Financially Supporting your Family
We are here to offer you specialist advice on financially supporting your family. Meet our team of experts to provide you with a tailor made service to assist you. At GLC we have experienced lawyers who are specialists in this area of law.
I am going to help a family member pay for their wedding, what should I be aware of?
There is no legal ability to recover gifts and so you should seriously consider whether or not you will want this money to be repaid at some point in the future. You also need to consider how you would feel if the couple separated and whether you would wish for your money to be protected in some way.
Contact us at GLC for advice well in advance of handing the money over and we will help you put in place legal protection in case things go wrong.
I helped to pay for a family wedding but they are now divorcing, can I claim this money back?
There is no legal ability to recover gifts but it may well be that after speaking to one of our specialists that there is a way to factor in the recovery of wedding costs. The success of this could be low, depending on the basis in which the money was provided and whether there was ever any agreement for it be repaid.
I want to help my son and his girlfriend buy their first house
We all want to help our children get on the housing ladder. If you are helping your child to buy a property with his girlfriend or spouse, by helping with the deposit, there are steps you can take to protect your investment if things go wrong. It’s not always helpful to gift lump sums or make regular capital contributions to a property in which you do not have a legal interest. If your son and his girlfriend separated and you do not have a legal interest in their property or you cannot prove that the funds you gave them were a loan, you might find that his girlfriend could walk away with half of the equity in the property and hence half of the gift you made to your son. There might be a point in the future when you need to prove the funds you gave were a legal loan.
At GLC we can help you put the right legal agreements in place to ensure that both you and your child are protected.
My daughter has asked me to be guarantor on her mortgage.
Our children are finding it difficult to secure a mortgage to buy their first house. If you become your daughter’s guarantor do you understand the implications of being a guarantor if your daughter defaults on her mortgage at a future date? She could find herself falling ill and be unable to work or could be made redundant.
At GLC we can give you legal advice about all the different ways you might be able to help your children get on the housing ladder and ensure you understand the full implications of all options available and any step you choose to take, giving you as much legal protection as your situation will provide for.
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