Canadian Lawyer

became mandatory in all real estate transactions last July. It is the responsibility of the broker or seller to disclose any information he has which may affect the buyer's decision to go through with the transaction — be it a defect or known work that needs to be done. "He also has to disclose any other relevant factor," says Jean-François Savoie, vice president of legal affairs for Organisme d'autoréglementation du courtage immobilier du Québec, the province's regulatory body. "We're often asked if a suicide occurred on the property, should it be disclosed. If it is known, he has to disclose it. But it goes a bit further. The broker must take steps . . . to learn of any such factors. To a certain extent he has to not be passive." A real estate agent in Quebec is expected to be proactive and follow through with inquiries if there are any telltale signs like watermarks in the basement or discolouration of the walls. When it comes to psychological factors, the agent isn't expected to investigate, but if a suicide or crime has occurred and is commonly known or reported in newspapers, the agent should ask questions and point out the newspaper reference to the buyer. Buyers' desire to know more about a home's past is breeding a new industry. Reporting services are now coming on the market with the intent of helping the purchaser become more informed about the history of the home they are interested in buying. Home Verified and iVerify gather information about the neighbourhood and the house itself. Alex Weiner is a real estate investor who identified a possible market when a water issue surfaced on one of his properties. He later discovered the problem was historic and had previously resulted in an insurance claim. Through Home Verified, which recently had a soft launch through Kijiji, Weiner is making insurance claims, maps, some police information, and community information available on the home history at a cost of $69.95 to buyers. The service is a national one and has partnered with Teranet in Ontario, and will soon be available in B.C., Quebec, Alberta, and Manitoba. "We took about two years to put this together and used a partner," says Weiner. A geo-coding formula is used which sees a quarter of the country mapped every year, so information is regularly updated. The company also uses an insurance history analysis tool that covers a radius of about 360 homes. About 125 police forces are queried every quarter through access to information requests in search of grow ops and meth labs, although Weiner notes not all forces provide timely information. There is a concern some history going back to homes under owners previous to the current seller might infringe upon their rights to privacy. But Weiner says personal data is not divulged in the reports he provides. So while additional tools are becoming available to help the buyer become more aware, the discussion about disclosing known information continues. Says Huberman: "We really do need some guidance either from the courts and of course the other way is to have legislation. Is this a common enough problem that the legislature would be interested in dealing with this?" djacent properties, and any easements ovided in this agreement and save and e are complied with; you (b) any registered un with the land providing that such are telephone lines, cable television lines or e, where the central to the real estate transaction.ass Keeping you original mortgagee has s for the supply of domestic utility or tele le of the mortgage and the right to recei titleplus.ca do not materially affect the present use ments with publicly regulated utilities prov * * ® The TitlePLUS® policy is underwritten by Lawyers' Professional Indemnity Company (LAWPRO®). Registered trademark of Lawyers' Professional Indemnity Company. Untitled-1 1 1-800-410-1013 www.CANADIAN L a w ye r m a g . c o m 12-08-10 11:53 AM M ay 2013 23

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