Solicitor being overly invasive for proof of funds for a deposit.

sr96_

Hi, 

i am a first time buyer and i was kindly gifted £10,000 by my grandmother to support the deposit. my solicitor is asking for lots of proof of funds, including inheritence to my grandmother from my grandfather's death in 2008. We have managed to find the will and probate from the government website but they are now asking for bank statements to show the funds going into her account. She is in her late 70s and the transfer of money was now 17 years ago its causing some distress in our relationship and i really dont understand how we are supposed to be able to produce bank statements from so long ago.  We have shown the money in the same account since when it was last changed in 2016 but i dont believe we can product the original transfer in 2008.Can anyone suggest what we can do next?

DE_612183

Change solicitor?

user1977

Tell them you can't produce the info and they're going back absurdly far into history? How much further do they think they need to look?

jackrack

just tell them you got it gambling, job done 

DullGreyGuy

sr96_ said:

i am a first time buyer and i was kindly gifted £10,000 by my grandmother to support the deposit. my solicitor is asking for lots of proof of funds, including inheritence to my grandmother from my grandfather's death in 2008. We have managed to find the will and probate from the government website but they are now asking for bank statements to show the funds going into her account. She is in her late 70s and the transfer of money was now 17 years ago its causing some distress in our relationship and i really dont understand how we are supposed to be able to produce bank statements from so long ago.  We have shown the money in the same account since when it was last changed in 2016 but i dont believe we can product the original transfer in 2008.Can anyone suggest what we can do next?

Solicitors have a legal duty under anti-money laundering rules, unfortunately the rules themselves are vague and so it's down to individual firms on how they should be interpreted. Clearly some will be willing to run the risk of massive fines for not doing appropriate checks and others will want to go full belts, braces and superglue to ensure they won't be accused of failing. 

Personally dont think there is much harm in them asking and given the timescales involved its doesnt feel like a massive thing to me for you to return to them saying you've asked but they are no longer available. The real test is how they respond to that. 

Your ultimate decision is to move to another solicitor but "how weak are your AML processes" are probably not how you want to go about selecting a replacement solicitor firm, you will incur additional costs switching and you may find the new firm take an even tougher line than the original firm

MattMattMattUK

DullGreyGuy said:

sr96_ said:

i am a first time buyer and i was kindly gifted £10,000 by my grandmother to support the deposit. my solicitor is asking for lots of proof of funds, including inheritence to my grandmother from my grandfather's death in 2008. We have managed to find the will and probate from the government website but they are now asking for bank statements to show the funds going into her account. She is in her late 70s and the transfer of money was now 17 years ago its causing some distress in our relationship and i really dont understand how we are supposed to be able to produce bank statements from so long ago.  We have shown the money in the same account since when it was last changed in 2016 but i dont believe we can product the original transfer in 2008.Can anyone suggest what we can do next?

Solicitors have a legal duty under anti-money laundering rules, unfortunately the rules themselves are vague and so it's down to individual firms on how they should be interpreted. Clearly some will be willing to run the risk of massive fines for not doing appropriate checks and others will want to go full belts, braces and superglue to ensure they won't be accused of failing. 

Personally dont think there is much harm in them asking and given the timescales involved its doesnt feel like a massive thing to me for you to return to them saying you've asked but they are no longer available. The real test is how they respond to that. 

Your ultimate decision is to move to another solicitor but "how weak are your AML processes" are probably not how you want to go about selecting a replacement solicitor firm, you will incur additional costs switching and you may find the new firm take an even tougher line than the original firm

Whilst I generally agree and often those complaining about AML rules on here are normally the ones being unreasonable, I do think sometimes solicitors often seem to lose the plot when it comes to asking for evidence, some appear to have been sniffing the superglue!

I do think that there needs to be better guidance on how the AML rules are enforced, leaving it open to each solicitor to interpret based on how rational or neurotic they are does not seem to work. I remember the utter frustration of dealing with mine when I bought, first they wanted three months, then six, then a year, then three years (at that point I gave them five years, as well as the ten years tax returns they had already had a bundle from my accountant), then they decided they wanted ten years. I told them that I had given them five when they asked for three because that was as far as I could go back online and anything longer required a special request and a delay, they said they wanted ten. I put the request in to the bank which I was told up to 60 days and put in a complaint with the solicitors that they were being unreasonable. In the end I got the bank statements after a few weeks and they then said that they wanted twelve years, I phoned and spoke to a senior partner and had an argument with him, did they want to do their job or did they want me to take them to the Legal Ombudsman. The senior partner tried to claim I was being unreasonable in threatening to take them to the ombudsman (probably because of the fee they would be charged), however the next day after "reviewing my bank statements" miraculously decided that a decade of bank statements was enough. All in more than a month of delays because they firstly did not ask for what they wanted at the start and then continued to be neurotic throughout the process. 

user1977

The only logical reason for their further enquiry would be that they suspect your purchase is part of a glacially slow money-laundering conspiracy in which your gran has been involved since before 2016...

Olinda99

In my humble view it is ridiculous asking for statements going back that far.

say they are not available and if they continue to demand them raise a complaint with the solicitor via their complaints procedure

mlz1413

I think 9 years worth of proof that the money has been static shows that it is is highly unlikely to be Money Laundering. 

Say that there are no more statements available and ask why the proof given isn't enough.  

You will have to decide if you want to continue with this solicitor after they answer 

housebuyer143

Olinda99 said:

In my humble view it is ridiculous asking for statements going back that far.

say they are not available and if they continue to demand them raise a complaint with the solicitor via their complaints procedure

This! My friend had a similar issue and they wanted her bank statements for all of her accounts going back 10 years and she just couldn't produce them. She had to call the bank who would put it in the post and then wait 2 weeks and then they wouldn't send the correct things and she would have to try again. She almost lost the house because that was the only thing holding up the sale and the seller thought she was messing them around 

She put a complaint in and suddenly they didn't need any of these statements and the last 6 months was fine 

Albermarle

housebuyer143 said:

Olinda99 said:

In my humble view it is ridiculous asking for statements going back that far.

say they are not available and if they continue to demand them raise a complaint with the solicitor via their complaints procedure

This! My friend had a similar issue and they wanted her bank statements for all of her accounts going back 10 years and she just couldn't produce them. She had to call the bank who would put it in the post and then wait 2 weeks and then they wouldn't send the correct things and she would have to try again. She almost lost the house because that was the only thing holding up the sale and the seller thought she was messing them around 

She put a complaint in and suddenly they didn't need any of these statements and the last 6 months was fine 

I would suspect in this case and maybe the OPs as well, that someone junior in the office was being over zealous, and that when someone more senior saw the complaint , they took over.