Arora Zbar LLP

10/28/2021

The deadline to file your Land Owner Transparency Report is November 30—that's only 33 days away! 📆

What is an "interest holder in a LOTR?

The purpose of a LOTR is to identify individuals who own land in British Columbia through corporations, trusts, and partnerships.

LOTA applies to “interest holder”, including registered ownership of a property, leases with a term of more than ten years, and a right under an agreement for sale to occupy land or to require a transfer of the land. The LOTR must be completed and filed on or before November 30, 2021 unless the interest is transferred to another person before this date.

An interest holder may be:

1. Corporate interest holders: people who own, directly or indirectly, 10% or more of the issued shares or voting shares, or have the right or ability to elect, appoint, or remove the majority of the directors.

2. Trust interest holder: certain people and corporations who have power over, or are beneficiaries of trusts that have an interest in land.

3. Partnerships interest holders: people and corporations who are partners in a partnership.

Are you an interest holder? Arora Zbar LLP can help you file your LOTR FAST, get in touch with us here: https://arorazbar.com/lota/

10/20/2021

DO NOT WAIT! Only 41 days left to file your LOTR! ⏰

Why does BC require a Land Owner Transparency Report (LOTR)?

When the LOTA was introduced in the legislative assembly in April 2019, the government’s rationale was:

For years, people were able to use shell companies, trusts and partnerships to hide who really owns property in British Columbia. The act sets out a framework for increasing transparency of land ownership in the province by requiring disclosure from corporations, trustees and partnerships about the underlying owners of land.

To support greater transparency, high-level information will be available for search publicly, similar to how you can search now for information on individual titleholders. More sensitive information will be available to law enforcement, tax authorities and certain regulators to help address tax evasion, tax fraud and money laundering.

This beneficial ownership registry will be the first of its kind in Canada and one of the most comprehensive in the world.

File your LOTR with Arora Zbar LLP TODAY, and avoid fines of $25,000+! Follow the link for more information: https://arorazbar.com/lota/

10/19/2021

Asana is the technological beating heart of Arora Zbar LLP—that’s why we absoltely loved working with rockstar Asana consultant Peta Williams 🙌

What do we use Asana for?

✅ To do list—Most people's to-do lists exist across series of post it notes, flagged outlook emails, and rapidly fading memories. Asana keeps every single task, firm wide, tracked, backed up, and visible to all those who need to see it.

🗓 Important date automation—our entire limitation date and bring forward system is automated though Asana and Zapier.

🧑‍💻Client onboarding—from first contact, through conflict checks and into providing service, we track and manage our entire client onboarding process in Asana.

Asana is a Sansrkit word which describes any yoga pose, because, as the name suggests, Asana can be shaped to fit your business needs. And that's exactly what it does for us.

Thanks again to Peta Williams for the help, and these treats!

10/12/2021

Time is running out—only 49 days left to file your Land Owner Transparency Report! ⏳

So, what is the Land Owner Transparency Report?

The Land Owner Transparency Report is a mandatory filing for “reporting bodies” that own land in British Columbia—A reporting body is either a corporation, trustee, or partnership.

The transparency report is a new requirement in British Columbia, and first of its kind in Canada, mandated by the Land Owner Transparency Act (LOTA), as of November 30, 2020.

Now, reporting bodies are required to file the Land Owner Transparency Report (“LOTR“) at the time of registration of land in their name. For reporting bodies that owned land before November 30, 2020, the deadline to file the transparency report is November 30, 2021.

The information from the transparency reports will be used to maintain a publicly searchable database called the Land Owner Transparency Register. The purpose of the Land Owner Transparency Register is to increase transparency about land ownership in British Columbia by creating a registry of individuals who own land through corporations, trusts, and partnerships.

Check out our FAQ page and get started on your report with Arora Zbar LLP TODAY: https://arorazbar.com/lota/ ⬅️ ⬅️ ⬅️

10/06/2021

Only 55 days left to file your Land Owner Transparency Report! ⏰

What is the Land Owner Transparency Act (LOTA)?

The Land Owner Transparency Act (LOTA) creates a publicly searchable registry of information about “interest holders” under the LOTA. These are certain individuals with indirect ownership in land, usually through a corporation or trust.

If you own land in BC through a corporation, trust, or partnership you MUST file a Land Owner Transparency Report by November 30!

Read our FAQ and get started on your report with Arora Zbar LLP today: https://arorazbar.com/lota/ ⬅️⬅️⬅️

10/01/2021

If you own land in British Columbia through a company, trust, or partnership contact Arora Zbar LLP to file your Land Owner Transparency Report before November 30: azllp.io/LOTA

We’re here to help you, this report must be filed by November 30, 2021 to avoid fines of $25,000+! Only a lawyer or notary can file this report, and it applies to ALL properties in B.C. regardless of when they were purchased. Don’t wait until the last minute!

09/23/2021

My lawyer says the lender requires me to buy title insurance. What exactly is title insurance?

If you’ve taken out a mortgage recently, chances are you’ve paid for title insurance for the benefit of the bank only. Do you know what is title insurance? Title insurance provides protection against defects to legal title of your property, which can include taking the following forms:

-Title fraud such as forgery, incapacity, or impersonation;
-Easements and encroachments disclosed by surveys done after closing;
-Liens against your property as a result of unpaid debts from previous owners;
-Liens arising from unpaid taxes; and
-Zoning non-compliance where the property use doesn’t meet the municipal by-laws.

