Real Estate Lawyers Milton, Ontario

Your Axess Law real estate lawyer in Milton, Ontario, reviews your agreement of purchase and sale for essential clauses that protect your financial and legal interests. We check for your seller’s right to cancel if a buyer is late with a good faith deposit, or to keep the deposit if the buyer walks away without mutual consent.

Your virtual Milton real estate lawyer amends your contract to change terms and conditions when needed. If a buyer wants minor repairs made or asks to reduce the cost after a home inspection, we negotiate with their lawyer on your behalf.

Axess Law researches title insurance to your property for financial claims or construction liens that can put a hold on sale of your home. We transfer the title to the new buyer, and prepare a final statement of adjustments showing your fees and expenses. Your remote real estate lawyer in Milton arranges to collect your home keys, and pass them on to the buyer, concluding your home sale on time and for less than traditional legal services.

You can clear a construction lien beforehand by paying the disputed amount into court. Ontario’s Builders Lien Act allows the lien to be removed while the court hears and decides the dispute. You can pay either the whole amount owed (section 23), or if you are the homeowner, the amount owed by a general contractor to a subcontractor or supplier.

Lien claims can be prohibitive. For that reason, the act also allows homeowners to put up an amount the court considers “sufficient security” to pay the lien. That gives you the option of a letters credit or lien bond.

Letters credit are a bank’s guarantee the lien claimant will be paid if they win at court. Having a solid relationship with your bank is helpful in getting a letters credit. You may be required to secure the guarantee with cash, often 100% of the amount. Lien bonds issued by a surety company are a substitute, filed with a court promising to pay the lien if the claimant succeeds. You pay a fee for the bond, and will also have to put up cash security, but likely less than for letters credit.

It would be unlikely, since your conditional offer is not final until you lift or waive all the conditions. So if you are still arranging financing, or awaiting your professional home inspector’s report, your pending offer is not a done deal. Hopefully, the seller’s agent has informed you reviewing other offers is the plan.

Your agreement of purchase and sale may even contain a 48-hour escape clause, allowing the seller to require you to finalize your offer or withdraw. You have first right of refusal when you make a conditional offer on a home with an escape clause. Just be careful your real estate agent and lawyer clarify that you are the final and only buyer.

You’re not the only one looking for foreclosed properties. The first problem for buyers is competition for cheap properties. Foreclosed owners give up title to their home, and profits from its sale, after a court hearing by their lender.

Consequently, lenders are motivated to get their mortgage debt back. You may or may not get a bargain, depending on housing supply and current markets. As long as you’re not pursuing a power of sale property requiring court approval, buying a foreclosure shouldn’t take much longer than any other property. The lender has title, and can act swiftly.

You could file a civil claim to overturn a home sale if a former or current grow op poses a health and safety risk, and the seller didn’t disclose it. Or you could request compensation for the cost of repairing the damage to your new home. It’s up to the judge if you get the purchase price back, plus legal fees and damages. Interest rates or home prices may go up between the time you file your claim and it’s settled.

Presumably, by the time you view a home, the grow op has moved on. What hasn’t is the widespread damage a grow op causes. Tampering with electrical wiring to bypass utility meters can make the home uninsurable and dangerous to live in. Humidity from installing sprinklers and exhaust fans, and chemicals used to produce drugs can cause allergic reactions.

Buying a former grow op can result in costs for:

• a professional engineer to assess structural damage
• environmental consultant to find toxic mould
• general contractor to make your home safe to live in
• engineering or environmental inspection to confirm it has been remediated.

Asking for a compensatory amount for the difference between what you paid for a grow op home, and replacement property can help you recover financially.