If you need assistance
in any of
these
matters, contact our office
to set up an appointment.*

*Please note that there may be an initial consultation fee payable at the time of your appointment.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW

If you have
specific questions...

About Our Law Firm

You should estimate the costs you will incur at the time of closing the transaction, such as Land Transfer Tax, Registration Costs, Survey, Legal Fees and Disbursements and the option of purchasing Title Insurance.

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Before making an offer on a house you may want to obtain a pre-approved mortgage from a Financial Institution. This will help you to determine the amount of money you have available to purchase a house. It will also put you into a better position to make an offer based upon the mortgage approval.   The property value will need to be appraised to determine the maximum amount of the mortgage that may be secured by the appraised property value.

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Your real estate agent will help you prepare an Offer to Purchase once you have selected the property you wish to purchase.  The offer becomes a binding agreement the moment the vendor accepts your unconditional offer. Should you make the offer conditional upon such things as obtaining satisfactory insurance, property inspection, financing, review and approval of the terms of the agreement by your lawyer. These conditions will need to be met before the offer becomes a binding agreement unless you waive the conditions.

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(a) Financing options;

(b) Extra items to be included in the offer;

(c) Any conditions required;

(d) Survey and cost of survey;

(e) Title Insurance;

(f) Land Transfer Tax;

(g) Legal Fees and Disbursements; and

(h) Some practical matters such as choice of closing date, inspection before closing, obligations which you would like the vendor to carry out before closing.

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Your lawyer completes a series of investigations such as:

• Title must be searched to see if the vendor owns the house and whether anyone has filed a lien, mortgage or other encumbrance on the property;

• Property Taxes;

• Particular requirements such as any guarantees concerning the water and septic;

• Property must be adequately insured;

• Zoning By-laws and Survey Compliance;

• Status of previous corporate owners;

• Status of mortgages being assumed or discharged;

• Compliance with agreements and restrictions;

• The rights of creditors over things such as furniture, fixtures, stoves, fridges (chattels) that are included in the purchase price;

• All arrangements necessary to ensure that your financing will be adequate and in place on closing; and

• Papers prepared by the Lawyer representing the vendor are correct and accurate.

Title Insurance will cover certain title risks in lieu of obtaining an up to date location survey and completing specific searches.

If the land or lot on which the house is located has not been surveyed, you should consider Title Insurance or promptly order a survey to be completed and make sure that:

• the house is located entirely within the lot lines;

• there are no fences, eaves or building belonging to someone else overlapping the land you are buying; and

• the building, as constructed, complies with all municipal Zoning By-laws.

If anything is found wrong in any of this, your lawyer will have to do additional work to protect your interests. This additional work may not be included in the initial estimated fee quote.

Additional information on the buying, selling and mortgaging of your property may be found in a brochure that we have available at our Law Office.

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