Real Estate Litigation Articles

Even if it is arranged long after the initial purchase, it’s important for all property owners to have title insurance, Bob Aaron writes. An appeal decision of Ontario’s Divisional Court has put an end to a bitter family dispute in which a woman stole the title to her...

New home buyers have just won the HST-rebate lottery. Here’s all you need to know. It must be like winning the lottery. Any first-time buyer who bought or buys a new home or condo as a principal residence after March 20, 2025 — last year — can look forward to...

Refinancing a home may feel routine, writes Bob Aaron, but it is not trivial. The efficiency of online ‘closing centres’ comes at a cost to the consumer: less scrutiny, less explanation, and less accountability. Bob Aaron is a Toronto real estate lawyer and a...

Condo owners, writes Bob Aaron, do not have the freedoms they would enjoy in freehold homes, and must adhere to bylaws. Just ask the couple who wound up in court over a dishwasher and a doorbell. This is a true story about a $10,000 doorbell. It took place in a...

An Ontario judge has handed down a record high damages award in a case involving a breach of a single-family residential real estate purchase. In a decision released in December 2025, Justice Paul Sweeny awarded the seller a staggering $2,385,000 representing his...

It’s a deep and growing problem: lawyers signing off on affidavits or real estate documents without verifying who is actually behind the screen, Bob Aaron writes. Dreamstime In the post-COVID age of digital signatures and electronic meetings, the click of a mouse has...

While virtually every residential resale agreement contains a warranty that the property does not contain any known urea formaldehyde foam insulation, I have almost never seen a contract which refers to radon, an odourless, colourless, tasteless — and deadly — gas...

The August ruling in the British Columbia case of Cowichan Tribes v. Canada marks a sea change in real property law and Indigenous rights law in Canada. In a 288,000-word decision, Justice Barbara Young ruled that the Cowichan Tribes hold Aboriginal title to as many...

A case decided in the Superior Court of Justice last year contains an important lesson to buyers and sellers: if one party to a contract changes its terms during the negotiations, even slightly, it’s not the same offer anymore. Until both parties sign the exact same...

The finale to a case which has gone through three levels of courts has wide implications for every law across the country. The Supreme Court of Canada last month ruled that judges do not have the power to create a new law just because they think it would be a good...