How Tarion’s newly mandated info sheet falls short of truly helping condo buyers

by admin | Jan 18, 2020 | 2020 Toronto Star Property Law Column, Toronto Star Property Law Columns

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca Since the start of 2020, every new purchase agreement for a pre-construction residential condominium is required to have attached to it an information sheet highlighting important issues that are part of a pre-construction transaction. The...

How the courts have shown it’s ‘buyer beware’ when purchasing property

by admin | Jan 3, 2020 | 2020 Toronto Star Property Law Column, Toronto Star Property Law Columns

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca One of the questions I’m frequently asked by home sellers is what issues they must disclose during the negotiation of a sale agreement. Any discussion of a seller’s disclosure obligation begins with the doctrine of caveat emptor: buyer beware....

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...