Buying a house - proving where the money is coming from.

Peter999_2

Hi,

I am purchasing a house with money that we have saved over many many years (going back about 20 years).    The money is currently in several ISAs and fixed term savings accounts.

My solicitor is saying I must provide all bank statement showing how I have slowly saved this money.  However, it will not work like that for me, these are savings that have taken me years and years and I just don't have the bank statements going back 20 years.

Has anyone been through this before?   Surely there must be an easier way?

Many thanks

Peter

Linton

Show the bank statements you have got.  You should be able to download 7 years worth which will show consistent savings.

Peter999_2

Unfortunately most of the savings were from more than 7 years ago, that is the issue.    All I've got since then are statements showing the money in ISAs and fixed term savings - not where the money has come from.

It's very frustrating that I have saved money over the years sensibly and now I need to use the money I am struggling to.

user1977

Have you pointed this out to your solicitor?

Peter999_2

Yes, I have and am waiting to hear back from him.     I just wanted to know if this has happened to anyone else and if it is a show stopper.

BarelySentientAI

What they are meaning is "can we be sure that the money is actually savings and not a lump sum from somewhere dodgy that's now sat in a savings account".

Showing it was there for several years is likely to be good enough - it would be an unusual method of money laundering to have it sat useless for year after year.

user1977

Peter999_2 said:

Yes, I have and am waiting to hear back from him.     I just wanted to know if this has happened to anyone else and if it is a show stopper.

It's not a show-stopper (unless your solicitor is crazy and suspects your purchase may be the culmination of a 20+ year long money-laundering conspiracy). In the real world people don't (normally) have bank statements going back decades.

BonaDea

Thanks OP for raising this.   I expect to be in the same position soon and your post made me wonder whether I could access a bank statement showing proceeds from a property sale years ago - I checked online and phew! yes I could, but another month and the statement would have disappeared into the ether.  You've done me a good turn.

Peter999_2

BonaDea said:

Thanks OP for raising this.   I expect to be in the same position soon and your post made me wonder whether I could access a bank statement showing proceeds from a property sale years ago - I checked online and phew! yes I could, but another month and the statement would have disappeared into the ether.  You've done me a good turn.

I'm really glad I could help.      The good thing is that I've realised I sold a flat using him last year and that is about 60% of the money I need so that's good.

I'd still like to hear from anyone who has been through the same thing.

silvercar

Your solicitor should offer a solution that is practical. We have helped our kids buy with gifted deposits and only had to show that the money has been sat in accounts for over a year. 

Peter999_2

Just thought I would update the thread in case anyone else has this situation.       Like silvercar has said, it seems to be ok to provide information to show that the money has been in accounts for at least a year.

The solicitor has now been quite helpful (he is quite expensive but seems to be worth it).

I'm currently downloading statements etc and will submit them to him.      I'll update the thread to say if these are accepted or not.    It doesn't seem to onerous to be honest.