Articles 2020

Today
Today

Proposed Amendments to Ontario’s Excess Soil Laws

  • April 19, 2024
  • Matthew Gardner, Partner at Willms & Shier Environmental Lawyers LLP

On October 17, 2023, Ontario’s Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (“MECP”) posted proposed regulatory amendments to Ontario Regulation 406/19 - On-Site and Excess Soil Management (“O. Reg. 406/19”) and the Rules for Soil Management and Excess Soil Quality Standards (“Soil Rules”) on the Environmental Registry of Ontario.

Real Property Law, Student Forum

How to Ensure you Have Secure Funds

  • April 19, 2024
  • Ray Leclair, VP, Public Affairs at LAWPRO

1. For funds to be truly irrevocable, you need a PCRN. Anything else is a risk. 2. “On-Us” funds (e.g. when the payee and the payor are at different branches of the same financial institution) are safe and you can proceed. 3. Just because a bank releases your funds – even after a hold period – does not make it real money – you should try to get confirmation that the funds are irrevocable.

Real Property Law, Student Forum

Property “Owners” May Constitute “Employers” Under Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act

  • February 20, 2024
  • Diana Pegoraro, Torys LLP

In R. v. Sudbury Greater Sudbury (City), the Supreme Court of Canada expanded a property owner’s potential legal liability with respect to a construction project at its property, four justices finding that a property owner can breach its obligations as an “employer” under Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act (the “OHSA”) even where another party has expressly agreed to be the constructor pursuant to a written agreement with the property owner.

Real Property Law, Student Forum
head-shot photo of author Olivia Koneval-Brown

Cautions of Buying a Home after Separating

  • February 01, 2024
  • Olivia Koneval-Brown

In this article, Olivia Koneval-Brown provides an insightful overview of considerations -- both practical and legal -- that newly separated individuals should take into account before jumping to purchase a new home.

Real Property Law, Student Forum, Young Lawyers' Division

LSO Virtual Authentication Requirements

  • January 19, 2024
  • Mathew Seeburger

Effective January 1, 2024, the Law Society’s temporary emergency measure allowing licensees to virtually verify client identity without authentication ended. Licensees must now authenticate an individual’s government-issued ID, meaning the licensee must use a process or method to determine if the ID is true and genuine and cannot do so virtually. Bylaw 7.1 (made under the Law Society Act) allows two methods of verification virtually: the credit file method and the dual process method.

Real Property Law, Student Forum

Case Summary: Sunderland v. Toronto Regional Real Estate Board

  • January 03, 2024
  • Soudeh Hosseini

This article summarizes Sunderland v. Toronto Regional Real Estate Board, 2023 FC 1293, in which the Federal Court allowed the action to proceed against the brokers and associations on the narrower claim that they arranged to control certain aspects of the commission structure in potential contravention of s. 45 of the Competition Act.

Class Actions, Real Property Law, Student Forum

A Brief Overview of the New Toronto Vacant Home Tax 

  • January 16, 2023
  • Birute Luksenaite

Effective January 1, 2022, the City of Toronto has begun to levy an annual 1% property-value-based tax on vacant residential properties (the Vacant Home Tax or “VHT”). VHT was codified in the new Chapter 778 of Part 2 (General By-Laws) of the Municipal Code, which Part already contained, inter alia, the City’s property tax and land transfer tax provisions. 

Real Property Law, Student Forum, Taxation Law

Foreign Property Buyer Tax Traps: Taxable Trustees and Resulting Trusts

  • January 05, 2023
  • Milosz Zak, BDO Law LLP

Applicable to contractual obligations arising or assumed as of January 1, 2023, pursuant to the Federal Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act, (the “Federal foreign buyer ban”) non-Canadian citizens, non-permanent residents, and others deemed to be “non-Canadian” have been barred from purchasing residential property across Canada for two years.

Real Property Law, Student Forum, Taxation Law