When agents face heat for illegal income apartments

by admin | Dec 21, 2019 | 2019 Toronto Star Property Law Column, Toronto Star Property Law Columns

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca How does an interested buyer know if a home’s basement apartment is legal? And what information about basement apartments must real estate agents provide to buyers? Mohamed came to my office last month with an agreement to purchase a two-unit...

Backing out of a home purchase can cost you

by admin | Dec 6, 2019 | 2019 Toronto Star Property Law Column, Toronto Star Property Law Columns

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca This past year’s GTA real estate market may become known as the year of aborted transactions. Speaking to hundreds of real estate lawyers, both in person and online at a Law Society of Ontario seminar last month, Toronto lawyer Harry Herskowitz...

What condo owners should know about e-votes and e-proxies

by admin | Nov 22, 2019 | 2019 Toronto Star Property Law Column, Toronto Star Property Law Columns

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca What’s better for Ontario condominiums and their owners: electronic proxies or electronic voting? And what’s the difference? I recently wrote about solving the problem of condo owner apathy to meetings, where their votes are needed, by...

How a property survey could have prevented a pricey court judgment

by admin | Nov 8, 2019 | 2019 Toronto Star Property Law Column, Toronto Star Property Law Columns

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca I am regularly surprised at how frequently a land survey is viewed as unnecessary when it could be considered the single most important document in a real estate transaction. A survey was the focus of a court decision released last month in...

Why electronic voting is clicking with condo owners

by admin | Oct 25, 2019 | 2019 Toronto Star Property Law Column, Toronto Star Property Law Columns

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca An easy solution to the problem of owner apathy in condominium buildings, and a simple way to encourage interest and participation, is to introduce electronic voting. Back in November, 2017, the Condominium Act was amended to allow electronic...

City sending mixed signals on tackling housing shortage

by admin | Oct 15, 2019 | 2019 Toronto Star Property Law Column, Toronto Star Property Law Columns

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca If the city of Toronto was serious about tackling the housing shortage, why would it charge Toronto homeowners $300,000 to legalize three bachelor apartments in their house? Patrick and Susan own a three-storey home in central Toronto. In 2001,...