Real Estate

Buying or selling a property is the highest stake legal transaction most people will undertake in their lives. For this reason, we advise that you seek legal advice early – and certainly before the conditions are removed from your deal.

As the Seller, you have two (2) primary tasks: transfer the title to your house free of any charges (including a mortgage), and pay the realtors (both yours and theirs).
On your behalf, we determine the payout amount of any mortgage that may exist on the title and on the Closing date, then we pay that amount on your behalf after we receive the purchase funds.

We also confirm that your utilities and property tax is paid on the property.
We pay the realtors.

And finally, we pay you. We write you a cheque that you can pick up, we can mail, or deposit directly into the bank account that you provide to us.

*You will be required to sign legal documents, so please advise us if you are going to be away prior to the Closing Date.

Either your mortgage is due for renewal, or you have decided to refinance for other reasons. Regardless, you will need some legal assistance.

Refinancing is not merely a change to your existing mortgage, it is in fact a whole new mortgage, which means we need to receive “new” mortgage funds on your behalf, and in turn pay out your “old” mortgage.

We register the new mortgage to your property title.

*You will be required to sign legal documents, so please advise us if you are going to be away prior to the Closing Date.

You purchased a piece of property, and intend to subdivide it then sell the lots or build houses on the lots and sell the houses with the land.

Sounds easy enough, but there are too many potential complications to name here. As is our general rule, seek legal advice early in order to save money later.

If you are continuing as a builder, then you must consider an additional variety of legal liabilities such as Builder’s Liens, construction contracts, home warranty complaints and construction financing. This is to say nothing about the municipality by-laws and regulations which can be the most intricate area of construction law.

Buying and selling is not your only option to acquire an interest in property. You can also lease a property. We mostly see leases in a business or commercial setting. A lease-hold interest can be registered with the BC Land Title Office.

As a point of caution, if your lease is for 30 years or more, it may attract Property Transfer Tax liability and ought to be worked into your budget.

Our office can assist in drafting or reviewing an Offer to Lease Agreement, and provide legal advice on potential risk of liabilities.

We are also experienced in on-reserve leasing with Bands that have a variety of property interest registration systems

The Sun Rivers real estate development located on the Kamloops Indian Reserve No. 1 is a great example of Indigenous business development using reserve lands. We are involved in many aspects of this award winning development. We help buyers and sellers complete their real estate transactions and we assist developers in realizing business opportunites.