More people are using gifts (usually from family members) to fund all or part of their deposit for a house purchase. As part of the mortgage process, a lender will normally ask for confirmation that it is a gift, that no part of the gift is repayable and that each gifter will have no stake in the property or live at the property.

As the gifter will effectively be giving up any rights to repayment or entitlement to the property,, a lender may not allow the mortgage to complete until they have received confirmation that the gift giver has taken independent legal advice.