Real Estate Law Blog

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Blended families add complexity to estate planning

Keeping your beneficiary designations up to date can save your heirs time and money. Although they’re often forgotten by testators, the beneficiary designations on things like RRSPs, life insurance policies and Tax-Free Savings Accounts, are a critical part of any estate plan.  First of all, naming someone to receive the

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Check your easements before buying or building property

Owning your home is not a free pass to do what you want with the land around it.  That’s why a key part of the searches lawyers conduct before a real estate deal goes through is  checking what easements are registered on title.   In basic terms, an easement grants someone

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The family home in the estate plan

Fewer places are more important to a testator than the family home, but it doesn’t always get the attention it deserves in an estate plan.  As typically the most valuable single asset in any estate, it stands to reason that the family home is also one of the more likely to cause

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Beware the Canada Revenue Agency when flipping houses

The Canada Revenue Agency could be watching when you flip your home, especially if it happens too often. If you’re lucky enough to get hold of some of the province’s scarce lumber and building supplies this summer, there has rarely been a better time to renovate and sell your home,

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Tread carefully when selling a house with a tenant

Putting your house on the market can be trying at the best of times, but stress levels step up a notch when the property you’re selling is occupied by a tenant. In my experience, you can predict how rocky or smooth a sale involving a leased home will be based on the

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Protect yourself from title fraud

Many of us have been – or at least know – victims of car theft or jewellery theft…but what about house theft?  It might sound a bit outlandish, but title fraud is not unknown in Ontario, while police on Vancouver Island recently warned residents to be on guard against scammers using fake passports

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