A immediate relative can provide you with your down payment and this is evidenced by a "gift letter."  A poorly written gift letter will waste time, energy and lead to frustrations for everyone involved in trying to arrange your mortgage.  Don’t let this happen to you! 

The gift letter must identify:

• the giver 
• the receiver
• relationship between giver and receiver
• the amount
• the property being purchased

It is also important to note:

1) The giver is to be an immediate relative – parent, sibling, grandparent, aunt etc.  Gifts from friends, bosses, common-laws, or family friends are not allowed in high ratio mortgages.

2) The gift must not be a loan, be subject to repayment terms, or trade for an ownership percentage in the future.  Lenders look at the gift as "patient capital", meaning there is a greater good involved and quick payback is not an expectation or requirement. The giver is agreeing by signing that the money is a true gift.

3) The money must be provable either through deposit into the receivers account.  The money deposited is to match exactly what is written on the gift letter...DO NOT deposit multiple items for this deposit.