Easy Steps for Receiving a Financial Gift for Your Home Purchase

We’re delighted to help you with your property purchase. If you’re getting a monetary gift from someone to help buy your new home, there are a few important checks we need to carry out, as required by Irish law. This guide explains—step by step—what’s involved and what we’ll need from you and the person giving the gift, so the process is as smooth as possible for everyone.

Buying a home is a big milestone, and sometimes friends or family want to help by giving a financial gift. Because property purchases involve large sums of money, Irish law requires everyone involved (including us, your solicitors) to make sure that all money comes from legitimate sources. These rules are part of what’s called Anti-Money Laundering, or AML.

A monetary gift is simply money given to you by someone else—often a parent, grandparent, other family member or friend—to help you buy your home. Even if it’s just for part of your deposit, it counts as a gift for these checks.

We are legally required to:

·        Confirm the identity of everyone giving a gift

·        Check where the gifted money is coming from

·        Keep proper records for everyone’s protection

This is standard practice and helps protect you, the person giving the gift, and the wider community from illegal activity.

To keep everything simple and compliant, we’ll ask for a few key documents:

·        Photo ID (like a passport or Irish/EU driving licence)

·        Recent proof of address (such as a utility bill or bank statement from the last 3 months)

·        Recent bank statements showing how the money was saved up

·        Documents if the money is from selling a house, shares, or other investments

·        Papers showing inheritance, a bonus, or other one-off payments

·        Any other documents that support the origin of the funds

All information and documents you share with us are kept safe and confidential, in line with Irish data protection law and GDPR. We use this information only for your property transaction and legal compliance.

If we don’t get the documents we need, this can delay your purchase—or even stop it from going ahead. We’re not allowed to receive any funds into our client account without these checks.

Throughout the process, if we spot anything unusual about where money is coming from, we may need to report it to the authorities (An Garda Síochána or Revenue). Sometimes, the law means we can’t tell you before we do this.

·        Does everyone giving a gift need to do this? Yes, everyone gifting money must be checked.

·        What if the gift comes from abroad? We’ll need extra documents for gifts from overseas due to stricter checks on international transfers.

·        How soon should I send in documents? Please send them as soon as you can, the earlier in the transaction the better—your purchase can’t go ahead until we have everything.

·        Will these checks affect my credit rating? No, they won’t affect your credit score. They’re just legal requirements.

·        Let your gift giver(s) know early that their documents will be needed

·        Gather and share the required paperwork with us as soon as possible

·        If anything changes, let us know right away

These checks are for everyone’s protection and are a normal part of buying property in Ireland. We’re here to support you and answer any questions, so please don’t hesitate to ask if you’re unsure about anything.

We look forward to helping you move into your new home!