Lawyers Directory

PDCS specializes in the purchase and sale of residential and commercial real estate, construction liens, mortgages and financing, as well as condominium and commercial development projects.

Residential Real Estate

Our real estate team can assist you by reviewing the terms of your offer and drafting conditions, representations and warranties where appropriate to protect your interests. We will also discuss how you would like to take title to the property and the title insurance options available to you. We act as approved counsel to several of Canada’s major banks and lending institutions in a variety of secured lending transactions and assist clients in sourcing and negotiating appropriate financing terms.  

Purchasing a Home
The Offer to Purchase
Financing
Title Insurance
After the Agreement is Firm
Closing
Following Closing
Purchase of a New Home
Selling of a Home
Preliminary Steps
Receiving an Offer
After the Agreement is Firm
Prior to Closing
On Closing
Following Closing

Purchasing a Home

For most people, purchasing a home is the most important and largest personal financial decision they will ever make. It is therefore very important that you understand all of the aspects of the transaction and what services you should expect from your lawyer. This is an exciting time in your life and our lawyers want to ensure that the purchase of your new home is a comfortable experience.

When you are considering the purchase of a home, you should consider the following issues:

The Offer to Purchase

The most important thing to understand is that once you sign an offer to purchase and the offer is accepted by the vendor, you and the vendor have a binding agreement or contract for the purchase and sale of property. It is often helpful if you (or your real estate agent) provide for the ability to have the offer reviewed by a lawyer to make sure that all of the clauses in the offer necessary for your protection have been included. This is especially important if you are negotiating with a builder or developer for the purchase of a new home.

Financing

If you require a mortgage, the offer to purchase should be conditional on financing. Before submitting an offer, it may be advisable to be pre-approved for your mortgage so that you have an estimate of what your financial institution would be willing to lend you for a mortgage on a home.

Title Insurance

Contact our office to find out about the benefits and advantages of using title insurance and whether it will be appropriate for your particular purchase and mortgage transaction.

After the Agreement is Firm

An agreement is "firm" when all of the conditions in the agreement have been waived or satisfied. Once we have a copy of your agreement, we will conduct various searches to ensure that your interests are protected and to ensure that you have good and marketable title on closing.

Approximately one week prior to closing, we will arrange an appointment for you to attend at our offices to confirm the amount of money required on closing and to have you sign various documents, including your mortgage documents and a direction to the vendor regarding how you would like to take title to the property.

Closing

To “close” the transaction and to convey title of the property to you, the transaction documents and money are exchanged between the parties once an updated search of title is completed. We will register your Transfer and mortgage on title and we will arrange for you to pick up your keys.

Following Closing

We will notify the assessment office of the change of ownership and any other necessary parties. Once all items relating to the transaction have been completed, we will send you a full report of the transaction and a copy of your Transfer and mortgage for your records.

Purchase of a New Home

There are special matters to consider when you purchase a new home. Please contact our office to review the provisions of the Ontario New Home Warranties Plan Act as administered by Tarion, regarding extensions of the closing date in favour of the builder, the nature of the warranties available under the program, and other items that will be of concern to you. For more information on purchasing a new home and to download useful checklists, we also suggest that you consult the Tarion website.

Selling of a Home

When you are considering the sale of your home, you should consider the following issues:

For most people, the first step in selling their home is to contact an experienced real estate agent and list the house for sale. You will sign a listing agreement which is a formal contract between the seller and the broker setting out the duration of the listing, the agreed commission rate, and the seller’s duties and obligations during the list period. Read the agreement very carefully and sign only when you are satisfied that all of the information is accurate and true. If you have any questions at this early stage, you may want to contact one of our lawyers to discuss any issues or questions before signing any documents.

Preliminary Steps

To prepare for the sale of your home, you should locate a number of documents, including:

• The Deed or Transfer
• Your most recent mortgage statement
• Your most recent tax bill
• The most recent survey of the property
• Your utilities bills

Receiving an Offer

The first and most important advice we can give you when you receive an offer is that it is essential that you allow yourself time to have the offer reviewed by us before you sign it. PDCS does not charge a fee for reviewing the offer if you retain our firm to act on your behalf for the sale transaction.

When we review the offer, we will make sure that you understand all of the clauses in the offer and we will consider and address such items as:

• Whether you can prepay your mortgage;
• Whether there are any title problems that should be revealed in the offer;
• Whether your survey is sufficient or whether you need to bear the cost of a new survey.

When you receive an offer to purchase you have three options: (1) Accept the offer "as is"; (2) Change the offer to include terms that are more acceptable to you and send the offer back to the purchasers to see if they will accept your amendments; or (3) Reject the offer if you feel that you and the purchaser will not reach an agreement acceptable to the both of you.

After the Agreement is Firm

An agreement is "firm" once all of the conditions have either been satisfied or waived.

At that time, you (or your real estate agent) should forward a copy of your agreement to our office as soon as possible after signing it along with the documents referred to above.

We will arrange for the discharge of your mortgage after closing and will inform the utility company and the gas company of the closing date and ask for a final meter reading on that date and/or we will request for a final bill to be forwarded to your new address.

The purchaser’s lawyer will inform us of any problems regarding title to the property, taxes, zoning or any other matter affecting future ownership of the property. We will discuss these issues with you and will respond according to your instructions.

Prior to Closing

Approximately one week prior to closing, we will arrange an appointment for you to attend at our offices to confirm the amount of money due to you on closing from the purchaser and to have you sign various documents.

On Closing

The documents and the keys are exchanged between the parties once an updated search of title is completed by the Purchaser. The purchaser’s lawyer will also provide us with a cheque for the balance of the purchase price which is due on closing to be released once the Transfer is registered. After closing, you will receive a cheque for the balance due on closing less payment of the mortgage, payment of the real estate commission, a holdback for final utilities, legal fees and disbursements.

Following Closing

Your lawyer attends to the payment of the money necessary to discharge your mortgage out of the funds received on closing and will also attend to the registration of the discharge of the mortgage when it is received from the mortgage company. Once all items relating to the transaction have been completed, you will receive a full report of the transaction and any outstanding balance remaining owing to you.