Rent and Relief
November 20, 2022 By Brian Babcock We all need relief from the pressures of the pandemic. The law is still sorting out its role in that desire. THE ISSUE Can a judge order deferral or reduction of rent under a commercial lease due to a pandemic? Unfortunately, the answer is not a simple yes or […]
Make Sure You Have Financing
September 24, 2022 By Mark Mikulasik If you are signing an agreement of purchase and sale to buy real estate that does not contain a financing condition make sure that you have financing firmly in place before you sign. The same warning applies if you are asked to waive a financing condition in your agreement […]
The Duties of a Partner
September 18, 2022 By Mark Mikulasik If you are a partner in a business venture, you not only have risks to outsiders, you have risks arising from your duties to your partners. Many business people enter into partnerships, particularly joint ventures for the holding or development of real estate, with very little if any documentation. […]
Can You Get That Deposit Back? Part Two
August 18, 2022 By Brian Babcock When a real estate transaction fails to close through no fault of the buyer, they usually can expect the return of the deposit. However, when the failure to close is due to the fault of the purchaser, the basic principle is that the deposit is forfeited, without proof of […]
Whose Privacy Is It Anyway?
August 18, 2022 By Mark Mikulasik Privacy is an increasingly important issue in society. The need for privacy occurs in many situations and in various forms. No doubt you value your privacy as much as most people. Canadian courts have recognized that the right to privacy exists independently of legislation because of the importance of […]
Family Cottage Succession: A Dream or A Nightmare Take Two
August 5, 2022 By Brian Babcock About a year ago, we posted an article entitled Family Cottage Succession: A Dream or A Nightmare?. That article dealt with the issues that could arise from a simple brother-sister dispute when two buildings were constructed on one lot. We concluded the article with the tagline “don’t let your […]
May I Take That Back?
August 1, 2022 By Brian Babcock If you make a gift, whether to a trust or an individual, even a family member, you cannot simply take it back without consent. THE ISSUE There is a distinction in law between a gift, which is absolute, and a resulting trust by which legal title is transferred, but […]
Is That a Fact or a Prediction?
August 1, 2022 By Brian Babcock A common way to recover damages for economic loss in the absence of a contract or physical damage to property is to make a claim for negligent misrepresentation. The test for negligent misrepresentation was conveniently recently repeated in a 2019 Superior Court decision called Doumouras v. Chander: there must […]
What is a “Bare Trustee”?
July 10, 2022 By Brian Babcock A bare trustee is not a legal representative given property for the benefit of Yogi or even Boo Boo. A bare trustee is an important but often overlooked role in trusts law. THE TERM DEFINED A “bare trust” is described in the leading Ontario Court of Appeal case, Trident […]
More Excitement About Easements
July 5, 2022 By Nick Melchiorre An easement is a document that grants specific rights of use of a part of the owner’s property to a non-owner. There are many different types of easements, some which are very common and well known but can still create excitement, such as utilities easements granted in favour of […]