British Ex-Pat Bank Accounts to be CLOSED

Breaking News: PM Boris Johnson has just announced he has broken off the current Brexit negotiations unless there is a fundamental change in approach from the EU and rely on WTO rules or what he calls an Australia type deal.

It therefore seems much less likely now that there will be any 'passporting' for financial services by the end of the year.

Read about this a couple of weeks ago. As an ex-expat, I can see massive issues with this, not limited to what Mark has outlined. There are issues such as the payment of service charges, insurances, mortgage payments, water rates, possibly payment of letting & management fees, payments for repairs and maintenance, licensing fees, council tax during periods of vacancies. As well as the question of rent being paid into offshore accounts, if there is any payment being made from a local council, then that too will be affected.
I assume it is probable that each standing order/direct debit currently operating in the onshore account will need to be individually closed, and individually set up as soon as it possibly can be as appropriate with an offshore bank. I don’t know whether EU based banks will affect DDM type arrangements for funds going to ‘foreign’ account, but assume this will vary from bank to bank and possibly even from country to country within the EU. The relevant forms will need to be executed by the payee pdq if there is to be no gap in payment/receipt.
Apart from let properties, if the expat happens to fund or part fund a rental for a relative, then of course the same will apply. As indeed it will if they happen to retain a home in the U.K. for holiday use, or future retirement/return.
Amongst many other things, this ain’t going to be pretty...

PS ‘affect’ should have read ‘effect’ ( re DDMs etc).

If you have a UK address, be it friends, relatives or second homes, would linking the UK address to bank account prevent an ex pat closure?

HSBC, an international bank, are not included in Mark's list of banks.Perhaps banking with them for those who do not already do so might be a solution?

HSBC includes First Direct of course.

Surely having a Ltd company structure to collect all rents and pay all bills makes sense...? The shareholders don’t necessarily need to be resident..? Even those whose properties are in own names and not actually owned by the Ltd should be able to do this I should have thought...?
.... Only problem is that the expenses are probably larger than the rents!!

I live in Denmark and have property in the UK. I have a Transferwise account that enables you to have multiple accounts in multiple currencies (inc. a UK a/c and sort code), and I use my in-laws address in the UK. I'm keeping everything crossed that this will allow me to keep things as they are at present - but what an absolute mess for so many people who live outside the UK. Crazy.

well obviously many expat landlords would have appointed lettings agents who collect rents for them, they can then collect rents for say every 3 months and use money transfer companies to transfer funds abroad.

Those with pensions or other incomes could use close trusted relatives or friends and ask them to transfer funds abroad every now and again, those on pensions can ask for their pensions to be paid into someone else's account, that i know for sure, as many people who claim child benefit are asked where would you like your money to be paid, name of account holder and account details.
i can see a problem for those who don't have anyone else to rely on, but even your retirement pension could be paid into a foreign account by HMRC.

Reply to the comment left by Helen Morley at 16/10/2020 - 13:36
Hi

What's stopping you using something like Stripe or a Paypal account for this kind of thing?