Articles

Following are summaries of this week’s civil decisions of the Court of Appeal of Ontario, including Yaiguaje v Chevron Corporation, in which it appears that the Court has finally put an end to the matter; and Beatty v Wei, in which the Court set aside the application judge’s interpretation of the Illegal Substances Clause commonly used as an additional term in the Ontario Real Estate Association/Toronto Real Estate Board standard form Agreement of Purchase and Sale.

Topics covered this week included franchise law and rescission, liability for wrongful patent enforcement, the duty to defend in the MVA context, family law (custody and access and breach of court orders), securities class actions, and mortgage enforcement. John Polyzogopoulos

The Ontario government has introduced new training requirements for incoming directors, and has also imposed ongoing disclosure obligations for directors to ensure that condominium owners have relevant information before they cast their vote. For example, directors must now disclose if their condominium fees are in arrears for 60 days or more, among other compulsory disclosures. Read on for further information about these important changes.

One of the few reasons a landlord can evict a tenant under the Residential Tenancies Act is if the unit is required for the landlord’s own use. While the Act previously required a landlord to have a “good faith” basis for requiring possession, it has been amended to place further restrictions on evictions for the “landlord’s own use”.

The Ministry of Finance on April 13, 2017 announced supplemental reporting requirements ‎pursuant to recent amendments to the Land Transfer Tax Act. Effective April 24, 2017, prescribed information on the purchasers and property being conveyed must be filed through a separate report through Teranet‎ eXpress. This information form is separate from the Land Transfer Tax affidavit that forms part of the electronic or paper registration.

Relief from the payment of capital gains tax when a principal residence is sold or gifted (or disposed on death) is no longer automatic. To benefit from the principal residence exemption (and not pay capital gains tax), individuals will have to report the disposition and designation of the principal residence in prescribed form to the CRA for the year of disposition.

In this "tongue firmly in cheek" paper addressed to clients, Murray Box of Pallett Valo highlights the dangers of a tenant signing a landlord's standard form of non-residential lease without negotiating, understanding and, sometimes, even reading it. Enjoy!! -- Ray Mikkola --

Jeff Lem has written an interesting and entertaining article about his experiences as a neophyte Law Society Bencher, the way in which the Law Society's. in general, and Convocation's. in particular, function is somewhat opaque to most members of the profession. Jeff's article is a "must read" in particular for those of us who from the solicitor side of the bar who have decided to run in the upcoming Bencher election. SO... VOTE!

For the purposes of the Assessment Act, agreements with significant reservation of rights to the landlord may still be characterized as a lease if the reservations are consistent with commercial leases and if the agreement contains other indicators of a lease such as the quiet enjoyment and the habendum clauses.