Real Estate

Buying or Selling a home?

At some point in their life, many people will buy and/or sell residential property. We at FP Legal would love to help you! We want to make the process easy and run smoothly for you, so you don’t have to stress.

Buying, selling or refinancing a home can be one of the biggest decisions you ever make so finding the right lawyer matters! At FP Legal, we understand the intricacies of such processes and bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise to support you through it all.

Contact us today for comprehensive legal support concerning the sale, purchase or refinancing of your home!

Selling

At FP Legal, we understand that your home is one of the biggest investments you make, so we want to ensure that upon leaving the property, there are no lingering disparities or issues that can arise and potentially disrupt the sale.

Some of the work that we do for you, in order to ensure a smooth closing process includes:

  • Reviewing the Purchase of Sale Agreement and ensuring all conditions are met;
  • Preparing closing documents;
  • Requesting a mortgage or line of credit payout statement from your lender(s);
  • Calculating outstanding figures on any mortgage and arranging for these to be paid upon sales proceeds;
  • Obtaining the final signatures and closing the transaction with the buyer’s lawyer;
  • Informing relevant tax department and utilities (hydro and gas) of the change of ownership;
  • Paying the balance of the commission to your real estate brokerage;
  • Paying the balance of the sale to you.

In order to be able to do our best for you, we ask that you please provide us with the following:

  • Your contact information so we can respond to your inquiries on a timely basis;
  • A copy of the Agreement of Purchase and Sale or ask your agent to send a copy to us;
  • Your forwarding address for the title/deed registration;
  • Please contact utilities and services providers to alert them of your move, but we request that you also call your hydro and gas provider to do a final meter reading and send you a final bill after closing;
  • If you have an oil or propane tank, please confirm with us if they should be filled before closing (please send us your final “fill-up” invoice so that we can adjust for that at closing and reimburse you);
  • We will want to meet with you two or three days prior to closing to sign your final closing documents (we can meet with you earlier, depending on what your schedule allows because we aim to serve you);
  • A copy of your most recent property tax bill
  • The bank and loan number for each mortgage or line of credit registered against to the property;
  • You may wish to speak with your mortgage lender to be aware of any pre-payment charges;
  • Please relay any potential problems to us so we may act accordingly.

FP Legal understands the importance of selling your home and we aim to provide the most comprehensive legal services to aid you in that process.

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Purchasing

Whether you are a seasoned investor or a first-time home buyer, buying a home is an exciting venture.

In order to ensure a smooth closing, we will ask our clients to assist us with some of the following items:

  • Please provide us with contact information so that we can respond to your inquiries on a timely basis
  • Please provide us a copy of the Agreement of Purchase and Sale or ask your agent to send a copy to us.
  • We will ask you for the correct spelling of your name, Dates of Birth and marital Status for your title/deed registration
  • How you want to hold title – we will be happy to explain the various ways to hold title your property
  • We recommend finalizing your mortgage or line of credit financing at least two weeks prior to closing so that your lender will provide us with your mortgage or line of credit instructions
  • If you are buying a house, all mortgage lenders will require borrowers to obtain home insurance with the mortgage lender listed on the policy as a mortgagee (does not usually apply to condos, since the condo corp usually provides the mortgagees insurance coverage)
  • Please contact utilities and services providers to alert them of your move, and to open a new account and provide personal information, including credit cards
  • We will want to meet with you two or three days prior to closing to sign your final closing and mortgage documents.
  • Keys are typically sent by the Seller’s realtor to the Buyer’s realtor and held in trust until closing. The keys are releasable once the transaction is complete.

Our services to facilitate your home purchase include:

  • Reviewing the Purchase of Sale Agreement
  • Reviewing a Status Certificate (for condos) and reporting our findings to you
  • Conducting a full title search and execution (lien) search
  • Obtaining a tax certificate from the municipality
  • Sending a letter to the Seller’s lawyer identifying any title issues
  • Preparing final closing and mortgage documents
  • Meeting with you to explain and sign your closing documents
  • Arrange title insurance to protect you and your mortgage lender
  • Reviewing the Transfer (Deed) and the Statement of Adjustment to assess whether you or the seller are owed sums for taxes and common expenses (condos)
  • Preparing mortgage documents based on instructions from your mortgage or line of credit lender
  • Registering your Transfer (Deed) and mortgage(s) (also applies to secured lines of credit)
  • Calculating outstanding figures on any mortgage or liens and arrange for these to be paid upon closing
  • Ensuring that any back taxes and liens are paid by the Seller at closing
  • Alerting the municipality of change of ownership
  • Providing you with a final report letter
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