Articles 2020

This article considers two decisions that discuss how the misrepresentation of material facts may create liability not only for vendors but also for real estate agents who were found to be negligent because of their failure to independently verify the vendor’s suspicious misrepresentations about the property.

As part of a series of articles concerning the family cottage, Harjot Atwal writes about cottage real estate agreements (e.g., co-ownership agreements and rights of first refusal agreements) that can be considered for interfamily sales and for sales to outside third parties.

This is the first in a series of articles concerning legal issues and challenges that families may face due to their ownership of cottages. This article focuses on estate litigation driven by family conflicts.

In a construction context, certain percentages of mortgage funds are advanced in stages as the different stages of construction and development are completed. If a writ of seizure and sale is filed after the mortgage was registered and the mortgagee was given notice of the filing, are the mortgage advances that are made subsequent to the writ’s filing subject to such a writ’s priority? This article considers this question by discussing the case 1842752 Ontario Inc. v. Fortress Wismer 3-2011 Ltd.

An op-ed on the recent decision Elias Restaurant v. Keele Sheppard Plaza Inc., 2020 ONSC 5457, where the court took racial bias into consideration in a relief from forfeiture application.

The author discusses the options a lender has to mitigate risks associated with super-priority GST/HST liens that can take priority over registered mortgages. Options such as obtaining title insurance that provides coverage against such risks and pursuing litigation are discussed.

The author outlines whether builders can rely on "no-registration clauses" to prevent purchasers from registering a certificate of pending litigation on title to a property, even if it is the builder’s fault that a transaction cannot close.