if possible.

(I am trying to phone my solicitor however have not had a call back from them in a month now......... Guessing they are prioritising those who want to complete before Xmas and ignoring everyone else due in the first 2 weeks on Jan)

davidmcn

AnnieGunn said:

Is there a limit to how far they go back or is it as far back as it takes to prove it's mine?

As already answered above, they're very unlikely to be looking far back.

AnnieGunn

Fantastic, in that case I already have a 1 year long bank statement and a document giving my lump sum from the Army back in 2012 so hopefully that should suffice and I won't have to go chasing round for something over Christmas.

Thank you for your input guys, it is much appreciated as always on this forum.

greatcrested

Why not ask your conveyancer what they will require?

Different conveyancers have different requirements - the law on exactly what they must do is vague.

AnnieGunn

greatcrested said:

Why not ask your conveyancer what they will require?

Different conveyancers have different requirements - the law on exactly what they must do is vague.

I understands that this is the best course of action and I am working on it, sadly no call back yet   The last time we spoke was 20 November, if I phone her I get, she's not at her desk, she's just in a meeting, she's working from home and unavailable and I don't want to be that person who keeps hassling them - but on the flip side I don't think once a fortnight is outrageous to get some sort of an update in a chain of 3 movers when we are looking to exchange and complete before 13th Jan.

Was just seeing if I could get out ahead of her and see what sort of things other have been asked for so I could be prepared.  If a lot of people had been asked for 10 years worth of statements I could have started to chase that down now and not on the 4th Jan when she finally decides to get back to me.

I suspect after all this waiting around for everyone else for 4 months that I will be the person actually holding up my sale and purchase by chasing down bank statements - which would be ironic after I have been the one pushing forward phoning everyone once every 10-14 days throughout the process or I never would have heard from either estate agents and I suspect my solicitor wouldn't have even made up my file yet.

Uptown_Boy

Do you not have an email address for the solicitor / company?

badger09

Uptown_Boy said:

Do you not have an email address for the solicitor / company?

That not help if solicitor/converyancer doesn't reply to emails either.