Should you buy title insurance? If you’re borrowing money against your property, you probably don’t have a choice as most lenders require it. In this case, they should pay a little extra to extend the coverage to yourself. Even if you’re not borrowing, title insurance is probably still a good idea, given that it is a one-time cost, unlike property insurance for which you have to pay for annually.

To learn more about title insurance, check out our blog post about it here https://arorazbar.com/titleinsurance/. We routinely advise clients on real estate transactions, which includes advising on title insurance, so don’t hesitate to reach out.

Title insurance protects owners and lenders against losses that may be suffered due to fraud, defects, and encumbrances related to the legal title of real estate. In simpler terms, if the legal title to your real estate is not what you thought it was and you suffer a loss, title insurance may cover....

02/03/2021

Price My Conveyance

To us, start-up mentality means a commitment to fixing pain points using creative solutions. So we designed and built Pricemyconveyance, a residential real estate closing costs calculator, which provides potential clients and real estate professionals a better understanding of the total cost of a new home.

A lot of real estate professionals asked Eli for accurate estimates of legal fees for their clients' transactions. In order to do that, Eli had to ask the professional a series of questions to accurately estimate the cost of the transaction. By programming those questions into a calculator, we have made an accurate estimate of our fees a click away. Real estate professionals can now quickly provide accurate estimates of our fees and other associated closing costs for their clients' residential home purchase.

Arora Zbar LLP is committed to finding pain points like these and fixing them, which is why it’s a startup.

PriceMyConveyance was built with the help of coding whiz and long-time friend of the firms, Travis Gritter.

Check it out: https://pricemyconveyance.com/

01/15/2021

Introducing Ravneet...

Ravneet Arora the firm’s dispute resolution practice. Ravneet has represented clients before all levels of court in British Columbia, being the Provincial, Supreme, and Court of Appeal. In addition, Ravneet has represented clients before administrative tribunals, such as the British Columbia Securities Commission and the Financial Institutions Commission.

In Ravneet’s view, real lawyers go to court; probably because he watched too many TV shows about lawyers. Fortunately, during his third year at Thompson Rivers University Faculty of Law, Ravneet finished as the top oralist in his division at the B.C. Law Schools Appeal Moot, solidifying his interest in litigation in real life.

Ravneet’s core skill set is advocacy, both written and oral. He seeks opportunities to hone that skill set as often as he can. For instance, Ravneet attended a workshop called “The Powerful Performance” which taught him to apply lessons from the theatre in the courtroom to make his advocacy even more persuasive.

Ravneet is committed to advocating for his clients innovatively. To learn more about Ravneet and his practice, please visit our website: www.arorazbar.com.

01/15/2021

Introducing Eli...

Eli Zbar heads the firm’s solicitor practice. He arranges and facilitates a wide array of real estate, business, and financial transactions. Eli advises entrepreneurs and businesses regarding contracts, corporate governance, and risk management. In addition, Eli represents clients in strata and residential tenancy disputes.

In one word, Eli is best described as a “doer”, because he gets things done. As a recent example, Eli drove an hour each way to the business premises of one of his clients on New Year’s Eve 2021 to ensure that the client’s asset purchase transaction closed smoothly. For Eli, any day is a business day if there’s business to be done.

Eli and his wife live in Kitsilano. He enjoys baking, cycling, yoga, and travelling. Eli is a licensed drone pilot, and an aspiring wine expert.

01/15/2021

Eli Zbar on the origin of Arora Zbar LLP

Ravneet and I met while attending the Thompson Rivers University Faculty of Law in Kamloops, BC. After our respective articling, we operated as sole practitioners, finding ourselves referring business back and forth and collaborating on files. We quickly realized that together, we would be greater than the sum of our parts. In early 2020, we began laying the ground work for Arora Zbar LLP.

In BC, a lawyer is formally known as a “Barrister & Solicitor”: barristers are litigators, lawyers at the “bar” in court; solicitors draft legal documents and advise on transactions. Every lawyer is licensed to do both, few lawyers actually do both. By forming Arora Zbar LLP, we can each focus on the practice areas we enjoy and excel at.

Our goal is to do quality work as efficiently as possible, which will keep us intellectually stimulated while making our services as accessible as possible. We look to other industries, in particular technology development, for ways to improve our business systems. While the legal industry sometimes resists efficient tools because of the reduced billed hours, we’re committed to adopting, or even creating them, because we value the increased enjoyability of the practice of law more than the reduced billed hours.

01/15/2021

We’re Arora Zbar LLP.

We provide legal services to the business world, with a specific focus on the real estate industry. We advise clients on transactions, such as the acquisition and disposition of real estate or corporations, and dispute resolution, including builder’s liens and corporate disputes.

We provide high quality service with a start-up mentality, which means finding new or better ways of doing things. At Arora Zbar LLP, the start-up mentality means two things: agile development of new systems; and innovating solutions for pain points. While the legal industry sometimes resists efficient tools because of the reduced billed hours, we’re committed to adopting, or even creating, these tools.

Arora Zbar LLP is always learning to create better ways of providing quality and efficient legal services to our clients.

01/15/2021

www.arorazbar.com

www.arorazbar.com

12/31/2020

Arora Zbar LLP updated their information in their About section.

Arora Zbar LLP updated their information in their About section.

12/31/2020

Arora Zbar LLP updated their business hours.

Arora Zbar LLP updated their business hours.