What to expect when purchasing your new house

• Sabrina
  Kuckertz

  Sabrina
  Kuckertz

  view bio

Purchasing a new house is an exciting but stressful time for most (if not all) clients, and there are often unexpected steps for those who are not familiar with the residential real estate process.

Here is a general overview of what to expect after the Purchase/Sale Contract (which may have initially been referred to as your Offer to Purchase) is signed by you and the seller(s):

Condition Satisfaction/Waiver

First, if your contract has any conditions (e.g., a property inspection or financing), you must ensure that these conditions are satisfied or waived (i.e., removed) on or before the date indicated in your contract. If a condition date passes without the condition having been satisfied or removed, the real estate deal is dead.

If financing is one of your conditions, we recommended that you get pre-approved with your mortgage broker or bank for your mortgage in advance, so that there are no unexpected issues with financing your deal.

While waiting for conditions to be satisfied or waived, you can provide our office’s contact information to your realtor and your mortgage broker or bank (as applicable), to ensure the next steps in your deal proceed efficiently.

Conveyancing and Mortgage Instructions

Once all conditions are satisfied or waived, your realtor will send our office the conveyancing instruction package, which includes a copy of the signed contract, any signed amendments to the contract, and the signed condition waiver/satisfaction notice(s). If you do not have a realtor, providing copies of these documents to our office is your responsibility.

If applicable, your mortgage broker or bank (also known as the “lender”) will send our office mortgage instructions, which we use to prepare the mortgage

Information for Certificate of Title

Our office will need the following information from you:

• How you’d like your name(s) listed on the Certificate of Title (e.g., “John Doe” or “John Bob Doe” or “John B. Doe”); and
• What address you’d like shown on title (this is often your new house address, but if you won’t be living there, please provide us the address you want notices to be sent to).

If there are multiple owners going to be listed on tile, we will also need to know how ownership is going to be described. For example, you can choose:

• “Joint Tenants”, which comes with what’s known as the right of survivorship. If one person dies, ownership automatically passes to any surviving owner(s) listed on title (most common for couples); or
• “Tenants in Common”, which means one of the owners can sell their interest in the property or leave it to someone other than the other owner.

If you’re not sure what the benefits and disadvantages of these options are, please contact our office and we’d be happy to discuss.

Signing Appointments

It is best practices to reach out to our office as soon as possible to let us know about your possession date (i.e., Closing). Closing a real estate transaction is generally time-sensitive, and we want to ensure we have sufficient time to prepare the necessary documents and to schedule a signing appointment with you.

With that in mind, please be prepared to take some time off work at relatively short notice to attend our office for the signing appointment.

You will need to bring two pieces of ID (one picture ID like a driver’s license or passport and a second like your Health Care Card or a major credit card).

You will also need to provide our office with the cash amount (via bank draft or wire transfer to our office’s trust account) required to close the deal. This includes our estimated legal fees, the estimated disbursements charged by the Land Titles Office that our office pays on your behalf, any adjustments (for property taxes, etc.), and the remainder of the purchase price that is not covered by a deposit or mortgage funding. Our office will provide you with the exact number.

Other Considerations

Insurance

Remember to arrange for home insurance for your house that will begin on your possession day.

If you are getting a mortgage, we will ask for a copy of this insurance (usually known as the “Binder Letter”), issued by your insurance company, which must show the lender as the “first loss payable”.

Your insurance company will need the name of your lender, its address, and the amount of the mortgage to prepare the Binder Letter. Most lenders have a particular address they want listed, so please ask our office to confirm the address.

Utilities & Mail Forwarding

Arrange for utilities to be set up in your new house before you take possession and remember to arrange for mail forwarding to your new address.

Keys

Key release is generally dealt with by the realtors. If this is a private deal, please let us know and we can assist with the key release process.

Property Taxes

Property taxes run on a calendar year from January 1^st to December 31^st and are due and owing on June 30^th of every year.

Property taxes are adjusted for in the transaction (we will go through the Statement of Adjustments with you at the signing appointment), but depending on the timing of your possession date, you will need to consider how you would like to pay the balance of any property taxes owing for the year, as well as how you would like to pay for property taxes moving forward.

Generally, you can make a payment in two ways: either a one lump sum payment in June, or by enrolling in monthly payment plans, if offered by the municipality in which your house is located.

Reporting Package

Finally, once your transaction is successfully closed and everything is properly registered at the Land Titles Office, our office will send you a reporting package, which includes copies of the important documents you signed. You can expect this reporting package to arrive somewhere around 6-8 weeks after taking possession, given the current wait-times for registration at the Land Titles Office.

For more information about purchasing a new house or our real estate law services, please contact our real estate team.

_{This post is meant to provide information only and is not intended to provide legal advice. Although every effort has been made to provide current and accurate information, changes to the law may cause the information in this post to be outdated.}