Canadian Lawyer

Real Estate beware butts up against the buyer's right to know. Ontario's real estate regulatory body has sent a message through a series of discipline decisions in which three separate real estate agents were fined $15,000 and a fourth $20,000. In each case, the agent was found to have withheld material facts or breached the Real Estate and Business Brokers Act code of ethics by not telling the buyer the homes were once used as marijuana grow operations. Osgoode's Professional LLM in Real Property Law Grow ops could well leave an indelible mark within the building through mould and other defects, but buyers are also concerned with stigmas and the possible impact they could have on the market value of the house. While some U.S. states have legislation for certain kinds of stigmas, this country doesn't. In Canada, for the most part, real estate agents are required to disclose material defects — if they know about them. But how the regulatory bodies approach each situation dif- REFLECTING ON YOUR SPECIALTY REFLECTS WELL ON YOU. Enhance your expertise – and your value – by focusing on what interests you most. Taught by leading academics and top practitioners, our Professional LLM in Real Property Law offers you the unparalleled flexibility to study with a network of your peers while working full time. STUDY ONSITE AT OUR CONVENIENT DOWNTOWN TORONTO FACILITY, OR VIA VIDEOCONFERENCE FROM ANYWHERE AROUND THE WORLD – COURSES INCLUDE: > Advanced Real Property Fundamentals > Taxation of Real Property > Real Property Vehicles and Structures > Mortgage Financing > Real Property Leasing > Real Estate Remedies and Litigation DIRECTOR Jeffrey W. Lem Partner Miller Thomson LLP Professional legal education the way it was meant to be. To learn more or to register for an Information Session, visit www.osgoodepd.ca today. A WORLD LEADER IN LAW SCHOOL LIFELONG LEARNING Upcoming Info Sessions: Webinar - May 29 @ 2:00 pm EDT/EST Webinar - June 11 @ 2:00 pm EDT/EST 22 M ay 2013 sgoode_CL_May_13.indd 1 www.CANADIAN L a w ye r m a g . c o m fers from province to province. Tony Spagnuolo, of Spagnuolo & Co. Real Estate Lawyers, practises residential real estate law in British Columbia. While the listing agent is required to disclose any known stigmas to the buyer, as in Ontario, he says defining what stigma means is difficult because so much lies in the eye of the beholder. To some, a home being sold because its former owners divorced is a bad omen for another couple wanting to live there. Others become uncomfortable when they learn a suicide was committed there or a known pedophile lives across the street. Spagnuolo points to a 2003 B.C. case in which the buyers refused to complete the purchase of lakefront property after finding out the adjoining property was next to a public park used in the summer as a nude beach. The sellers sued the buyers for the $100,000 down payment. The judge ruled in favour of the sellers and dismissed the argument the beach amounted to a latent defect, finding the test to be too subjective. The buyers were not permitted to escape their obligations under the contract, a decision upheld by the B.C. Court of Appeal. Others seek out former grow houses as an investment opportunity, which they remediate and then flip. "To those people it wasn't stigmatized property, that's what they wanted." But ultimately, says Spagnuolo, caveat emptor is still very much alive in B.C., largely leaving the buyer to make his own inquiries. He suggests real estate agents keep checklists to follow when inquiring about each home. The situation is much the same in Alberta. In one Dalhousie, Alta., home where a grisly murder/suicide occurred, the listing included a note that the listing agent should be contacted for property disclosure details. But the province's approach to latent defects differs somewhat from that in Ontario and B.C. In Alberta, a health notice is posted on any home in which a marijuana grow operation has been discovered. That notice will remain on the home and its title until it is remediated. "Once the health notice comes off, it doesn't need to be disclosed" because it's been fixed according to the required standards, says Debra Bunston, a senior industry adviser for the Alberta Real Estate Association. In Quebec, disclosure statements 13-04-11 1:34 PM

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