Real Estate Litigation Articles

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca When does a real estate deal close when the deed is registered, when the keys and money change hands or when the seller moves out of the house? This question was raised by London, Ont., lawyer Lorne Campbell in response to my Oct. 2 column...

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca Virtually all agreements of purchase and sale for homes or condominiums in Ontario are prepared on standard forms published by the Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA). Unfortunately, those forms have a great number of shortcomings which do...

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca It s hard to think of any consumer purchase contract where the price on the front page is not the full purchase price, where additional charges are unlimited, and where the seller has no legal obligation to make full disclosure of extra charges...

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca In many parts of the City of Toronto, houses were built so close together that when one owner wanted to repair or improve one side of his or her house, it was often necessary to access a neighbour’s property. That was the concern of my client...

Mortgage fraud may no longer be on the front pages, but the fallout from hundreds of past fraud cases is still wending its way through Ontario courts. The most recent decision in this area of law was released in June by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, and...

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca When a lawyer is presented with an unconditional but obviously defective agreement of purchase and sale by a client, does he or she have an obligation to try to negotiate an improvement to its terms? That was the question for the court to decide...

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca Before closing the purchase of their home, Pierre Marcoux and Caroline Bougie discovered the City of Toronto building department had an open file on the house. They wanted the seller, Darlene Remlinger, to rectify the situation by having the...

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca A discipline decision by the Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO) earlier this year has established what may be a new disclosure standard for real estate agents dealing with basement apartments and land surveys. Back in 2006, Richmond Hill real...

Back in April, 2006, Walter and Shelley Cotton signed an agreement to buy their dream home in Brantford. After closing, the house turned out to be the worst nightmare they could have imagined, requiring them to spend more than $85,000 to bring it up to building code....

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca Emma and Henry (not their real names) live in a modest three-bedroom detached home near Bathurst and Lawrence. A few weeks ago, their laundry room experienced a minor sewage backup caused by a cracked sewage pipe under the front lawn. After the...