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 […]
Reasonableness Can be a Two-Way Street
July 5, 2022 By Mark Mikulasik When may a commercial landlord reasonably refuse to consent to the assignment of a lease? This issue was reviewed by the Ontario Court of Appeal in the decision of Tabriz Persian Cuisine Inc. v. Highrise Property Group Inc. THE CASE In this case, the tenant attempted to assign its […]
Covid Leases and Force Majeure
June 20, 2022 By Brian Babcock Since the pandemic began, everybody involved in commercial real estate has been looking for some definitive guidance as to the effect of a force majeure clause in a lease upon the rights of the parties during the pandemic and as a result of the pandemic. The Ontario Court of […]
Can You Get That Deposit Back?
May 23, 2022 By Brian Babcock Sometimes real estate deals go sour and do not close. If you are the purchaser, that normally means that you are entitled to the return of the deposit you paid when the agreement was signed. One of the situations in which you may not get your deposit back is […]
When Will Air Rights Be Subject to an Implied Easement?
April 2, 2022 By Mark Mikulasik Implied easements are granted very rarely, and air rights are seldom the issue, so a case addressing the combination is bound to attract attention. Add a popular shopping mall battling the City of Toronto, and you have a case we need to write about, and you may want to […]