Possible to purchase a home without a lawyer in Ontario?

[johnbuchmiller]

A lawyer can help you avoid some common problems with a home purchase or sale. For example, a seller may sign a brokerage agreement that does not deal with a number of legal problems. This happens quite often; realtors often use standard forms, expecting that they will cover all circumstances or will be easily customizable for unusual circumstances. By hiring a Legal advisor or Lawyer, you can save $100 to several thousand dollars.

 

[Ronald A.]

Question is "Note that I am not asking whether this is smart - or even sane - merely whether it is legally possible" Answer YES any individual can complete the required paperwork. Please note all the above answers as to why you should use a lawyer.

If you do it yourself in Ontario the sale will take longer and cost you more money than what a lawyer charges. IE you would have to pay to access Teraview.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Wonder if the 1787 Toronto Purchase was done with or without lawyers on both sides?

See link:

In the case of the Toronto area, the Mississaugas of New Credit exchanged 250,808 acres (101,498 ha) of land in what became York County (most of current Toronto and the Regional Municipality of York bounded by Lake Ontario to the south, approximately Etobicoke Creek/Highway 27 to the west, approximately Ashbridge's Bay/Woodbine Avenue-Highway 404 to the east and approximately south of Sideroad 15-Bloomington Road to the north) for some money, 2,000 gun flints, 24 brass kettles, 120 mirrors, 24 laced hats, a bale of flowered flannel, and 96 gallons of rum.

 

[James]

^ Very interesting.

An even more interesting point from the Wikipedia page is the 2010 settlement with the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation:

2010 settlement
Starting in 1986, the Mississaugas opened a land claims settlement process with the Government of Canada to rectify its grievance over the Toronto Purchase and a smaller plot of land near Burlington Bay. In 2010, Canada agreed to pay $145 million for the lands, based on the ancient value of the land, extrapolated to current dollars. The money was distributed to the band government, with each of the 1,700 present day Mississaugas receiving $20,000, with the rest placed in trust for future generations.

 

[W. K. Lis]

^ Very interesting.

An even more interesting point from the Wikipedia page is the 2010 settlement with the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation:

This time with lawyers.

 

[Palma]

I know someone who did a private sale and neither buyer nor seller wanted to use a lawyer but it turned out they had to ... although I don't know exactly why. There were no complications or disagreements or anything, it just turned out that they had to use a lawyer, so I also think the answer to your question is no.

When I was younger there use to be vendor take back mortgages. And even before the increase of house prices in the last 10 years you never see a sale of a property with a vendor take back mortgages. People also bought houses without agents but we know how agents today are trying to protect their turf, just like lawyers and that they are needed to register a title.

 

[Palma]

Your Lawyer

Your lawyer uses his law license registration and Law society legal fund E & oE to guarantee you and your lender that you / they have clear title to the unit.

Only the lawyers and government have access to the Land Titles Sytem.

Can you image the chaos if it was open?

are there not people that work there that do the registration?

 

[Palma]

Your Lawyer

Your lawyer uses his law license registration and Law society legal fund E & oE to guarantee you and your lender that you / they have clear title to the unit.

Only the lawyers and government have access to the Land Titles Sytem.

Can you image the chaos if it was open?

just like title insurance they now try to get you to buy yet in the end its useless compared to actually having a survey or one done

 

[W. K. Lis]

There is little vendor take back mortgages these days because the vendor would have to declare the earned interest on their income taxes. Used to be, many decades ago, that the first $1,000 in interest was tax free. No longer. Usually, with a couple (husband and wife?) that would add to $2,000 between the two of them. These days, inflation makes even that $1,000 mark very easy to reach.

Unless you are able to put that mortgage in some sort of "Tax Free Savings Account" setup, but sounds like too much extra work.