Should I return a gift which is not required? Donor cannot provide ID

Drone31

Hi, I hope someone can give me some advice here - I initially offered on a flat with a view to making a 10% deposit - 5% from me, 5% from my mum now in her late 70's.  Nothing major, £4k each, she just wanted to help me out.  However on further discussion with her, she's totally reluctant to provide her account details to anyone etc etc, has no passport as she's never been abroad in her life, never held a driving licence or bus pass.  She's very frustratingly stubborn about it, and I feel like tearing my hair out.  Since my father passed away she has been managing finances alone, only deals in cash, never uses credit, the usual sort of thing with her generation more often than not.

Fine, ok, so I have dropped the deposit to 5% which I can cover from my own funds no problem, fees etc, all sorted.

So, my question is - should I send her the funds back?  When the sols do their checks, I can show I have enough in my own name, and I don't need to use her money.  I have moved it into a separate savings account from the account I hold my deposit in.

However are the sols still going to insist on seeing her ID, bank statements etc?  I feel like this is potentially going to utterly hobble my application.  

I'm also in the awkward position of needing the sols to act immediately on the searches due to having a 21 day exchange on this (which I didn't find out until after the offer was accepted) - so if there's an issue I'm out of pocket if I can't proceed, as I need to instruct searches right away.  

RHemmings

In your situation, I would exclude the £4K from the house purchase, and use it for other costs such as any repairs/upgrades that need doing after purchase. Or just living costs. I would explain that I'm doing that to my mother to make sure that she's OK with that.

Note that I believe that would be legal and not a problem, but I'm just a random person on the internet. I'd like to hear from others whether that would be problematic. 

Devongardener

If you don’t need your mother’s contribution there’s no need for the solicitor or mortgage lender to know anything about it, surely.  Just don’t mention it.
When submitting proof of funds you don’t need to supply details of all of your accounts, just enough to cover your 5%.
As you mother has already give you the money just use it for other house costs like removals etc.

Keep_pedalling

No need to send the gift back if you are not going use it for the purchase your solicitors are only going to be interested in the funds you are using for the purchase. Keep it as an emergency fund or drip feed it in to mortgage over payments.

Drone31

Devongardener said:

If you don’t need your mother’s contribution there’s no need for the solicitor or mortgage lender to know anything about it, surely.  Just don’t mention it.
When submitting proof of funds you don’t need to supply details of all of your accounts, just enough to cover your 5%.
As you mother has already give you the money just use it for other house costs like removals etc.

Yeah cheers, the solicitor has asked for six months statements and six months savings build up, I'm not sure if that's a standard thing now but that's what they are after annoyingly. 

I'm likely being overly paranoid here but along with the 21 day issue I'm getting probably overly obsessed with the smallest things which could go wrong

I work for the mortgage lender I am using so I do want to be 100% transparent

caprikid1

Why not use it to overpay ?

penners324

Why 21 days?

That's impossible. I bought a new build recently where conveyancing took 6 weeks and everyone stated that was extremely quick.

I sold a lease hold flat shortly afterwards with no chain and it took 5 months.

bluelad1927

caprikid1 said:

Why not use it to overpay ?

I agree if the mortgage t & c  allow you could pay the money straight off the mortgage and be in exactly the same position.

nicmyles

If the money is there at all, it is possible they will ask for the source of it and need information from your mother. We took a loan (not even a gift!) from my parents for some associated costs relating to moving, explicitly not funding the purchase) and they made us go through the whole rigmarole anyway. I suppose it makes some sense, ie if there is gifted money in your account, it is essentially mingled with your own funds and you cannot say it isn't being used for the purchase.

Mark_d

So your mum has given you £4k in cash, as a gift, to help with your property purchase?  I don't see why you can't use this gift to help you put down a 10% deposit, and hopefully get yourself a lower mortgage interest rate.

The lender's assessment of your affordability should not be affected by your receipt of this gift from your mum

lisyloo

I would think this is all to do with money laundering regulations.
The want to make sure your mum isn't a terrorist or drug dealer which I'm sure she isn't in fact they are obligated to do this.
If it's on your statement it could still cause an issue.