Canadian Lawyer

Real Estate Caveat emptor or ethical breach? Rules as to what real esate agents need to disclose about stigmas on a property vary widely. tory before they signed on the dotted line? In 1996, Ronald England, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, decided to stop taking his medication. On April 2, he entered his mother's bedroom and stabbed her 34 times. He then attacked his six-year-old stepdaughter, stabbing her repeatedly. The Tekoniemis complained the real estate agent working for the vendor was aware of the double murder and had a duty to disclose the history of the home. The Real Estate Council of Ontario agreed, disciplined the agent, and had her undergo an education program. But the Tekoniemis, who are still living in the Bowmanville, Ont., home, say they have suffered psychologically and financially as a result and they're suing the agents involved in the sale, accusing them of deliberately concealing the stigma when there was a duty to disclose. Their lawyer Marvin Huberman says the council's disposition is pertinent because it sets out the standard of care and he's looking for a court to make the determination where it hasn't in the past. "Where does the bar get set? It's analogous to a latent defect," Huberman says of the double murder. "Is that an exception to the caveat emptor rule? Part of the endeavour here is how do you characterize things like this? In the States there's legislation . . . it's definitely not uniform." Homebuyers are not interested in surprises. They want to know, in advance, if anything untoward has happened in their new place. This is where the doctrine of caveat emptor suggesting that the buyer www.CANADIAN L a w ye r m a g . c o m M ay 2013 21 Juan Carlos Solon S ociety has always had a fascination with haunted homes, typically a place where some horrible tragedy has occurred or the location of some clandestine operation. But when, unbeknownst to you, that home becomes your haunt, fascination can turn to dread. It wasn't until Eric and Sade-Lea Tekoniemi sealed the deal and removed the conditions to purchase their home that they learned what had happened there years earlier. The story made them reel, leaving them with a sensation the house was haunted not in the literal sense, but tainted in some way by what had happened. And then they were angry. Why had no one alerted them to the home's his- By Marg. Bruineman

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