HST Rebates on New Homes & Condos

Are you unsure if you or your clients qualify for the HST rebate on a new home or condo? Whether you are flipping your new property or renting it out, be sure to check the HST rules that relate to the federal 5 percent portion and provincial 8 percent portion of the HST.  In the [...]

Court Denies Realtor $11,000 Commission

Sanjay Babbar of Sutton Group – Summit Realty Inc. in Oakville was denied his claim to his $11,000 commission in a small claims court on March 27th, for failing to clearly explain the key terms of the Buyer Agency Agreement to his clients.  Sanjay’s claim was that he had spent time explaining everything to Jean [...]

Contractual Obligations

Last month we discussed the statutory duties and obligation imposed by Ontario legislation on agents which in part govern the relationship and conduct between agents, their clients and prospective buyers and sellers. As you may recall, in addition to statutory duties, agents are subject to contractual and fiduciary duties. This month we will focus on [...]

Statutory Duties

The nature of agent’s duties to their client(s), and the profession at large, can be grouped into three primary categories; statutory, contractual and fiduciary. Over the next few months we will focus on the nature and extent of these duties beginning with statutory obligations. In Ontario, statutory duties and obligations are governed primarily by the [...]

Reviewing Home Inspection Reports with your Clients

As an agent, your responsibilities extend beyond showing properties.  You are in charge of the (probably) biggest purchase of someone’s life, and that is a heavy responsibility so it is extremely important to see it through to the end, not missing any details. There was a court ruling in January 2011 regarding a 2006 purchase [...]

The Right to Assign an Agreement of Purchase and Sale

Over the past few months I have seen several instances where a Purchaser enters into an Agreement of Purchase and Sale (the “Agreement”) and prior to closing seeks to assign the Agreement to a Third Party Assignee. Notwithstanding that the property was not purchased in trust, nor was there a specific provision included as a [...]

First Time Home Buyers and Related Rebates

The rising cost of residential real estate in Ontario has made it increasingly difficult for first time home buyers to gain entry into the real estate market. This problem has been magnified in the GTA since the introduction of the Municipal Land Transfer Tax (“MLTT”) in 2007, passed under the City of Toronto Act which [...]

The ASA Designation and How You Can Earn Yours!

Between the years of 1947 to 1966, Canada (among many other post World War II countries) experienced a baby boom.   Canadian census data on age and sex showed that as of May 15, 2001, the median age of Canada’s population reached an all-time high of 37.6 years.  It is estimated that, in late 2007, about [...]