Solicitor ID Documents by post?

35har1old

EssexHebridean said:

I’m afraid it is correct that solicitors cannot accept  statements produced from online banking for ID/AML purposes. The best bet is to simply use a different form of of address document - for example passport for ID, then use your driving licence and council tax bill as proof of address. At certain times of year a lot of people get things like their water bill in hard copy form - or documents from HMRC - those are good for three months from the date on the document, while a council tax bill can be accepted for a full 12 months. 

As always said, your bank should be able to produce and stamp a statement as authentic. 

Solicitor may require a bank statement for other reasons than ID when it comes to house purchases/selling.

Not always practical to visit a branch

I see HMRC encouraging you to go paperless 

AskAsk

35har1old said:

EssexHebridean said:

I’m afraid it is correct that solicitors cannot accept  statements produced from online banking for ID/AML purposes. The best bet is to simply use a different form of of address document - for example passport for ID, then use your driving licence and council tax bill as proof of address. At certain times of year a lot of people get things like their water bill in hard copy form - or documents from HMRC - those are good for three months from the date on the document, while a council tax bill can be accepted for a full 12 months. 

As always said, your bank should be able to produce and stamp a statement as authentic. 

Solicitor may require a bank statement for other reasons than ID when it comes to house purchases/selling. 
Not always practical to visit a branch

they will certainly need to see bank statements to do the ALM checks for purchase and sales.

Pat38493

AskAsk said:

35har1old said:

EssexHebridean said:

I’m afraid it is correct that solicitors cannot accept  statements produced from online banking for ID/AML purposes. The best bet is to simply use a different form of of address document - for example passport for ID, then use your driving licence and council tax bill as proof of address. At certain times of year a lot of people get things like their water bill in hard copy form - or documents from HMRC - those are good for three months from the date on the document, while a council tax bill can be accepted for a full 12 months. 

As always said, your bank should be able to produce and stamp a statement as authentic. 

Solicitor may require a bank statement for other reasons than ID when it comes to house purchases/selling. 
Not always practical to visit a branch

they will certainly need to see bank statements to do the ALM checks for purchase and sales.

Silly question, but if I was only selling my house that I already own, but not buying anything, how would my bank statements be relevant to anything - surely I can’t be laundering any money because I am selling the house.  Unless you are saying that they need to see my bank statements from the time when I originally bought the house about 11 years ago.

Bigphil1474

We didn't use any bank statements for I.D., but I ended up sending years worth for the anti money laundering checks, and all of them were downloaded. My solicitor didn't query downloaded statements, and one of my accounts was downloaded statements only anyway. As far as I can remember on mine, when they post them they have my name and address in a format for the address window, but the downloaded ones don't (not 100% sure). 

Above - I think they meant when you do a sale and purchase. There is no reason to do AML checks if you are doing a sale only, and no you won't need your statements from 11 years ago.

AskAsk

Pat38493 said:

AskAsk said:

35har1old said:

EssexHebridean said:

I’m afraid it is correct that solicitors cannot accept  statements produced from online banking for ID/AML purposes. The best bet is to simply use a different form of of address document - for example passport for ID, then use your driving licence and council tax bill as proof of address. At certain times of year a lot of people get things like their water bill in hard copy form - or documents from HMRC - those are good for three months from the date on the document, while a council tax bill can be accepted for a full 12 months. 

As always said, your bank should be able to produce and stamp a statement as authentic. 

Solicitor may require a bank statement for other reasons than ID when it comes to house purchases/selling. 
Not always practical to visit a branch

they will certainly need to see bank statements to do the ALM checks for purchase and sales.

Silly question, but if I was only selling my house that I already own, but not buying anything, how would my bank statements be relevant to anything - surely I can’t be laundering any money because I am selling the house.  Unless you are saying that they need to see my bank statements from the time when I originally bought the house about 11 years ago.

they want to see bank statement to confirm that the money will be paid to the owner of the property and not someone else's account.  my friend sold a property recently and his solicitor asks to see a statement 12 months ago and one for the most recent month to confirm that the bank account match up with what he had put on the seller form and that he had the account for 12 months at least.

i sold a house recently and my solicitor wanted just the recent bank statement so it can differ between solicitors, however both solicitors have had relationsips with me and my friend for previous transactions so if they didn't, they may ask for even more.

i think it is to make sure that the person selling the property is actually the owner and not someone else pretending to be the owner and then getting the funds paid to his own account.  i think it is a bit outdated to be honest as nowadays, the name on the account has to match before a payment can be made so that alone will tell the solicitor that the account belongs to the owner of the property.

i had read a post on here where someone had been asked to prove he owned the property and not that he had been given money by someone else to buy the property and is now selling it on for that person.  so the solicitor was suspuscious as to his ownership of the property.  there may be people being used to launder money buying properties for the criminal and selling it on then passing that money to the criminal to make it legit.

EssexHebridean

There are various visual clues to decide whether a document is a "hard copy" one or not. Generally speaking we can tell. However, ultimately, if not sure, the question "can I confirm that this is a hard copy document that you have received through the post" requires an honest answer from you.