Charged for a gift letter

[ma7986]

Hello all,

We are a couple who decided to buy our first house.

We found a property where we made an offer that has been accepted so that we started all the paperwork both with broker and solicitors.

A part of the deposit comes by a gift from family and as normal the broker asked us for a gift letter saying that that money is a gift and that there is not any financial interest in the property. The letter has been made, signed by the member of the family who transferred us the money and gave to the broker who will forward that to the lender.

The problem is that now the solicitors contacted us saying that they want a gift letter too and that to prepare the extra documentation will charge us around 100£. We told them that we have already the letter that has been approved by the broker and that will be sent to the lender by him but they don’t want listen reasons. They said that they have to make also the interest of the lender.

This sounds very weird to us as we thought that if we pay them, they should make our interests and not the ones of the lender.

Anyone experienced the same thing/issue? This request of an additional gift letter is really necessary and legally required?

Thank you very much in advance.

[des8]

Re: Charged for a gift letter

Hi and welcome.

It might sound odd, but the solicitor is also working for the mortgagee, and it is his responsibility to ensure the gift letter is acceptably worded.
Can you not get the broker to pass it over to the solicitor, or if he has already given it to the mortgagee, get the mortgagee to return it to the solicitor?

[ma7986]

Re: Charged for a gift letter

Hi and welcome.

It might sound odd, but the solicitor is also working for the mortgagee, and it is his responsibility to ensure the gift letter is acceptably worded.
Can you not get the broker to pass it over to the solicitor, or if he has already given it to the mortgagee, get the mortgagee to return it to the solicitor?

Hi, thank you for your response.

The broker told me that already he spoke with them but they said that they cannot do anything about this. Honestly I don't know if the broker still has the gift letter but I will try to suggest the idea to him and let's see if we can save this money.

Thank you again very much.