Purchasing property - lender of vendor requiring private information about purchaser

Bob24

Right, so I am in the process of purchasing a property, and my solicitor got a request from the vendor's solicitor saying their lender needs more information about my partner and I before they can approve the transaction. Basically they are asking for copies of ID documents, proof of address, proof of funds (letter from my solicitor accepted as a proof), and employment details.

The request comes from someone located in Ireland who is representing an American vulture fund which had the mortgage transferred from an Irish bank, and the reason they are quoting is the anti-money laundering procedure of the fund they represent (which I find dubious, I think they are possibly being nosy to try to check whether the vendor is attempting to screw them in some way selling to an accomplices are a discounted price as it looks like some type of mutually agreed sale between them to salvage the mortgage).

Keeping in mind I have no contractual relationship with that entity who is not the actual vendor but their lender and they provide no guarantee about how they will use the information, I am a rather uneasy and annoyed about the request. I don't see how it is their business to know who I work for or what my passport number is and I don't especially want my details to be stored in the US with them or potentially some American background check company they could employ as part of their process (which could retain those details and possibly cross-check with other databases they have access to or reuse/share them in the future).

I will have a chat with my solicitor but the email they sent about this was fairly neutral asking whether I was OK to share that information, not advising either way.

Am I being oversensitive thinking this is a bit of a peculiar and nosy request? Is this something usual? Would you share the information?

Bob24

Anyone?

Fian

I expect that they need to establish your id for anti money laundering reasons. I think the reason they are giving is legit.

I suspect they couldn't care less if you are connected to the "vendor" - they have presumably run a competitive sale process. They will take the best bid no matter who it comes from. They are only interested in maximising their profits, not in any sense of moral justice regarding teh vendor.

spaceHopper

I'd give it them and let the sale go through, it's not work taking a stand over. Or compromise and tell then you will give the details to the funds irish solicitors (they must have one here) who can check it and issue a letter that they are satisfied with the information provided. The data it's self my not leave Ireland.

Bob24

Fian wrote: »

I expect that they need to establish your id for anti money laundering reasons. I think the reason they are giving is legit.

I suspect they couldn't care less if you are connected to the "vendor" - they have presumably run a competitive sale process. They will take the best bid no matter who it comes from. They are only interested in maximising their profits, not in any sense of moral justice regarding teh vendor.

To clarify, the fund doesn’t own the property and didn’t organise the sale - and I have no relashionship with them beside buying an asset from one of their debtors. The owner of the property organised the sale, presumably upon a not so friendly request from the fund to do so or face legal actions.

It is obviously not the case here but we could have colluded with them to artificially reduce the official selling price and make a separate cash payement. This is what I meant in terms of the fund possibly having other reasons to try to run some background check.

Also what does something like my employer has to do with AML?

Bob24

spaceHopper wrote: »

I'd give it them and let the sale go through, it's not work taking a stand over. Or compromise and tell then you will give the details to the funds irish solicitors (they must have one here) who can check it and issue a letter that they are satisfied with the information provided. The data it's self my not leave Ireland.

Yes asking for a commitment that the data will never leave Ireland, never be used for any other purpose than AML checks related to this purchase, and be deleted after that purpose has been satisfied is what I was thinking of.

Is it a reasonable request to make?

Fian

Bob24 wrote: »

The clarify, the fund doesn’t own the property and didn’t organise the sale - and I have not relashionship with them beside buying an asset from one of their debtors. The owner of the property organised the sale, presumably upon a not so friendly request from the fund to do so or face legal actions.

It is obviously not the case but we could have colluded with them to minor the official selling price and make a separate cash payement. This is what I meant.

Also what does something like my employer has to do with AML?

AML is basicly about making sure that you are not spending the proceeds of crime - criminally obtained wealth/money. There are a number of mechanisms that this is achieved, one of them is that for high value transactions like the purchase of a property the source of the money (you) must be identified. If the vendor has debt on the property the fund will have a legal charge on the property and it can't be sold without their consent.

But really i don't know why i am posting, if you want to refuse to provide the id go right ahead. If you bought at an auction or have signed a contract you have probably already agreed to provide this documentation though.

Bob24

Fian wrote: »

AML is basicly about making sure that you are not spending the proceeds of crime - criminally obtained wealth/money. There are a number of mechanisms that this is achieved, one of them is that for high value transactions like the purchase of a property the source of the money (you) must be identified. If the vendor has debt on the property the fund will have a legal charge on the property and it can't be sold without their consent.

But really i don't know why i am posting, if you want to refuse to provide the id go right ahead. If you bought at an auction or have signed a contract you have probably already agreed to provide this documentation though.

Cheers for the feedback.

It is a regular sale through and estate agent and I first heard about that other party yesterday. Also it is not just an ID copy they are asking for. I am pretty sure I can’t have made any commitment to providing personal details to a party I have no contractual relashionship with and which was never mentioned before.

It’s more matter of good will I think and of course I understand they can prevent the sale if they want to.

What I am looking for is just a couple of opinions on how common and reasonable this type of request is.

Moomintroll99

We're in the middle of a purchase here in Ireland, as cash buyers with the proceeds of our house sale in Australia. No vulture fund involved, just a normal vendor, but we needed to supply various ID docs and show the path of the money from the house sale to our lawyer - she has some kind of anti money laundering information she needs to supply (I forget which agency she gives the info to - I guess the tax or banking authorities?).

Bob24

Moomintroll99 wrote: »

We're in the middle of a purchase here in Ireland, as cash buyers with the proceeds of our house sale in Australia. No vulture fund involved, just a normal vendor, but we needed to supply various ID docs and show the path of the money from the house sale to our lawyer - she has some kind of anti money laundering information she needs to supply (I forget which agency she gives the info to - I guess the tax or banking authorities?).

Yes it’s fair enough to provide that to your own solicitor as they are your representative or to your lender if you have one. In our case since the funds come from a mortgage I guess our solicitor has very little regulatory obligation to do that kind of check as most of the funds come from a mortgage cheque straight from the bank, and the bank would have checked the source of the deposit amount already, but we would have no problem sharing information with them. It is more sharing with a third party which is not contractually bind to us that we we are a bit reluctant to do.

Bob24

For reference in the end we declined (our solicitor said it was an unusual request and our call to decide, and that either way she would handle it).

Last we heard is that the contracts are with the seller for signature so seems fine.