Brad Jamieson - Real Estate Lawyer

07/19/2023

If you are in the market to buy a house, your closing costs are about to become more expensive. As of July 29 many of the fees charged by ISC (land titles) are going up. The highlights are:

1) the title registration fee is going from 0.3% to 0.4% of the purchase price;
2) The mortgage registration fee is going from a flat fee of $180, to a scale that varies based on the mortgage amount. The fees will now range from $180 to $1,000
3) Title searches will now cost $15, up from $12. Since we typically do 3 title searches, this is also a significant increase.

These 3 fees alone change your closing costs significantly. For example:

* on a $400,000 purchase, these 3 fees will cost (up to July 28), $1,416. Starting on July 29 these 3 fees will be $1,895. An increase of $479
* on a $700,000 purchase these 3 fees will cost (up to July 28) $2,316. Starting on July 29 these 3 fees will be $3,345. An increase of $1,029.

The full details are in the link below.

$180 for the first four titles, interests, or shares affected, plus $55 per additional title, interest, or share affected

03/29/2022

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/epic-company-collapses-real-estate-500-homes-1.6399770?fbclid=IwAR3vIeiKUTRz-Kp_5Jbh0cJt_7ep0ad8JYtbeZ7ehIeJ6c6DA0Wf-_Scjck

A judge has assigned a special investigator to look into the collapse of a Saskatoon real estate group in January. Epic Alliance managed more than 400 properties in Saskatoon, most in core neighbourhoods. It also had a pool of more than $10 million from investors.

02/15/2022

https://globalnews.ca/news/8613766/kelowna-foreign-buyers-tax/

“The defendants also submit that the plaintiffs were contributorily negligent. Each defendant also seeks to foist fault onto the opposing defendant."

10/12/2021

We are seeking applicants for the position of Accounting Technician.

Posted 7:57:08 PM. The role of Accounting Technician is available because the long-term employee currently in the role…See this and similar jobs on LinkedIn.

03/13/2021

09/08/2020

I continue to meet the vast majority of my clients virtually. I would say that most love it as it saves the drive down town, parking and the drive home. The process is straight forward however, the timing of the virtual meeting is often out of my hands. I cannot draft the mortgage documents until I have received the conveyancing instructions from your Realtor and the mortgage instructions from your Mortgage Broker. Once I have all the paperwork I need, the process works as follows:

- I will draft the necessary purchase or sale documents
- I will e-mail those documents to you with specific instructions on what pages you have to print for our virtual meeting (you do not need to print every page of every document I send to you)
- We will make arrangements to set up a virtual meeting on Zoom, Facetime, Meet, Teams or Skype
- During our virtual meeting I will review each document with you and then witness you sign the documents. I will also confirm your ID
- After our virtual meeting you will scan and e-mail back to me only the signature pages along with pictures of your ID.
- For a purchase, the closing balance that will be listed in your Statement of Adjustments can be direct deposited into one of my office trust accounts and often this can be done with a phone call to your branch rather than having to physically go to your bank.
- once I have the closing balance and signed documents, I can take care of everything else and you just have to make an appointment with your Realtor to get the keys to your new house.

08/10/2020

As you are aware, the Covid-19 pandemic brought about temporary measures that allowed lawyers to remotely witness their clients signing documents. This was an important legislative change as it allowed me to witness all my clients sign their purchase and sale documents remotely since the end of March.

I am happy to say that these temporary measures have now been made permanent and will remain beyond the Covid pandemic.

In the short term I will continue to witness the vast majority of my clients sign remotely so as to ensure physical distancing and to protect our amazing staff who are working at the office.

In the long term this will change my practice. After the pandemic I will likely work from home half the week hosting only virtual meetings, but the other half of the week will be spent at the Cuelenaere LLP office seeing clients face to face. The availability of virtual witnessing will provide scheduling flexibility not only for me but also for all my clients.

08/10/2020

After a relaxing week at the lake with my family, I am back to work.