By: Jayson Schwarz LLM
Today we are going to look at what happens after the offer is signed and your lawyer is working on your deal. This is a complex area and includes many different tasks and decisions.
The first thing you need to understand is what is title to the property? The Government of Ontario keeps records of every piece of property in the Province. These records are called the title documents. The document that says who owns the property is called the “transfer or deed”. When a document is filed with the government this is called “registering” the document. When a bank lends money and records it on title, it registers the “mortgage”. When the mortgage is paid off and you record it on title, you register the “discharge”. There are many other documents but these are a good start. Today almost all documents and searches are conducted electronically over the Government/private industry’s electronic registry system known as Terraview. Your lawyer checks all this to make sure it is right, will review the ownership and ensure the person on the offer is the correct owner with authority to sell and this is part of “Searching the Title”.
Your lawyer will then ask you how you will hold the title. This question needs to be explained. There are different ways to would hold the title to property. The first is as an individual and is uncomplicated and title (ownership) simply goes in the person’s name. The next two (2) deal with holding ownership to property with others. In Ontario the most common kinds of joint ownership are “Joint Tenancy” and “Tenants in Common”. When two people hold property as “Joint Tenants” the title will say as an example: Agnes Maclean and Conan Maclean as joint tenants. What this means is that each party owns 100% of the property and should one of them die the other would simply retain his or her 100% without tax or title transfer. “Tenants in Common” means that each person owns 50% of the property. So by example if Molly Maclean and Fibber Magee owned as Tenants in Common and Fibber died then Fibber’s 50% would go to his estate and would be dealt with accordingly.
Commonly, married couples or family members hold as joint tenants and arm’s length parties as tenants in common.