British Couple Have Account ‘Randomly’ Frozen By Bank Between Payments To Repair Malta Home
Repairs for a British couple’s Ħamrun home turned into a complicated affair after their Maltese bank account was frozen in between payments to mend the damages.
Alongside his wife, Andrew Brady’s love for Malta had them purchase the apartment many years ago. Pre-pandemic and Brexit, the couple would visit the island and stay there every six weeks. Sometimes, just for a weekend break.
But things went south one fine day when a large water leak flooded their home, damaging the walls, ceiling, and many other structures in the process.
“We came back in February to find a builder able to fix all the damage. Our neighbour kindly put us in touch with a chap. We hired him and paid him a deposit via Bank of Valletta in two cheques,” Andrew said.
It was all well and good until BOV hit them with a series of due-diligence cheques requiring “all sorts of forms” before Andrew was allowed to issue two cheques to pay the repairman.
“We issued the two cheques at the same time. And while the bank honoured the first cheque of €2,500, they returned the second. Then, they froze our account.”
“Then we had to provide the proof of income, which we obviously did not have with us on holiday. Hence the appointment when we return later this month.”
“To date, we have never rented out our apartment or derived any income from it. Our incomes come from the UK and are taxed accordingly,” he began. “We’ve had a BOV account for 14 years in order to pay utilities more easily.”
Andrew channelled money into their Malta account from a UK bank account that belonged to his wife’s company.
“I visited the bank. Queued for no less than three hours in order to see the only cashier who was working. She then redirected me to customer care services.”
“I was told I had to provide tax numbers, amongst a series of other financial documents as proof of our earnings before the bank could unfreeze the account.”
“We seem to have been caught in a bit of a nightmare of the banking system’s making. I fully understand the need to monitor money and cash being moved around. But we are not rich people hiding money or evading tax. We just want to pay for the repairs of our house.”
“We have no payment options from our account. We now have to get a TIN from the tax office over here and also provide proof of our funds and tax payments in the UK. Lots of paperwork.
“Oddly I have renamed Bank of Valletta to the Bandit of Valletta.”
“I can truly understand that laundering money and criminal use of accounts has to be stopped but it does seem to me like a box-ticking exercise by the bank.”
Lovin Malta reached out to Bank of Valletta
There was little that could be said without the bank having to reveal confidential information about their client. Though a spokesperson within the bank said the following:
“We can confirm that the bank has, in place, strict due diligence procedures in accordance with international practices and regulations and also has in place rigorous international procedures about managing the bank’s relationship with them,” they wrote.
“Such regulations are reviewed regularly in line with international banking best practices and regulatory requirements.
“[However] we can also confirm that this would have nothing to do with Malta’s greylisting.”
Andrew’s next step involves another series of appointments at the bank with the scope of settling matters, later this month.
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