Real Estate Litigation Articles

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca The problems caused by the strike of civic workers in Toronto last summer are now coming home to roost. Last June, John purchased a newly constructed $600,000 freehold townhouse in downtown Toronto. When the transaction closed, city building...

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca Last week’s column told the story of the illegal chimney on a north Toronto bungalow owned by Ruta Benjamin and her husband. When the house next door to the Benjamins' was torn down in 2007 and a monster home erected in its place, the couple...

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca Ruta Benjamin and her husband were sitting in their house, minding their own business, when they suddenly found themselves in violation of regulations of the Technical Standards and Safety Authority without doing anything wrong. They live near...

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca With less than a month to go, the Ontario court system is in for one of its biggest shake-ups in recent memory. Effective Jan. 1, 2010, the monetary jurisdiction of the Ontario Small Claims Court jumps from $10,000 to $25,000, and new...

Whatever money Pauline Rudling saved by using a will kit instead of a lawyer to prepare her last will and testament was spent hundreds of times over on legal fees so that a judge could figure out what she meant. Shortly before she died in January 2003, Pauline Rudling...

The home inspection industry in Canada may never be the same again following the decision of the British Columbia Supreme Court last week in the case of Salgado v. Toth*. Back in September 2006, Manuel Salgado and Nora Calcaneo signed an agreement to buy a house in...

There’s a common misconception that the best way to avoid Ontario’s 1.5 per cent probate fees on the value of an estate is to place the family home and other assets into joint ownership with a child or children, so that the property will automatically transfer to the...

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca As many as 244 purchasers received a nasty surprise at the end of September when they got hit with thousands of dollars in “fictitious” charges on final closing of their new condominium units. The development in question is a 244-unit...

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca Can a buyer refuse to close the purchase of a new home if there are deficiencies in construction, forgotten or incomplete items, or unauthorized changes to the design, layout or materials? That question was the subject of a paper presented to a...

Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca The Great SPIS Myth It's time to reveal The Great SPIS Myth the prevailing fiction about the Seller Property Information Statement (SPIS), a disclosure form published by the Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA). Although its use is endorsed...