Watson Day Chartered Surveyors

Anti Money Laundering

ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING

Identity Requirements

To counter the risk of being used in connection with money laundering or terrorist financing, Estate Agents are generally required by law to verify client identity with documents or information from a reliable and independent source. This also applies to any beneficial owners other than the client (e.g. substantial shareholders, significant beneficiaries under a trust). Such checks must be carried out when first instructed and, on occasions, during the business relationship, otherwise we cannot act for you. Estate Agents are also required to determine whether the client or beneficial owner is a Politically Exposed Person (PEP), i.e. holds any prominent public function, or is a family member or close associate of a PEP, when additional information might be needed. In order to comply with our obligations for example, if we are acting for you in a property purchase, then we will require sight of original documents, ie passport, driving licence, utility bill. Copies of documents obtained will be retained in our records as required under the regulations . Any personal data you provide to us for the purposes of preventing money laundering or terrorist financing will only be used for that purpose unless you give us your consent to use it for other purposes or it is permitted by law.

Reporting Obligations

Please note that we are obliged by law to report any reasonable suspicions of money laundering or terrorist financing to the regulatory authorities. Under those circumstances, we are prevented by the legislation from informing any third party, including the client, that a report has been made. This may affect our ability to communicate with you about your business with us before being able to proceed.

Cash Receipts

Please also note that we will not accept cash payments without prior agreement or send monies on your behalf to an unknown third party. Further, under no circumstances are we able to accept cash deposits directly into our bank account or payments from third parties without our prior knowledge and authority.

Cheques and Bank Transfers

If any payment is made by cheque, at least seven working days must be allowed for payment to clear and therefore this may be inappropriate. If you send funds by BACS bank transfer please let us know beforehand so our accounts department can identify the payment. We will not change our account details during the course of the transaction. If you receive correspondence to advise the details have changed please contact us by telephone immediately as the correspondence may be fraudulent. We recommend in any event that, before transferring funds to us, you confirm the bank details by telephone in order to minimise the possibility of fraud.

This should be read in conjunction with the information contained in of our Terms of Business.