Proof of source of funds: building a complete file to avoid a block

A French purchase file can be suspended days before signature for one single reason: money lands on the account and its journey is documented nowhere. The proof of source of funds answers precisely that expectation: a clear note summarising where your contribution comes from, backed by evidence for every source cited. Prepared well, this file turns weeks of back-and-forth into swift, incident-free processing. This guide, the most detailed of the series, gives the complete method: why professionals check, what they actually look at, how to write the note, which documents to gather for each source, and which habits to adopt. It complements the journal’s pillar guide to opening and keeping a French bank account.

Why do the bank, the notaire and the currency provider check the source of your funds?

The check will probably reach you several times, because it kicks in at every step where money changes hands. The institution opening your account triggers it with the first significant flows. The one studying your loan repeats it when the funds are released. The notaire conducts it before signature, since regulations require them to know the origin of the funds they receive. The currency provider converting your money, lastly, applies the same requirements at transfer time.

What these professionals share: rules against money laundering oblige them to know their client and the purpose of the client’s operations. This is not personal suspicion towards you, but a documented process, identical for every client, for which each professional answers under their own supervision. When coherence is missing, the machine does not reject your money: it puts it on hold and asks questions. It is that hold, arriving days before signature, that derails a purchase timetable.

In other words: the question is never whether your money is legitimate, but whether you can demonstrate it with documents. A complete file answers the questions in advance; an improvised file multiplies them.

What do professionals actually look at?

Behind the requests for documents, professionals verify four things, always the same four.

First, the coherence of the amount with your profile: a contribution must be proportionate to your income, your saving history and your declared situation. A figure far from what your documents suggest invites an explanation, never an accusation.

Next, the path of the money: every movement between accounts must be readable. If you sold a property abroad, then invested the proceeds, then transferred part of them to France, every hop must have its document: the deed of sale, the investment statement, the credit statement of the French account.

Then, the chronology: savings building up month after month across your statements is a readable story. A sum appearing on an account with no antecedent is a story with holes, even a perfectly honest one.

Finally, corroboration: the documents must confirm one another. Names must match from one statement to the next, dates must follow each other, the currency must be explained if it changes along the way. That is the web the professional reconstitutes, and it is where improvised files come apart.

How should you structure your source-of-funds note?

The source-of-funds note is the pivot of the file: short and sober, it gives the professional the map of your contribution, then points to the evidence. Its recommended structure holds in four blocks.

• Identity: your surname, first names, date of birth and address, the note’s date, an object explicitly titled “source of funds for the acquisition of the property at such address”, and your file reference if you have one.
• The object: a brief reminder of the transaction, the total purchase amount and the amount of the personal contribution whose origin you describe.
• The summary table of sources: one line per source, each with the amount, the date it was built up or received, and the matching attached document. This table is the backbone of the note.
• The short narrative: a few chronological, factual paragraphs restating the table by telling the money’s journey, source by source, movement by movement.

Three drafting habits make the difference. Stay factual: dates, amounts, facts, no unnecessary commentary. Make sure the amounts in the table match the evidence to the cent: a typing discrepancy between the note and the statements is the kind of detail that restarts the questions. Date and sign the note, and refresh it if the file drags on: a note describing a stale picture of the accounts loses its value.

Which documents should you gather for each source?

This is where the file’s strength is decided: every source of contribution has its own documents. Here is the checklist per case, for the most frequent situations.

Savings built from your income:

• your payslips over a period representative of your career;
• the bank statements showing the savings accumulating over time;
• your tax notice, which attests to declared income and ties everything together.

Sale of a property:

• the authenticated deed of sale, proving the generating event and its amount;
• the bank statement showing the sale proceeds credited;
• if the sale goes back a while, the intermediate statements showing where the funds have sat since.

Sale of financial securities:

• the transaction notes detailing each disposal;
• the share-dealing account statement over the relevant period;
• the bank statement showing the proceeds credited.

Inheritance:

• the certificate of inheritance or the notaire’s attestation establishing your heir status and share;
• the bank statement showing the payment received;
• where applicable, the estate return that was filed.

Gift received:

• the gift deed in proper form, drawn up by a legal professional;
• the donor’s identity and evidence of their capacity to give;
• evidence of the origin of the funds within the donor’s own means, since the chain climbs one extra rung.

Family loan:

• a written loan agreement, dated and signed by both parties, stating the amount, the schedule and the repayment terms;
• evidence of the lender’s capacity, payslips or tax notice;
• the statements showing the actual transfer from the lender’s account to yours.

Crypto-assets:

• the complete account history of the exchange platform, showing the position being built;
• evidence of the conversion into traditional currency, with its date;
• the matching tax return, aligning your declared position with the actual flow;
• the bank statement credited after conversion.

If your contribution mixes several sources, which is common, treat each source independently: the note lists them in the table, and each line has its own stack of documents. A well-separated mixed file reads better than a single confused one.

The summary table: key documents and the trap to avoid for each source

Source of contribution	Key documents	Common trap
Salary savings	Payslips, accumulation statements, tax notice	Supplying payslips without the statements showing the savings build up
Property sale	Deed of sale, credit statement	Forgetting intermediate statements when the sale is old
Sale of securities	Transaction notes, dealing-account statement, credit statement	Sending a mere annual summary instead of detailed transaction notes
Inheritance	Certificate of inheritance, credit statement, return	Believing the certificate suffices without showing the payment received
Gift	Deed, donor identity and capacity, origin on the donor’s side	Failing to document the origin of the funds within the donor’s means
Family loan	Written agreement, lender capacity, transfer statement	A verbal arrangement, with no contract and no trace of the lender
Crypto-assets	Platform history, proof of conversion, tax return	An undocumented conversion between the platform and the bank

Keep this table in front of you while assembling the file: it is often enough to spot the missing document holding everything else up.

Which habits carry a file through without incident?

Files that pass quickly share the same habits, whatever the source of the funds.

• Have any document written in a language other than French translated by a sworn translator: that is lead time to book at the start, not a repair for the final week.
• Produce readable, complete PDFs: every page, every line, clearly named files, never doctored or annotated by hand.
• Anticipate the transfers: credit your French account well before signature and let the funds rest there. A contribution arriving the night before, into a freshly opened account, concentrates every question at the worst moment.
• Keep the record of every international transfer, with its full reference: that is the document legally connecting two accounts in two countries.
• Mind the coherence of names: accounts and documents must be in the buyer’s name, exactly. A nickname, a transliteration or an unexplained double surname breaks the thread.
• Build one single numbered, versioned file, passed identically to the bank, the notaire and the currency provider: answering three professionals with three different versions manufactures inconsistencies.

One last habit, the most important: be transparent in writing. If a source is unusual or a journey complex, say so in the note, with the documents explaining it. Professionals handle documented complexity every day; it is vagueness that stops them.

What to remember, and what comes next

Proof of source of funds is not a formality you endure: it is a file you control, with a structured note, documents per source and presentation habits. Two readings usefully extend this guide: the currency transfer to France page, which details the conversion route and its records, and the neighbouring article on non-resident mortgage refusal and its fixes, since a poorly documented contribution is a classic cause of refusal. All money topics are gathered in the journal’s Financing & tax category.

Every money trail is unique, especially when it crosses several countries, several accounts and several years. If you are preparing an acquisition, the personal study offered by French Realty draws up, with your dedicated contact, the exact list of the documents you still lack, then coordinates their collection with the bank, the notaire and the partners involved.