Natalka Falcomer

During this crisis, leaders in the real estate industry have prioritized communication and empathy.

While I’ve always been an advocate of acting in good faith, a new Supreme Court ruling has driven the point home and reaffirmed a slightly different rule – the duty to act honestly.

Ontario tenants breathed a collective sigh of relief when the moratorium on evictions via the Protecting Small Business Act in Ontario was extended to the Halloween weekend.

A recent Real Estate Council of Ontario decision makes it clear that there are certain cases in which agents acting for tenants must disclose the presence of roommates.

Understanding Bill 184 is imperative for anyone selling or buying a tenanted property and it is imperative for real estate agents to understand it too.

Many lawyers are counseling landlords to not agree to the CECRA program if the landlord wouldn’t be financially able to grant the rent reduction without financial assistance from the government. Why?

COVID-19 showed me that, notwithstanding one’s legal rights, landlords and tenants can co-operate, especially since their survival was interdependent. This is especially true during the height of COVID-19.

This case provides several important lessons about the dangers of miscommunication and not putting everything into a lease, despite written emails and good intentions.

In V Hazelton Limited v. Perfect Smile Dental Inc., the tenant, with the landlord’s permission, decided to relocate his business and sublease his unit to a subtenant.

I fear that the Big Apple’s reversal of fate will happen to Toronto if we rely upon property taxes as a solution without understanding the full impact of such a levy.