Parents looking to gift me a deposit contribution towards my next house

aliasmt8

silvercar said:

A ‘gift’ is something you give to someone directly, with no expectation of payback.

A ‘gifted deposit’ you would give to someone for the sole intention of it being used towards a deposit on a property purchase. Often you would pay this directly to the buyer’s solicitor. Again, no expectation of payback.

Ok. I’m starting to understand the purpose of the distinction now. You could give your kids money on the understanding that it was to be used for something sensible like a house purchase and they could blow it all in Vegas instead. The gifted deposit formalises what it is to be used for 👍

Albermarle

silvercar said:

A ‘gift’ is something you give to someone directly, with no expectation of payback.

A ‘gifted deposit’ you would give to someone for the sole intention of it being used towards a deposit on a property purchase. Often you would pay this directly to the buyer’s solicitor. Again, no expectation of payback.

I recently assisted a family member with a 'gifted deposit'
I had to show proof of funds to the Mortgage broker/Mortgage company and sign the letter saying it was an outright gift. Then the same again, with a bit more detailed evidence of the source of the funds, to the conveyancing solicitor.
However the solicitor said I should not send the money to them but send it to the family member, who then sent it on with their own money to their solicitor.
I do not know why, but the otherwise very competent solicitor, said this was the way it had to be done.

silvercar

Albermarle said:

silvercar said:

A ‘gift’ is something you give to someone directly, with no expectation of payback.

A ‘gifted deposit’ you would give to someone for the sole intention of it being used towards a deposit on a property purchase. Often you would pay this directly to the buyer’s solicitor. Again, no expectation of payback.

I recently assisted a family member with a 'gifted deposit'
I had to show proof of funds to the Mortgage broker/Mortgage company and sign the letter saying it was an outright gift. Then the same again, with a bit more detailed evidence of the source of the funds, to the conveyancing solicitor.
However the solicitor said I should not send the money to them but send it to the family member, who then sent it on with their own money to their solicitor.
I do not know why, but the otherwise very competent solicitor, said this was the way it had to be done.

Whereas we were told to send straight to the solicitor’s client account, from a bank account in our name.

RAS

So now we know that solicitors have different rules.

So the buyer needs to know the solicitor's rules before they engage them?

silvercar

RAS said:

So now we know that solicitors have different rules.

So the buyer needs to know the solicitor's rules before they engage them?

They don’t really need to know in advance, they just need to comply with whatever is asked. It wouldn’t have made any difference to me whether I transferred to my son’s account or to the solicitor’s client account. It wouldn’t have made a difference whether I provided proof of funds to the mortgage broker, the lender or the solicitor or all 3.

Albermarle

silvercar said:

RAS said:

So now we know that solicitors have different rules.

So the buyer needs to know the solicitor's rules before they engage them?

They don’t really need to know in advance, they just need to comply with whatever is asked. It wouldn’t have made any difference to me whether I transferred to my son’s account or to the solicitor’s client account. It wouldn’t have made a difference whether I provided proof of funds to the mortgage broker, the lender or the solicitor or all 3.

Same here, it did not make any difference to me one way or the other.

user1977

As long as they know not to do anything daft like withdraw the gift in cash and hand it over as a fistful of used tenners…

QrizB

user1977 said:

As long as they know not to do anything daft like withdraw the gift in cash and hand it over as a fistful of used tenners…

If I was rich and bored, it would be tempting to walk into an estate agents with a suitcase full of £50s, pull a set of particulars from the window and say "I'll take this one, please" 😂