It doesn’t happen often, but it does occasionally occur: 5pm rolls around, and your purchase is not yet closed. What happens? Most of the time, the answer is that it depends. If your mortgage money has not arrived, then generally speaking, you are going to have to...
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real estate law
Are you ready?
I’m stealing today’s post from Ask Ross, a blog about all things mortgages. Here are his top 5 signs that you are ready to buy a house: You have a reliable source of income. Home ownership requires paying regular bills, and being prepared for unexpected expenses. If...
Buying tenants
If you are thinking about buying a house that is currently rented out to tenants, there are a few things you need to know. First, if you are going to be keeping the tenants, you will want to see their rental agreements while the offer is still conditional. You do not...
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...
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...
Disaster!
What happens if disaster strikes just before you close? In 1985, an F4 tornado struck the City of Barrie, causing massive damage to a large part of the city. I was only five years old at the time; my memories of the day consist of being upset that my mother wouldn’t...
Checking for damage
In the GTA alone last year, there was major flooding and an ice storm. Many homes were damaged. Some of those, almost certainly, were in the process of being sold. What happens if you are about to buy a house, you think it might have been damaged, and the seller won’t...