When someone offers to help you make a down payment on a house, your lender will require a gift letter for a mortgage. Here's what it includes.Your bank needs a written letter to prove that any money gifted to you to help buy a house is in fact a gift, not a loan. A gift letter is a piece of legal, written correspondence explicitly stating that money received isn't expected to be repaid. A down payment can be hard to come by. One option is to be gifted the money, but this has certain requirements, such as a gift letter. A gift letter for a mortgage shows your lender that you don't need to repay gift money toward your down payment. Most conventional mortgage loans allow homebuyers to use gift money for their down payment and closing costs as long as it's a gift from an acceptable source. A mortgage gift letter states that you received money as a genuine gift to use toward a down payment, rather than a loan. The contract between the Charlotte Fire Department and MEDIC ends on Jan.