Hi all, long time lurker, first time poster.
I am a dual USC / UKC, wife is a UKC, pregnant due June and we have taken the opportunity to make the move from renting in London to buying somewhere in the burbs.
We've got a deposit as a combination of our own money and money that has been gifted to us through both the UK and US sides of our family. Both sets of gifts have appropriate letters and paper trails provided to solicitors and lender.
We've made an offer on a nice 3-bed and had it accepted. Went through a mortgage broker, was assured all was fine and dandy and a couple of weeks have passed since the initial application.
Today the broker calls back and says the lender (a building society) can't proceed with the mortgage offer as-is because they don't want to take gifted deposits from a US source (even though I've already wired the money to the UK). I think this is because as a building society they don't have as much access to the anti-money laundering services as a "proper" bank would have.
I am annoyed at the broker as I was never less than forthright about our situation, in fact I documented it excessively.
Does anyone have experience of UK lenders who are OK with gifted deposits from a US source? It's looking like we're going to have to drop the current lenders if they won't change their position.
