Owning your own home

Rules are a lot stricter nowadays than three years ago. It's all part of the Money Laundering Regulations 2017. It's illegal not to do it now.

It's not very strict, I just showed my solicitor bank statements of accounts in my name where the money was previously, before I pooled it all together into one account in the UK.
How the money got into those accounts didn't really matter.

Wasn't my experience but circumstances were slightly different. I guess if you provide bank statements and the money hasn't appeared as a lump sum fairly recently that might constitute enough proof for money laundering purposes. I know I had to provide proof. I didn't enjoy arguing the toss with my own lawyer about the proof required so I'm certainly not going to do it on a public forum :)

How far back do people have to provide their bank statements? I do have a lump sum in my bank account that I could prove about 80% of it and the rest is well, savings over the years?

Point is, that lump sum hasn't really changed for about 3.5 years now, so would that be enough to bypass having to go through boxes of old paperwork? Other than bank statements showing the same amount every single month for the last few years?

I do have all the docs to prove where most of the money has come from, but that is if I remember where I have stored them...

But that only accounts for a larger than usual deposit, if I were to buy with 100% cash, the rest of the capital would come from a major decision I would have to make and if that decision were in favor of putting down root in London, 100% of that money could be proven as totally legal...

Who would I speak to about this as a hypothetical situation? My bank?

Another question that has probably been asked a million times... How much fees roughly one would have to pay to buy a property?

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jun/18/grenfell-style-cladding-drops-flat-value-nerisa-ahmed

On the assumption (hopefully, obviously) that their flat isn't in a fire situation anytime soon , financially, they are being v canny about this. The cladding situation will get sorted and I doubt it will cost them a penny. In the meanwhile they will end up getting nearly 20pc of the cost of the flat written off. Fair play to them I say, if those are the rules then those are the rules.

My sister owns one of the flats in that development. It's a mess. The developer is refusing to pay and are asking the residents to fork out something stupid like 20k each iirc.

I'd lay a fairly large amount of money on the developer having to wear the cost ultimately. Even if I am wrong, if you get 100k back off the government by writing off the equity loan, then have to pay out 20k, happy days. No use obvs if u either own with a normal mortgage arrangement or don't have any borrowing on the property. I don't think it'll come to that though I reckon the developer will be forced to sort it out.

Ps it should probably go without saying but if your sister does have an equity loan on her property she may wish to think about starting the process of getting it valued, and then apply to settle the equity loan element of the borrowing , before the situation is resolved and she can't tuck the government up(which must be a nice feeling)..

This is a decent guide

https://www.samconveyancing.co.uk/news/conveyancing/how-to-prove-source-of-funds-1614

For the lump sum you'd need an explanation of where it came from, either an illustration of small amounts constantly coming in to show savings or the detail of the gift (and how that was funded) or whatever, even if it has been sat in your account for a while.

Conveyancing solicitor is normally the one (although other solicitors and accountants will be aware of the rules). Banks may not be aware of the detail (at least the person you deal with).

Yeah. This is basically a disaster and no amount of fucking over the government will make up for the immense uncertainty and the tarnishing of the property and that the leaseholders are trapped in their homes until it’s resolved.

Surveys, solicitor's fees, mortgage arrangement, IFA... Some to lots.

About £3.8k for my house, plus stamp duty and removals.

I'd lay a fairly large amount of money on the developer having to wear the cost ultimately

We certainly hope so. Makes no sense otherwise, but the developer is obv trying its hardest to not bear the cost, and will drag it out as much as they can as a result.

princeperch
Ps it should probably go without saying but if your sister does have an equity loan on her property she may wish to think about starting the process of getting it valued, and then apply to settle the equity loan element of the borrowing , before the situation is resolved and she can't tuck the government up(which must be a nice feeling)..

Not sure I understand, can you elaborate?

Yeah. This is basically a disaster and no amount of fucking over the government will make up for the immense uncertainty and the tarnishing of the property and that the leaseholders are trapped in their homes until it’s resolved.

Yeah it's horrible.

If she purchased it under shared ownership or whatever it's called, she needs to act now to take advantage of the loophole which some have exploited to settle the equity loan at market rate. At the moment the market rate of her flat will be 50k or whatever. That won't last forever, because once the cladding situation is resolved the flat will be back to market value.

Surely there is a huge opportunity to make money here if you can buy these flats way cheaper than market value less cost of rectification? Seems odd that the £600k flat in the article was valued at only £90k, as the costs to rectify the cladding can’t be that much.

In theory but who will be selling in those circumstances? V few people. It's a golden opportunity for anyway temporarily affected by the cladding issue to stiff the government for quite a bit of cash if you did take out an equity loan which is pegged to market value

Here's all the fees I paid four years ago when I bought a flat. I'm buying again now, and the fees are looking pretty similar.

Obviously the stamp duty will depend on the sale price. And if you need an indemnity policy, the vendors will probably pay for that.

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Neighbour still hasn't put our fucking fence back, I'm getting really fucking annoyed now... Gf has told me to back off (again!) cuz she's gonna deal with it, so there's fuck all I can do...

Apart from taking the frozen sausage route, obvs...

Snags, surely?

lol. no

nail on the head.

If you're getting something more expensive in the same area then the market dropping is to your advantage, as long as you can sell. So stop whining unless you're trying to cash out. If you are trying to cash out to another part of the UK, stop whining as even with these drops you have hit the jackpot.

Thanks. Just had a very quick look and where my money is current held, in Hong Kong, the country is classed as low risk, so that's 1 worry less, I guess...

By the way, Hong Kong is not really a country but everyone and everywhere classes that as a country!

the costs to rectify the cladding can’t be that much.

It's the discount you get for buying a flat that can't be mortgaged, let out or resold, and is potentially a fire hazard that could kill you.

And yes, nobody can or will sell. Unless they are desperate and in that case they might take 2-300k in cash.