Last week, I wrote about murder and suicide. This week, it’s cemeteries. Last year, a couple in Chatham bought a piece of vacant land, intending to build a home on it. They received a building permit, and began to excavate. Partway through, they discovered several...
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Real Estate
Stigmatized houses
Not long ago, Calgary experienced its worst mass murder ever when a student pulled out a knife at an end-of-school house party and killed five people. Recently, that house went up for sale. In Ontario, as in most of North America, there is no legal requirement for a...
Does it matter to you?
If it does, get it in writing. There are so many times that buyer clients call me after closing to let me know that the seller took something they thought was supposed to be left. Sometimes it is clear in the agreement; sometimes it is ambiguous, it was in the listing...
Pick a day, any day
Fridays are very busy in real estate law offices, especially at the end of the month, and especially in the summer. The last Fridays in June, July, and August tend to be the busiest days of the year. If you are closing on one of those days, you will likely not get...
Don’t forget the extras
Most people, when buying a new home, budget for the obvious things: a down payment, a moving truck, closing costs. There are some other things you should always keep in mind, however, so that they don’t creep up on you just when you least expect them, and can least...
The SPIS has returned from the dead
I have written before about the Seller Property Information Sheet. When I’m acting for the buyer, they’re great; when I’m acting for the seller, I don’t like them one bit. Because of the increased liability they had a habit of causing, they disappeared for quite a...
Irrevocable – and binding
Real estate contracts are an odd sort of creature. Most contracts require both parties to agree and sign before they are accepted, but partly because of the nature of real estate contracts – one party making an offer that he or she doesn’t know if the other will...
Protecting your boundaries
Most people in Ontario these days will buy a property without a survey, or without an up-to-date survey. Most of the time, this will not be an issue. However, there are times when nothing replaces having that knowledge ahead of time. Where a survey really matters is...
Is a TV bracket a fixture or a chattel?
When people buy or sell homes, there is endless debate about what is a fixture and what is a chattel. I remember one purchase where I had a long, drawn-out discussion with the vendor’s lawyer after closing about whether the central vacuum canister was a fixture or a...
The importance of the status certificate
If you are buying a condo, you are always given the option of getting a status certificate before your offer becomes firm; usually, this is paired with a condition of your lawyer reviewing that status certificate. The status certificate itself is only a small...