A Family Assist mortgage allows a family member to purchase a property at 100% loan to value when you provide security either as savings (deposited with us) or as a legal charge over equity in your property.

In either circumstance, the security must be 20% of the value of the property being purchased. So for example, if the value of the property being purchased is £100,000 then a family member must deposit £20,000 in savings with us or allow us to take a legal charge equivalent to £20,000 in equity on their property. In these scenarios, the borrower would then be able to take out a mortgage at £100,000.

Family Assist is one type of family mortgage where a family member provides security in the form of savings or property equity to allow the borrower to access a 100% mortgage. There are other ways family members can help out too.

To help a family member buy a property, we can also accept a gifted deposit from a family member or, in some cases, allow a family member to contribute to the mortgage payments without having any ownership rights on the property (something known as Joint Borrower Sole Proprietor). These options are available on our standard product range and you can find out more on our First Time Buyer mortgages web page.

We also offer Family Buy to Let mortgages. This is where someone buys a property and lets it out to a close family member as a tenant. In this circumstance, the person living in the property has no ownership rights and it is the family member who is the landlord who owns the property.

Yes – whilst 20% of the property price is provided as security, the mortgage loan is 100% of the purchase price of the property.

Family assist mortgages are designed to allow people the opportunity to purchase a property without having to directly provide a minimum 5% cash deposit. Instead, a family member provides security for a period of time (7 years in our Agreement) and all being well, after this time the security is returned to the family member and the borrower can go on and access a conventional mortgage.

There are a few things to consider. Firstly, the property is owned by the borrower and the family members providing the support will have no rights over the property being purchased.

Also, when the family member provides the cash savings or equity security they are entering into an Agreement, which includes conditions relating to the borrower and consequences of the borrower not maintaining their mortgage repayments.

For family members using the cash savings scheme, their savings could be used to cover losses in the event of repossession or to make up any mortgage shortfall. We recommend independent legal advice for this option.

For family members using the property equity option, they will need to take independent legal advice to allow us to take a legal charge over equity in their property. The legal charge may restrict them if they want to move home or borrow more money and their residential property may be repossessed by us to recover debt in the event that the borrower’s property is repossessed and/or sold at a loss. Liability is limited to the amounts specified in the ‘legal charge’.