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We know it can sometimes feel like a foreign language when addressing legal matters. Below are terms and acronyms commonly used in estate planning:
The term “estate planning” encompasses more than simply writing a Last Will and Testament. A Will is an important aspect of estate planning, but it is only one piece of the puzzle. The act of estate planning is ensuring your affairs are as organized as possible so that on your incapacity or death, your loved ones will be set up as best as possible to tackle the situation.
Depending on how complex your financial and professional situation is, you may require more than just your lawyer. Your accountant, insurance advisor, and financial advisor will also be involved. As tax laws become more confusing and complex, estate planning also becomes more complex.… [Read more]
On or before the closing date, your lawyer will send the Buyer’s lawyer the Deed, HST certificate, a Direction regarding the payment of the closing funds in trust, and a Statement of Adjustments describing the amount your lawyer will receive from the Buyer’s lawyer on the closing day, along with any other documentation requested by the Buyers on the Agreement of Purchase and Sale.
The Agreement will have a specific time in which you have to provide “vacant possession”. This is the time in which you will have to leave your home clean, empty, and unoccupied on the closing date and the Buyers will complete a final walk through of the property.… [Read more]
A few days before the closing date your lawyer will want to meet with you in person or by web conference in order to complete your closing documents, including the Deed conveying the property to the Buyer, a certificate confirming there is no HST to be added to the sale price, along with other closing documents.
If your property is a used residential property, one of the closing documents will be an HST certificate, which you will sign certifying that the sale is exempt from HST within the meaning of the Excise Tax Act. If your property falls outside of the exemption this should have been noted in your Agreement and your lawyer will discuss this with you.… [Read more]
If you have agreed to make any repairs resulting from the Buyer’s home inspection, make sure you leave yourself plenty of time to complete them before closing. Be careful to note whether the Agreement specifies if the repairs must be done by a professional and whether receipts are required. Make sure you have arranged movers, planned for cleaning and that all items remaining with the property are in good repair as set out in your Agreement. A week before closing is a good time to re-read your Agreement!
There are other standard items to complete, such as filling up the oil tank or propane tank, grass cutting or snow removal prior to closing and arrange to have your internet and water accounts closed.… [Read more]
Once you have accepted an offer from a Buyer, have your realtor forward the Agreement of Purchase and Sale to your lawyer, and they will begin preparing your sale documents.
The Buyer will have a certain amount of time to arrange satisfactory financing, a home inspection and in certain cases a water and septic test, if there is a well and septic on the property. The condition of the lawyer review of the Agreement will also take place in this time period. Your realtor will update you with any issues raised by the Buyer during condition period. Once the condition date has passed and you have not heard of any issues from your realtor or lawyer, you can consider the sale to be firm.… [Read more]
Once you have decided to list your property for sale, contact your lawyer to let them know. If you owned your property prior to 2004 your property may need to be migrated into the land registration system before the sale. This is an added expense of selling but is required by legislation in Nova Scotia. The earlier your lawyer can get the migration process started, the smoother your sale transaction will go.
The steps to complete the purchase can feel confusing to any buyer, but your real estate team knows what to do and will assist you through to the closing date. Your team consists of your lawyer and their paralegal, your lender and Realtor.
Your lawyer will review the Agreement of Purchase and Sale, conduct a title search, confirm the status of property taxes, prepare the closing documents including the mortgage, and confirm the final amount you will be required to bring to your lawyer for the closing.
The lender will instruct your lawyer on the terms of the mortgage and the amount you are borrowing.… [Read more]
Once you have accepted an offer, you must meet the conditions by a certain date. The most common condition is being approved for financing. This means you are personally approved to borrow the amount you require; and the home being purchased is approved by the lender as having the value to support the mortgage loan. The financing and other conditions are “deemed arranged” on a certain date in your agreement. If you are not approved for financing, you must notify the Realtor who can either terminate the offer or request an extension of time on the condition date.
Another important condition is to arrange a building inspection.… [Read more]
If you find the house you would like, you may need to move quickly when the market is hot, and your Realtor is the best person to help you enter into the contract to buy your home. Most Realtors now recommend a clean agreement on the standard form of Agreement of Purchase and Sale approved by the Nova Scotia Association of Realtors®.
The main clauses you need include financing, inspection, and insurance and of course, lawyer review. There may be additional clauses you should have depending on the property. Where the market is brisk, the cleaner your offer the more likely it will be accepted.… [Read more]