diff --git a/scripts/live-helpers b/scripts/live-helpers
index 4be7d9d..7eb45e9 100644
--- a/scripts/live-helpers
+++ b/scripts/live-helpers
@@ -1406,6 +1406,8 @@ activate_custom_mounts ()
 				# unions and don't need to be bootstrapped
 				# linkfiles dirs can't be bootstrapped in a sensible way
 				mkdir "${source}"
+				chown --reference "${dest}" "${source}"
+				chmod --reference "${dest}" "${source}"
 			else
 				# ensure that $dest is not copied *into* $source
 				mkdir -p "$(dirname ${source})"