Parent deposit checklist: questions to answer before money moves

When family money helps a first home buyer, the pressure usually arrives before the paperwork does.

This checklist helps parents and adult children slow the decision down. It does not tell you whether to gift, lend, guarantee, co-own, or wait. It gives you the questions to take to the broker, lender, lawyer, accountant, financial adviser, or Services Australia.

If you need the broader map first, read our Bank of Mum and Dad guide. If the main question is whether the money is a gift or a loan, read gifting vs lending money to your kids.

1. Name the help in one sentence

Write this down before anyone sends money:

We are thinking about helping with [amount or support type], and we currently think it is a [gift, loan, guarantee, co-ownership arrangement, or other support].

If that sentence is hard to finish, the arrangement is not clear enough yet.

2. Amount and timing

Answer:

• How much money or support is being provided?
• When does it need to move?
• Is it a one-off contribution or part of a larger plan?
• Is it for the deposit only, or also stamp duty, conveyancing, loan costs, moving costs, renovations, or repayments?
• What happens if the purchase falls through?

3. Gift, loan, or something else

Ask:

• Is repayment expected?
• If repayment is expected, when and how?
• Will interest apply?
• Is the arrangement secured against anything?
• If it is a gift, does everyone agree that repayment is not expected?
• If it is a loan, who will document it before money moves?

Do not rely on family memory for this. Record the intention at the time.

4. What the broker or lender needs

If the first home buyer is borrowing, ask the broker or lender:

• What evidence is needed for the deposit source?
• Does the lender need a gift letter or statutory declaration?
• If the money is a loan, how will that affect the application?
• If a parent is going guarantor, what exact amount is guaranteed?
• What has to happen before any guarantee can be released?

Different lenders can ask for different evidence. Treat this as a broker or lender question, not a guess.

5. Centrelink and retirement check

If the parent receives, or may later apply for, the Age Pension or another payment, check the gifting rules before money moves.

Services Australia says a person can give away any amount, but payments may be affected if gifts exceed the gifting free areas.

The current gifting free areas listed by Services Australia are:

• $10,000 in one financial year
• $30,000 over 5 financial years, with no more than $10,000 in a single financial year

Services Australia says gifts above the free areas can be counted in the assets test and deemed in the income test for 5 years from the date of the gift.

Ask:

• Does the parent receive a payment now?
• Might the parent apply for a payment in the next few years?
• Could this help reduce retirement flexibility?
• Should the parent speak with Services Australia’s Financial Information Service or a financial adviser first?

6. Tax and property-transfer check

Cash help and property transfers are not the same thing.

The ATO says that if someone sells, transfers, or gifts property to family or friends for less than it is worth, they may be treated as if they received market value for capital gains tax purposes.

Ask an accountant or tax adviser if the help involves:

• property being transferred
• a below-market sale
• a parent going on title
• a trust, company, or business asset
• a loan being forgiven later
• interest being charged or waived

7. Siblings and estate records

Family deposit help can become an estate question later.

Ask:

• Should siblings know about the help?
• Is the help meant to be equalised later?
• If it is a loan, what happens if the parent dies before it is repaid?
• Should the parent’s will or estate records mention the arrangement?
• Who keeps the paperwork?

This is a wills and estates question, not only a property question.

8. Relationship breakdown risk

If the first home buyer has a spouse or partner, family money can become sensitive if the relationship later breaks down.

Ask a family lawyer:

• how the arrangement might be viewed if the relationship ends
• whether the structure needs separate documentation
• whether a gift, loan, guarantee, or co-ownership arrangement creates different risks
• what not to say or promise in writing before legal advice

This checklist does not predict any family-law outcome.

9. Professional pathway

Before money moves, the usual pathway is:

1. Broker or lender, for deposit evidence, loan application, guarantee, and borrowing questions.
2. Lawyer, for gift records, loan agreements, co-ownership, partner issues, and estate treatment.
3. Accountant or tax adviser, for property transfers, CGT, trusts, companies, forgiven debts, and tax questions.
4. Financial adviser or Services Australia Financial Information Service, for retirement and Centrelink questions.
5. Family lawyer, if there is a spouse, partner, relationship-breakdown concern, or blended-family issue.

Quick decision pause

Pause before money moves if any of these are unclear:

• whether the help is a gift or loan
• what the lender has been told
• whether repayment is expected
• how siblings and estate records will be handled
• whether the parent’s retirement or Centrelink position is affected
• what happens if the child separates, sells, refinances, or cannot repay

The goal is not to make the family scared of helping. It is to make the help clear enough that everyone knows what they are agreeing to.