Do you have a licence for your home’s front yard parking?

by admin | Oct 2, 2021 | 2021 Toronto Star Property Law Columns, Toronto Star Property Law Columns

Last September, a client of mine whom I will call Meghan purchased a beautifully renovated home in Midtown Toronto for a price well above asking. Built in the 1920s on a 30-foot lot, the home came with a private drive. The MLS listing shows three parking spaces, and...

Homebuyers get support from Superior Court about pre-closing damages to a property

by admin | Sep 18, 2021 | 2021 Toronto Star Property Law Columns, Toronto Star Property Law Columns

A Superior Court decision in August provides valuable guidance on how buyers and sellers should act when a property suffers substantial damage before closing. In November, 2019, Sative Yan-Ling Tsui and Jonathan Simon Levert signed an agreement to buy a three-level...

A homebuyer should know if they — or their lawyer — will get the title insurance referral fee

by admin | Sep 4, 2021 | 2021 Toronto Star Property Law Columns, Toronto Star Property Law Columns

When a title insurer pays a referral fee to a lawyer for arranging a policy on a client’s property purchase, who should get the benefit of the fee — the lawyer or the client? For more than 20 years, some Ontario title insurance companies have been paying lawyers a fee...

A centuries-old law requiring Ontario landowners to work on local roads is coming off the books

by admin | Aug 21, 2021 | 2021 Toronto Star Property Law Columns, Toronto Star Property Law Columns

Ontario has finally repealed a law — after a 200-year delay — which even today requires landowners to perform road work for local townships. Two years after the province of Upper Canada was established in 1791, one of the first acts of the new legislature was to...

The new holiday on September 30 will affect real estate purchase and sale closing dates

by admin | Aug 4, 2021 | 2021 Toronto Star Property Law Columns, Toronto Star Property Law Columns

Anyone with a scheduled September 30 closing date on their real estate purchase or sale will have to change that date as the result of a new national holiday proclaimed in June. Bill C-5 is an act to amend various pieces of legislation making September 30 every year a...

When does a home’s seller really have to move out?

by admin | Jul 24, 2021 | 2021 Toronto Star Property Law Columns, Toronto Star Property Law Columns

It’s after 5 p.m. on June 30 and the home purchase transaction is complete. The new owner shows up with the keys and deed, only to be utterly shocked that the seller is still in the house — and doing nothing to pack or move. Sadly, this is a true story, posted on a...