Commercial Landlords May Not Have To Mitigate
February 28, 2025 By Mark Mikulasik If a commercial tenant repudiates the lease, that is, says they no longer intend to perform their side of the bargain the landlord has two options: they may immediately terminate the lease by following the procedures in the law, or they may refuse to accept the repudiation and treat […]
Legal Risks of Your Home Renovation Project
February 25, 2025 By Nick Melchiorre Whether you are do-it-yourselfer or hire a contractor, home renovations, like anything else in life, attract some specific legal concerns. DEALING WITH CONTRACTORS Is your contractor a licensed business? Though licensing does not guarantee reliability, it is a minimum expectation of a legitimate business. An unlicensed contractor – someone […]
The Consequences of an Unconditional Offer to Purchase
February 11, 2025 By Nick Melchiorre Should you make an unconditional offer to buy a house? Ultimately, that decision is up to you, but you ought to know that if you do, you may not be able to get out of the deal without substantial cost. We have written before about force majeure in the […]
Specific Performance: Frequently Asked Questions
January 21, 2025 By Mark Mikulasik What is specific performance? It is an equitable remedy for breach of contract in which the Court orders the party in breach to performed or complete the contract. Does it only apply to real estate? No. Although real estate deals gone bad are the classic typical example of situations […]
When The Deal Does Not Close Revisited
December 17, 2024 By Nick Melchiorre We have written previously about how damages are typically assessed when the deal does not close due to the fault of the buyer. Everything we said in that article remains true for most cases. THE ISSUE As with most legal principles, there are exceptions to the usual rules, because […]
Another Reason Not To Sleep On Your Rights
December 26, 2024 By Mark Mikulasik We have written several articles about why it is essential to beware of time limits, and to commence your action in a timely fashion, yet examples continue to come to our attention of situations in which parties attempt unsuccessfully to make arguments to extend the time and validate a […]
Can A Seller Get Specific Performance?
December 17, 2024 By Nick Melchiorre When we write or talk about specific performance (the action to obtain a judgment enforcing a contract of sale) we typically are talking about buyers who want to obtain a property they consider to be unique. Specific performance is usually only available when money damages would not be an […]
10 Things To Know About Specific Performance
December 10, 2024 By Nick Melchiorre 10 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE Specific performance is an equitable remedy designed to enforce contractual bargains by requiring a defaulting party to keep up their side of the bargain. It is most frequently thought of in relation to real estate deals that fail to close. Being an […]
Oral Evidence May Not Help You Win
November 5, 2024 By Mark Mikulasik We have talked about the advantages of putting a contract in writing. THE ISSUE You need to be aware that if you put the contract in writing, particularly if it deals with land, evidence of a witness (as opposed to written evidence) will not be admitted if it contradicts […]
Interference With A Right Of Way
August 20, 2024 By Nick Melchiorre What would you do if your neighbour put a gate across your shared driveway? THE ISSUE In an earlier article about easements, we mentioned that even a simple right of way for a shared driveway may cause problems. THE CASE This is illustrated in Nolet v. Granger, a recent […]