Transacting on property in the UK is a common method used by serious organised criminals to launder the proceeds of criminal activity. The sheer size of the property market and the high value of property assets means that extremely large amounts of criminal funds can be ‘cleaned’ in a single transaction, making it appear that it has been acquired legitimately.
For this reason, anyone transacting on a property must adhere to Anti-Money Laundering Regulations and provide proof of their identity and their source of funds to make sure their money is coming from legal sources.
It is worth noting that different entities are all required to carry out checks (e.g. us, your mortgage lender, and your solicitor or conveyancer). It is worth keeping all your evidence together so that you can easily show it to everyone who will need to see it.
You can find more information in our AML Policy.
Please note it is a legal requirement that:
That will depend on the nature of the transaction – please select from the drop downs below and we’ll tell you: