Residential real estate lawyers are a vital part of buying or selling a home. You should hire a real estate lawyer involved as early as when you make up your mind to purchase a new home or put your residential property up for sale. This way, they can protect your interests from inception and help you take on a real estate transaction’s challenges.

While it is possible to sell a property and buy a new one on the same day, our firm does not recommend it. Typically a home sale will not close before 2 p.m. and sometimes not until nearly 5:00 p.m. If you need funds from the sale to finance the purchase, any delays in the sale could delay the closing of your purchase. In the worst-case scenario, you may default on the purchase and lose your deposit. We recommended that your property purchase occur a day or two before the sale. To finance the new property’s purchase before the old one’s sale, you can arrange for a bridge loan. A bridge loan allows you to purchase the new property by obtaining a short-term bank loan against your existing property’s equity. When you sell your existing property, you repay the bridge loan. While there is some small cost in interest and bank fees in using a bridge loan, the peace of mind and the additional security it delivers are often well worth the price.

Yes. In Ontario, only a lawyer can register title transfer documents. Moreover, a lawyer is there to protect you throughout the transaction. A lawyer will ensure that you understand your rights and obligations and ensure that you receive a good title to the property you are purchasing.

Absolutely. An offer to purchase is a legal contract that becomes binding on both the buyer and the seller once signed. You need to understand what you are signing. A lawyer can assist you with explaining your rights and obligations to you. A lawyer can also suggest changes to the contract that will protect you, help you avoid difficulties, and ensure that your interest is protected.

To obtain a mortgage, you need to have at least a 5% down payment available to purchase your property. A “down payment” is the amount of your own money you put towards buying a property. However, if you have less than 20% saved, the mortgage is considered a high ratio mortgage. It will need to be insured by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) for a bank to lend you money for the purchase. If you do not have at least 5% of the down-payment available, you cannot obtain a mortgage from a regular lender as the mortgage will not be insured by CMHC.

Two or more people may own property as tenants-in-common. In such an instance, each owner has a divided percentage interest in the property ownership. The ownership interest held by each owner does not have to be equal. When parties hold the title as tenants-in-common, a right of survivorship does not exist. On the owner’s death, the deceased ownership share forms part of the deceased’s estate.

Unless the purchase and sale agreement provides to the contrary, a buyer may assign the Agreement to another person without the seller’s consent.

It is quite common for two or more people to hold title to a property as joint tenants. In law, a joint tenancy is a form of ownership where two or more people owning a property together have an equal and undivided right to keep or dispose of the property. When joint tenants own a property, the interest of a deceased owner gets transferred to the remaining surviving owners by the right of survivorship. For example, if three joint tenants own a property and one of them dies, the two remaining tenants will obtain and hold a one-half share of the property.

Title insurance is a product that protects your (or a lender’s) ownership interest in a property against losses incurred as a result of undetected or unknown defects. For example, a title insurance may protect you if you discover, after closing, that a part of your garden shed encroaches onto your neighbours property and your neighbour is now demanding that the shed be removed. A policy may also provide coverage for certain other off-title risks, such as real property tax arrears. However, it is important to know that the risks must exist as of the policy date and be unknown to you. If the risks arises after the policy date or the insurer determines you were aware of the risk prior to the policy date, the insurer will likely deny coverage.

The courts have considered the term “more or less” on several occasions. Generally, the term is meant to protect the seller from a minor discrepancy in the property’s dimensions but will not protect the seller from a substantial discrepancy or outright fraud. In such instances, the buyer may be able to terminate the transaction.

If you’re the buyer and are relying on the dimensions to be accurate, you may want to delete the term “more or less” to require the seller to provide a precise measurement of the property.