The vendors listed their property for sale with M Realty. In june, M Realty showed the property to prospective purchasers and an offer and counter-offer were made but no sale took place. In October, the vendors listed the property with a new realty company. The old listing contained a standard clause under which the vendors would pay commission if a binding contract of sale was made in respect of which efforts M Realty were an effective cause.

The listing with the new realty company expired and about eight months after the original listing with M Realty expired, the original potential purchasers approached the vendors directly and a sale was concluded. The court held that after the original listing with M Realty expired, the vendors and purchasers proceeded without regard for one another. It was the intervention of a mutual friend that brought the vendors and purchasers back together and resulted in the ultimate sale. Accordingly, M Realty could not be said to have been an effective cause of the sale and no commission was owed to it. (MacDonald Realty (1974) Ltd. v. Saunders, 10 RPR (3d) 101, (BC Sup. Ct.)).

Defects of Quality: General Rules of Vendor Disclosure

When will a vendor be found to have had a positive duty to disclose a property defect to a purchaser? Very generally, the Courts seem to draw the lines as follows:

1. Whether patent or latent, what the vendor does not honestly have knowledge of, he cannot be expected to disclose.
2. If the defect known to the vendor is patent, being one that is visible to the eye or arises by necessary implication from something visible to the eye, then a purchaser, according to the maxim of caveat emptor, takes that which he sees, or which, as a prudent and diligent purchaser, he ought to have seen by normal inspection and ordinary care, and is not entitled to have anything better.
3. If the defect is patent, physical concealment at the time of pre-purchase inspection by the purchaser (is fraud or deceit) and can expose the vendor to liability. Intention to conceal is not a necessary find; what matters is the impairment of the purchaser's normal ability to discover the defect.

Land Transfer Tax Rebate on New Construction

The Land Transfer Tax Rebate on new construction - which saves new home purchasers up to $1725 - has been extended to March 31, 1999. To qualify, buyers must take possession no later than December 31, 1999 and the transfer must be registered by December 31, 2000. Also, to qualify (for what will be the same day rebate), purchasers cannot have previously owned a home and spouses cannot have previously owned a house during marriage and the purchaser cannot have received a land transfer tax refund under the OHOSP program.

Click here to view: Condos and Estoppel Certificates
Click here to view: Ontario's New Condominium Act


Norm Fera is an Ottawa lawyer who has assisted many in the purchase and sale of condominiums.
This page is provided as a service to the reader. It is not an advertisement for, nor an endorsement of, the author. The views expressed are those of the author.

This is for limited instructional and informational purposes only. Information is not warranted as accurate. Nothing herein is intended as legal or other advice and nothing herein is intended as a recommendation or endorsation.