Andrea Krywonis over at the Ontario Condo Law Blog wrote a post on Wednesday about a case where a condo owner was forced to sell her unit because of extreme bad behaviour toward the other owners and to the condo property. This included physical violence to other...

In Canada, whenever you purchase a property and finance more than 80% of the purchase price you are required to purchase mortgage default insurance. This is generally purchased through one of two companies, either Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) or...

In Ontario, closing costs on a real estate transaction are divided into fees and disbursements. Fees are fixed by lawyers for their time; disbursements are costs that are incurred by the lawyer on the client’s behalf, and are reimbursed by the client on closing....

Buying a home can be complicated; buying a recreational property can be even more so. Homes outside of urban centres generally are on septic systems and wells, and often use fuel oil or propane for heating. There may be access issues, and rural lots can be more...

When you buy a new home, there are always more costs than your down payment. Closing costs involve costs such as from real estate commissions (if you are selling), land transfer tax (if you are buying), legal fees and disbursements and moving costs. You should always...

In Ontario, most real estate transfers are completed electronically; at last check, 97% of land registry offices were equipped to do electronic registration. Everything from title searches to registration of mortgages to transfers of property is completed online, with...

There are several ways of taking title to property in Ontario, with the two most common being joint tenancy and tenancy in common. Joint tenancy means that two (or more) people jointly own the entire interest in the property. If one joint tenant dies, the other...

The Globe and Mail posted an article yesterday called “10 worst first-time homebuyer mistakes”. While the contents are based on American real estate law, they are certainly applicable to what first-time buyers should be aware of when purchasing property in Ontario....

Land transfer tax is imposed by the provincial government on all purchases of property in Ontario (with an additional tax imposed by the City of Toronto for properties purchased there). It is equivalent to approximately 1.5% of the purchase price. Land transfer tax...

I received a mailer the other day advising me to speak to someone at an unnamed financial institution about title insurance in order to protect myself from fraud. Title insurance is a very valuable tool; it protects you from any problems with the title to your...