Can I sell my car or remortgage my house to save the company?

Selling personal assets or remortgaging your home to save a struggling business is an emotionally charged decision that requires brutal honesty about the company's true prospects and the risk to your family's financial security. Many directors instinctively want to do 'whatever it takes' to save their business, but this impulse can lead to catastrophic personal financial consequences if the company is already beyond rescue. Before taking this step, you must ask fundamental questions: Is the business fundamentally viable with additional capital, or am I simply delaying inevitable failure? If you inject personal funds, is there a realistic, evidence-based plan showing how the business will become profitable and repay this investment, or are you hoping something undefined will improve? Can you afford to lose this money entirely without destroying your family's financial security? Have you exhausted all other funding options including business loans, invoice financing, equity investment, or creditor negotiations? Most critically, if professional insolvency advisers are telling you the business cannot be saved, are you ignoring expert advice because of emotional attachment? The hard truth is that many directors who sell personal assets or remortgage homes to fund failing businesses simply convert company debt into personal debt, losing both the business and their personal financial security. If the company is already insolvent—unable to pay debts as they fall due—injecting personal funds often just increases the total losses because the additional capital disappears into the same problems that caused insolvency originally. Moreover, if you sell assets or inject personal funds when insolvency is already apparent, liquidators may later scrutinize these transactions: did you prefer certain creditors with this money? Did you inject funds to pay yourself or connected parties? Were you trading wrongfully while propping up an insolvent business with personal resources? There are circumstances where personal investment might be appropriate: if cashflow difficulties are genuinely temporary and specific—for example, you're waiting for a large confirmed contract payment or you have a signed term sheet for equity funding that requires bridge capital; if the business is fundamentally sound but undercapitalized and additional funds will fix the structural problem; if you've had objective professional assessment confirming viability with additional capital; and critically, if you can genuinely afford to lose this money without personal bankruptcy or family catastrophe. Even then, personal investment should be structured properly: consider lending money to the company rather than gifting it, with formal loan documentation so you're at least a creditor if insolvency occurs; ensure any security against company assets is properly registered; and take professional legal and tax advice about structuring the transaction optimally. Never remortgage the family home without your spouse's full informed consent and understanding of the risks—this affects them directly and doing this without transparency destroys trust and can destroy marriages. Be especially wary if you've already invested substantial personal funds and are considering 'just a bit more'—this is often the sunk cost fallacy operating, where you keep investing to justify previous losses rather than making rational decisions about future prospects. If you're asking family members for money, you have an ethical duty to explain honestly that they might lose it all, and you should never accept money from relatives who cannot afford the loss. The emotional drivers behind wanting to save your business at any personal cost are understandable—pride, identity, responsibility to employees, fear of failure, years of sacrifice already invested—but these emotions can cloud judgment catastrophically. Before selling personal assets or remortgaging your home, you must seek independent professional advice from an insolvency practitioner who will give you an objective assessment of whether the business can be saved, and you should seriously consider whether protecting your family's financial security by accepting business failure is actually the more responsible choice than risking everything on a business that may already be beyond rescue.