Tax, Legal & TRESA

How Your Closing Funds Actually Move on Closing Day: Ontario Lawyers’ “Trust Conditions” System, Explained

On closing day in Ontario there is no escrow company holding the money — the buyer’s and seller’s lawyers exchange funds and title directly, and the whole thing is held together by one professional conduct rule. Licensed Broker Arthur Zhao explains how Law Society of Ontario Rule 7.2-11 (undertakings and trust conditions) lets two lawyers who have never met safely release funds and register title, why a lawyer who accepts a trust condition is personally bound even if it later seems unreasonable, and why this is a lawyer’s job — not your agent’s.

The Seller Is a Dissolved Corporation: Can You Still Buy the House?

Your seller is a dissolved Ontario corporation? Two questions decide everything, and neither is the price. First: how was it struck — s.240 for cause (barely reversible) or s.241 default (revivable)? Second: how long ago — because under OBCA s.241(11), a company revived on or after the third anniversary of its dissolution does not get the forfeited property back. Ontario Broker Arthur Zhao maps both questions for buyers: who holds title now (the Crown, under the FCPA — not the Escheats Act), why revival is the Director’s discretion under s.241(9), and the offer conditions that keep your deposit protected while you find out.

Your Lawyer’s Report on Title Quotes a Clause Barring Sale to a Certain Race. Does It Still Bind Anyone in Ontario?

Found a racial covenant buried in an older Ontario home’s title and wondering whether it should scare you off the purchase? In almost every case it changes nothing about your right to buy, own, or resell — s.22 of the Conveyancing and Law of Property Act makes these covenants void and unenforceable. Broker Arthur Zhao explains why the words can still surface in a title search long after they lost all force, and the one date that decides how the law treats them.

Buying Land in Northern Ontario? Your Tax Bill Comes from the Province, Not a Municipality

Buy land in unincorporated Northern Ontario and there is no municipality to tax it — so the Province does, through Provincial Land Tax (PLT). This guide draws the boundary most buyers get wrong (Muskoka cottages usually pay municipal tax, not PLT), then walks the flat class rates ($250 per $100,000 assessed for residential, $300 commercial and industrial), the two-bill-a-year cycle, the education property tax and local board levies riding on the same bill, and the 40% registered-charity rebate. From Toronto broker Arthur Zhao.

You Sold the Estate’s House as Executor — Can You Pay Yourself? Ontario Estate Trustee Compensation, and Why the “5% Rule” Isn’t Law

Named as the estate trustee, you sold the family home and spent months settling the estate — are you allowed to pay yourself, and how much? Yes: Ontario’s Trustee Act, s.61(1), entitles an estate trustee to a “fair and reasonable” allowance, fixed by a Superior Court judge. The catch most people miss: the famous “5%” (2.5% in, 2.5% out) is not a statutory rate — it is a courtroom convention judges have built over decades, then dial up or down against five factors. Broker Arthur Zhao breaks down the legal basis, how the house sale feeds the math, who signs off, whether it is taxed, and the one move that spares your family a fight. Educational content, not legal or tax advice.

Can Your Agent Buy the House You Are Selling? What Ontario Law Entitles You to First

In Ontario, an agent can buy a home they are listing, or have a relative or numbered company do it — but only once TRESA section 32 is met: written notice to every other party, plus their written acknowledgment of receipt. The notice must fully disclose every fact affecting the home’s value, and any resale the agent already has lined up. Broker Arthur Zhao explains what you are owed, why acknowledging receipt is not agreeing to the price, and why to get independent legal advice.

Passing the Family Farm to Your Kids in Ontario: The Land Transfer Tax Break Is Real — and Narrower Than “Family” Suggests

Thinking of handing your Ontario farm to your kids tax-free? The land transfer tax exemption under Regulation 697 is real — but a field you have cash-rented to a neighbour may not count as “farming” at all, which can sink the claim before it starts. It waives only the provincial tax; the transfer’s principal purpose must be to keep farming rather than sell and subdivide; routing it through a family farm corporation adds a 95% farming-assets test; and Form 013-1205 must be filed. Broker Arthur Zhao maps out who actually qualifies.

Leaving a Home or Inheritance to a Disabled Child on ODSP: The Henson Trust and the $100,000 Ceiling

Worried that leaving a home or savings to an adult child on ODSP will end their benefits? Broker Arthur Zhao explains why it usually won't — if you get two things right. First, a home the child lives in is already an exempt asset (O. Reg. 222/98 s.28(1)), so the real issue is cash against a $40,000 limit. Second, how a trustee spends matters as much as how money is held: paying disability-related bills directly is uncapped and income-exempt (s.43(1) para 9), while cash to the beneficiary is limited to $10,000 per 12 months (para 13). A fully discretionary Henson trust escapes the $100,000 trust ceiling (s.28(3)); an RDSP adds an uncapped exempt layer. Must be drafted by a licensed lawyer.