Jaques Law Office

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Professional Legal Services Relating to

Real Estate, Wills and Estates, and Small Business


Realty - Purchase - Retainer


Disclaimer

The following is no substitute for advice provided by a lawyer specifically for you. It is intended only to help you understand that advice. No responsibility is taken for any problems arising except due to paid legal advice.

©1996 Jaques Law Office. All Rights Reserved.



Retainer

This on-line real estate retainer is a work in progress. Eventually, we hope to present it as a form to be completed and submitted which will be more convenient.

Be sure you have reviewed the sale/purchase page, if appropriate, and the purchase tasks page or sale tasks page, as appropriate.

Parties

Submit information on the following (simply click on the party, fill out the form, submit it, and hit the 'back' button on your browser

Questions

Email us with the following information

Designation

Full Names of those taking title (as it will appear on title (no initials!)

If you are taking title with another person, there are two ways to own it jointly. Most spouses pick joint tenancy and most business arrangements use tenancy in common. The former is like owning half of 100% of the property. You can't do anything with your interest without the signature of the other owner(s) and if you die, your Will has no effect, the other owners just get your interest. The latter is like owning 100% of half of the property. You can do whatever you like with your own half. Please indicate which type you prefer:

Property Taxes

We must tell the municipality which school board you wish your property taxes to fund, if there are more than one. In Regina, there are both Public or Separate (Catholic) Boards.

Interest Bearing Account

When the lawyer puts the documents into the Land Titles Office for registration, the lawyer becomes personally liable to pay. As a result, we insist that the estimated total remaining cost be guaranteed to us. That may be in the form of a letter of credit from a bank or lawyer (unconditionally promising payment of that amount upon demand or upon a particular date). More usually, the client will pay the amount to the lawyer and the lawyer will put it in a 'trust account'. Such accounts are monitored by the Law Society for the client's protection, but pay no interest. If we have written authorization, we can put the money in an interest bearing account specifically opened for that client. In this case, we charge $50 extra and you would not receive the protective monitoring. This authorization may be provided at any time.

Method of Payment

If you wish us to deposit the remaining funds with your bank, provide us with the account number, bank and branch. If you wish to come and pick it up, please indicate.

Searches

This section is for purchasers and/or mortgagors. When acting for vendors, we do only such searches as are required to assure us that we can meet our obligations to deliver clear title and get the proper payment.

In this section, we ask you to choose or reject certain optional steps which could be taken. Please indicate whether you want the search done 'before committed', or 'for info only'.

The client is 'committed' as soon as the documents are submitted to the Land Titles Office. Of course, the purchaser is bound by the purchase contract as soon as it is signed, but once the documents go for registration, the purchase price must be paid no matter what problems arise. The vendor may still be legally responsible to fix the problem, and steps may be taken to attempt to freeze the money once paid and even perhaps get it back, but it must be paid. So obtaining the information, 'for info only' is not useless, but it may be too late to avoid payment. In certain cases, the information may be so crucial, that it is better to break the contract and pay damages to the seller than to honour it.

If an item is marked as 'before committed', it may therefore delay putting the documents into the Land Titles Office. If it delays it beyond the possession date, that will break the contract. Usually the vendor would rather simply delay possession than search for a new purchaser however. If it is submitted before registration, then the vendor's lawyer will almost certainly authorize possession on the agreed date. However, the delay may mean that actual registration occurs after the possession date. Since the bank will not provide the money until the documents are registered, interest may be payable to the vendor. Since interest doesn't start running on the mortgage (typically a higher interest on a lower amount) until actually paid, the interest to the bank will be correspondingly reduced. Therefore, it may not result in a significant cost.

Standard Searches

The following searches are included as part of the standard fee. Where they are not required by a mortgagee, you may wish to waive them to save costs. Normally, that is not recommended

Condo Searches

Corporate Searches

Other Available Searches

Please see the map of all our pages


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Office Kevin Jaques, B.A., LL.B.
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