Cannot satisfy requirements for source of funds

losthere

My solicitor has asked for evidence of how our deposit was accrued. I have provided bank statements going bank 6 years documenting how we saved up for the deposit.

We both work and have accrued the savings over a over period of time - well over 10 years. We have no gains from shares or crypto or any other investments.

However, this isn't enough to satisfy my solicitor and she wants me to provide evidence going back further. 

I have requested these documents from various banks. 

However, my solicitor is also enquiring about gifts from my parents  made over 6years ago. she wants to know how my parents acquired this money and wants statements from them.

I am finding all this excessive and the whole process very, very slow.  I have provided lots of statements but they don't get reviewed until I phone up and chase for an update, and then I get a request for money documents.

Other than complaining is there anything I can do? Can I switch to another solicitor within the firm or move to another firm?

Is this standard practice? 

Peter999_2

That seems incredibly excessive.   I have just purchased a house in cash (divorce).

I thought it would be an issue with the solicitor but he was happy to sit down with me to go through where my money came from.     He was happy with money in savings accounts so long as they were a couple of years old and didn't insist on going further (I had about 10 different accounts with a mix of ISAs and bonds).    

Funnily, my parents actually lent me about £50000 in the end so that I didn't have to cash the ISAs.    On the week before the purchase I just sent the money to the solicitors account and he was none the wise - he had no idea I had not cashed in the ISAs and didn't ask for proof.

user1977

Tell her you don’t have anything else and ask her to escalate it (and/or you make a complaint) if she’s not happy. Has she clarified where she’s expecting the draw the line, if not at 6 years? In theory you could be tracing the sources back to the invention of money….

Any money-laundering escapade is going to be as fast-moving as possible, not something involving decades of planning.

housebuyer143

Mine only went back 6 months. 
My mates solicitor tried to get her to go back 6 years and she almost lost the sale because she had to have them posted from the bank, waited 2 weeks and they sent the wrong things. The seller thought she was messing them around and threatened to pull out. In the end she complained to someone more senior and they agreed to proceed. 6 years is excessive.

Slinky

Our solicitor wanted two years worth.  Your's is excessive.

dinosaur66

its because she can be liable if the funds are fraudelent / but experience and common sense and 6 years accounts should tell her everything is ok she is in overkill mode

i am self employed and i  have to keep 6 years of accounts for HMRC 

i bought a property in  2022 and was asked for last 2 years accounts.

went through in 23 days

badmemory

Are these solicitors also the sellers solicitors because these sound like delaying tactics to me.

LHW99

Or is this a newly qualified person not quite sure of the boundaries?

losthere

No, she is very experienced. This has been dragging on for weeks now and it's making an already stressful process much worse. 

HouseMartin567

I agree with others, seems ridiculous on the face of it. How much further is she asking you to go back?

MattMattMattUK

Sometimes solicitors go into overdrive on this, I suspect because they have recently been burned. Mine wanted three, the six, then twelve months, then five years, they still did not seem particularly happy at that point and wanted more but I pushed back as the bank said it would take 2-3 weeks for statements older than six years and statements older than six years could not be obtained online. In the end I raised a complaint and two days later they agreed that the original five years was fine.