REALTY CONVEYANCING
Buying a home is one of the biggest purchases you will make in your life. This is such an important decision and process and it’s important that you choose the right people to help you with this process. You will have chosen your real estate agent, your banker, your insurance agent, and your lawyer. Each one involved has something to offer. As your lawyers, our job is to pull together all the necessary portions of the closing to have the home you are buying properly conveyed to you and satisfy your bank that it is getting security against your property.
Getting you from the time you give an offer on your home to the final documents necessary to get title into your name involves a complicated process that requires our expertise to assist you. At Siebenga & King, we have attempted to develop some educational aids to help you understand this process. Please see our educational piece "What Happens Next".
Here at Siebenga & King, we strive to provide affordable legal services in all our dealings, but especially for our real estate clients. Each month, we provide a different promotional offer. We want you to understand that we want your business and we value you as a client. Just as much as grocery stores will offer coupons to give you incentive to shop with them, we believe you deserve to have some choice in who will provide you with legal services. We believe this choice should be us!
To ensure we accurately do this work for you, there are a number of questions that we will need answered. This typically is done with a phone call from one of our team members. We know how busy you can be in this very active society in which we live; therefore, we have created the following Question and Answer page for you to give us this information in electronic form. This allows you to provide the information to us on your time—so long as we have the information at least 10 days prior to your completion date.
- What is the FULL, LEGAL name of all the parties that will be registered on the title?
- What is the occupation of each person to be registered on title?
- If there is more than one person on title, how do you wish to hold title? If you register as Joint Tenants, this flows with it the right of survivorship; if something happens to one, the property will flow to the other by way of survivorship. If you register as Tenants in Common or with a particular percentage of interest, then there is no right of survivorship. When on registered owner dies, his share will have to be probated and distributed according to his will.
- Are there any parties acting solely as covenantor/guarantor on the mortgage? If so, what is their full name and address?
- Will you be living on the property? If not, what is your mailing address to which you want your property assessment and tax notice to go?
- Are you a first time homebuyer? This question has to do with the payment of Property Transfer Tax. In this province, any time title is transferred to another name, transfer tax applies unless you fall under an exemption. Being a first time homebuyer is one of those exemptions. Here are the requirements. If you miss any one of these, you do not qualify for the exemption:
- have never owned a home anywhere in the world;
- have resided in British Columbia for at least one year;
- purchase price is $275,000 and under, and if the purchase price is over $275,000, but up to $300,000, there is a partial exemption allowed;
- obtaining at least 70% financing, which you must maintain for at least a year (ie, you cannot paydown your mortgage to less than 70% equity within the first year);
- you are going to live on the property as your residence.
If you can answer yes to all these questions, then you would qualify for the exemption.
If not, transfer tax is payable on completion based on 1% of the first $200,000 purchase price and 2% thereafter.
- Is the property a strata property? If so, we need the name of the strata management company. Sometimes the listing agent knows this information;
- With whom are you getting your mortgage? Did you use a broker? Do you have the bank branch contact that you were dealing with?
- With whom are you getting your house insurance?
- Did you put a deposit down for the property? If yes, who is holding the deposit?
- If you are purchasing a detached home, do you have a site survey for the property?
- Is the property rented? If there are tenants remaining on the property, what is the monthly rental amount and what is the amount of damage deposit taken, if any?
- Is the property a brand new construction or the purchase of a used property?
- If you are purchasing a strata, do you have the Form B Information Certificate?
- Who is your real estate agent?