This property owners’ fight for land severance plan was needlessly hard

by admin | Feb 1, 2019 | 2019 Toronto Star Property Law Column, Toronto Star Property Law Columns

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca One way of making better use of the scarce residential land we have in the GTA is to intensify housing. The City of Toronto’s official policy is pro-intensification. But its planning department seems to be actively opposed to squeezing more...

‘Idiotic’ Toronto policy stymies mayor’s affordable housing plan

by admin | Jan 18, 2019 | 2019 Toronto Star Property Law Column, Toronto Star Property Law Columns

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca Urban planner Sean Galbraith demonstrated — in recent Twitter posts — how Toronto’s own zoning regulations are standing in the way of Mayor John Tory’s goal to create 40,000 affordable housing units. Galbraith, of Galbraith & Associates,...

In a property deal, phrases like ‘to be verified’ can be costly — over $100K in this case

by admin | Jan 4, 2019 | 2019 Toronto Star Property Law Column, Toronto Star Property Law Columns

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca The Ontario Court of Appeal has reversed a lower court’s decision allowing the seller of a Toronto property to keep the $100,000 deposit of a buyer who refused to close the deal. Nancy Ann Pringle owned a detached, two-storey house on a corner...

Convert your thinking on property measurements

by admin | Dec 21, 2018 | 2018 Toronto Star Property Law Columns, Toronto Star Property Law Columns

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca It never fails to amaze me how the real estate community stubbornly sticks to the old imperial measurements in a country which supposedly converted to the metric system back in the 1970s. Let’s take the marketing of real estate. The generally...

Property deposits are forfeited, even if sale doesn’t go through

by admin | Dec 7, 2018 | 2018 Toronto Star Property Law Columns, Toronto Star Property Law Columns

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca What happens to the buyers’ deposit when they renege on the purchase agreement for a house and the owners resell for a higher price? That was the case in a 2016 sale of a house on Ravensbourne Cr., in Toronto. Davood and Hakimeh Shabestari...

Homebuyers should be very careful when reading property purchase agreements

by admin | Nov 23, 2018 | 2018 Toronto Star Property Law Columns, Toronto Star Property Law Columns

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca What happens when there is a significant discrepancy between the way a home is described on an MLS listing, and the details in the Agreement of Purchase and Sale? That was the issue in a court case decided earlier this year regarding a March...