There can be a wide variety of property disputes, such as: purchase disputes, return of deposit disputes, disputes with respect to the construction of a condominium or commercial property, property line disputes between neighbours, right of way disputes, among other things.
Many real estate disputes involve the failure of the purchaser to complete the purchase of a property. The reason why the sale was not completed is often in dispute, and in particular, whether the purchaser is entitled to the refund of their deposit. If the buyer and seller cannot agree about the refund of the deposit, then it can often lead to litigation.
Most buyers and sellers do not retain a lawyer until after the Agreement of Purchase and Sale has already been entered into. The Agreement of Purchase and Sale is typically handled by the parties’ respective real estate agents, who are not lawyers. Although real estate agents are trained, they often lack the legal knowledge to recognize a potential legal problem within an Agreement of Purchase and Sale. It is common that problems contained in an Agreement of Purchase and Sale are not realized until a real estate lawyer was subsequently retained. For instance, Agreements of Purchase and Sale often contain representations about a property. The real estate agents and parties may not realize that one of the representations is not accurate, or at least not fulsome. They might not find out about this until the buyer’s real estate lawyer sends a requisition letter to the seller’s real estate lawyer. If a buyer subsequently backs out of the purchase as a result of a requisition not being dealt with in a manner that is satisfactory to them, then the parties often argue over the deposit money and who is to blame for the sale not going through.
Real estate agents are insured for negligence. If they were negligent then their insurer will defend them in a lawsuit. The same is true for real estate lawyers that are negligent.
Another emerging area of property law relates to condominiums and their development. The Greater Toronto Area is now a sea of new condominium development. The residents of the houses and buildings next to those new condominium developments may not realize that they have rights that affect the construction next to them. For instance, developers often want to enter into tie back agreements for shoring up part of the excavation to be undertaken on the development site. The developer may want permission to install tie backs under the lands of the neighbouring property. The developer may also want to enter into a crane swing agreement for the air rights over the neighbouring properties. Many people do not realize that they own the air over their property, as well as the land deep under their property. The developer will often pay the neighbouring property owners for these rights. However, what they are offering financially may not be enough. Further, the neighbouring properties should hire their own engineer to perform an audit of the neighbouring properties prior to construction and throughout construction in order to detect cracks and damage to the neighbouring properties as a result of the construction. Crangle has experience negotiating tie back and air right / crane swing agreements with developers.
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