Alternative to bank statements for deposit gift

Drem1992

Asking for a friend on this one!
They're due to exchange any day, part of the deposit is a gift from her parents. The solicitors hadn't informed them until now that they needed proof of funds for the deposit gift. The gift is coming from her parents business account (they're self employed) and they're very reluctant to share such personal information that will end up including much of the private information relating to their business. 
Is there an alternative they can use to verify their funds without having to share their bank statement? At the moment this is threatening the whole sale!

user1977

In short, no, and if anything it's only going to arouse suspicion if they're reluctant to provide the evidence requested.

What exactly are they concerned about? Obviously solicitors are used to respecting confidentiality, the statement is only being looked at in order to verify whose account the money was in.

macman

Move the funds over to their personal account and provide a statement from that?
Unless the business is directly gifting them the money, then I'd have thought that that is the way they'd do it anyway?

MaryNB

macman said:

Move the funds over to their personal account and provide a statement from that?
Unless the business is directly gifting them the money, then I'd have thought that that is the way they'd do it anyway?

The solicitor will want to know where that large sum of money that has appeared in their personal account has come from. 

[Deleted User]

Drem1992 said:

Asking for a friend on this one!
They're due to exchange any day, part of the deposit is a gift from her parents. The solicitors hadn't informed them until now that they needed proof of funds for the deposit gift. The gift is coming from her parents business account (they're self employed) and they're very reluctant to share such personal information that will end up including much of the private information relating to their business. 
Is there an alternative they can use to verify their funds without having to share their bank statement? At the moment this is threatening the whole sale!

It down to the solicitor to satisfy themselves (oh er Mrs) so that (s)he doesn’t fall foul of anti money laundering legislation. If the solicitor has requested bank statements and the parents don’t want to share those bank statements then ask the solicitor if there’s any other documentation (s)he will accept instead. If there isn’t and/or the parents refuse to share alternative documentation as well then your friend can kiss the gifted deposit goodbye. 

AdrianC

Drem1992 said:

Asking for a friend on this one!
They're due to exchange any day, part of the deposit is a gift from her parents. The solicitors hadn't informed them until now that they needed proof of funds for the deposit gift. The gift is coming from her parents business account (they're self employed) and they're very reluctant to share such personal information that will end up including much of the private information relating to their business. 
Is there an alternative they can use to verify their funds without having to share their bank statement?

The solicitor is under a legal requirement to put the source of all funds through anti-money-laundering procedures.

This should not come as a surprise to anybody who runs any kind of business.

At the moment this is threatening the whole sale!

What's threatening it is the parents being pig-headed over a perfectly reasonable and standard request.

There's absolutely nothing to fear, unless the source of the funds is not legitimate...
The solicitor is going to find themselves idly wondering if this "self-employment" always goes through the books...

steampowered

This is a completely standard and normal request that you will encounter with any solicitor or conveyancer.

If there is anyone that your parents should feel comfortable giving information to, it would be a solicitor, because solicitors are subject to strict regulation requiring them to keep client information confidential.

Self employed people need to declare earnings to HMRC anyway so it isn't really "private".

theartfullodger

The cynical or suspicious might conclude someone has something to hide......

Drem1992

Thank you all for the advice. The solicitors have since offered a secure app to transfer the information settling some of the concerns about the security of emails etc. I think that now they've understood that this is a standard procedure and have some more information they are willing to proceed. 
No thank you to all the incredibly rude people who decided to take the opportunity to cast aspersions on people they know absolutely nothing about. There is certainly nothing suspicious about this, they're just people who are concerned about their privacy and understandably want to ensure the ins and outs of their daily business transactions are being shared and viewed in a secure way. 

Tiglet2

Your parents could also print a copy of their bank statement and then redact any transactions/amounts that are not necessary for the proof of funds.

teachfast

I suspect they didn't want the subject of the gift to see the accounts, rather than the solicitor.