Most of what we do in a law office is behind the scenes, so when we ask for certain things, sometimes clients are a bit taken aback (especially as some of it can be a bit personal). Rest assured, we won’t ask for anything we don’t actually need from you. When you are...
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Real Estate
Can you afford to buy?
According to the Housing Affordability Index, bungalows and two-storey homes in Canada increased in price by just under 0.5% last year. That may not seem like a huge amount, but it means that house prices are definitely on the rise. In a high-price market such as...
Keeping secrets
I had a client ask me an interesting question recently: can you hide your purchase price? The short answer is yes, but it is somewhat complicated. In order to purchase a property in Ontario, you have to pay Land Transfer Tax. The main reason that your purchase price...
Initial here
It is not at all uncommon for me to receive an agreement of purchase and sale that is not initialled on each page. While there is no legal requirement that each page be initialled, and the contract can still be valid, it is still important to initial each page. Having...
Taking over a rental
It is very standard when you buy a home to take over certain rental contracts. The most common is the hot water heater; in southern Ontario at least, it is far more common to rent a hot water heater than to own one, and generally the contract is transferred to the...
Possession: still sometimes 9/10 of the law
As I have discussed before, nearly all properties in Ontario are in the Land Titles system. Under that system, if you try to claim property from your neighbour, you are barred. However, there is an exception: if you reached the threshold for a claim, which is either...
Beware of fraud – and beware of fake lawyers
Here’s a new fraud: people going to real law firm websites, copying the firm name and lawyer’s picture, and setting up a fake law firm that looks like the real firm, but with different phone numbers and email addresses so that the fraudster is the one to manage the...
Extending
I acted for a client back in November who was selling a house that had belonged to his father, and that he had inherited. On the day before closing, I got a phone call from the buyer’s lawyer that the lender required an appraisal and that they would not get financing...
Some concrete consequences of the tightening of the mortgage rules
There have been a lot of casualties of the tighter mortgage regulations, but the hardest hit have probably been those who purchased condos pre-construction as much as five years ago, and are trying to close on them now. Several years ago, you could buy a condo with...
Buying a home with Bitcoin
Most people are familiar with Bitcoin, the digital-only currency. Lately, there has been a move to start buying offline items with Bitcoin. The latest example is real estate firm Bond New York, which recently announced that it would accept Bitcoin as payment. Would...