What happens when the law declares you dead — and then, years later, changes its mind? It sounds like the plot of a mystery novel, but for one Quebec family it became a very real legal nightmare, raising unsettling questions about life, death and the limits of legal...
Even if it is arranged long after the initial purchase, it’s important for all property owners to have title insurance, Bob Aaron writes. An appeal decision of Ontario’s Divisional Court has put an end to a bitter family dispute in which a woman stole the title to her...
New home buyers have just won the HST-rebate lottery. Here’s all you need to know. It must be like winning the lottery. Any first-time buyer who bought or buys a new home or condo as a principal residence after March 20, 2025 — last year — can look forward to...
Refinancing a home may feel routine, writes Bob Aaron, but it is not trivial. The efficiency of online ‘closing centres’ comes at a cost to the consumer: less scrutiny, less explanation, and less accountability. Bob Aaron is a Toronto real estate lawyer and a...
Condo owners, writes Bob Aaron, do not have the freedoms they would enjoy in freehold homes, and must adhere to bylaws. Just ask the couple who wound up in court over a dishwasher and a doorbell. This is a true story about a $10,000 doorbell. It took place in a...
An Ontario judge has handed down a record high damages award in a case involving a breach of a single-family residential real estate purchase. In a decision released in December 2025, Justice Paul Sweeny awarded the seller a staggering $2,385,000 representing his...
The court’s decision, writes Bob Aaron, should reassure consumers — and remind wayward builders — that strict compliance with Ontario’s mandatory Tarion Addendum is not optional. In a decision that will reverberate across Ontario’s home-building industry, an Ontario...
Two years after a couple agrees to buy condo, the builder added a floor, writes Bob Aaron. Despite a judge ruling it a ‘material change’ to the contract, the Ontario Condominium Act was of no help. Imagine buying a pre-construction penthouse only to find out that the...
It’s a deep and growing problem: lawyers signing off on affidavits or real estate documents without verifying who is actually behind the screen, Bob Aaron writes. In the post-COVID age of digital signatures and electronic meetings, the click of a mouse has often...