Your Assurance Good Title

Do you currently own a house or condominium and want an existing owner policy? Click Here.

If you are planning to purchase real property, then see below.

In relation to real property conveyancing and financing, we will diligently search title to the property. Good title ensures that you will really own the property; that it will be correctly described in official documents and properly registered; and that no one else has a claim or a lien that you do not know about. Good title is essential for you to sell the property in the future. To ensure good title, you may choose to either have us provide our qualified opinion or to purchase title insurance.

Although title insurance may be an added expense for you: its cost is partially or wholly offset by a reduction in the number of searches required (and the associated other costs), possibly avoiding the necessity and cost of a survey; it will assist in allowing a transaction to be completed if there is a short period to the closing date; it can provide you with better protection than our qualified opinion; and our fees are lower on title insured transactions.

Our firm is able to provide you with title insurance options from all of the major title insurers licensed in the Province of Ontario. The table below is a comparison between our qualified opinion on title and most common title insurance policies.

In some circumstances, your mortgage lender may restrict your title insurance options and require that you use a particular title insurer.

The Rules of Professional Conduct of the Law Society of Upper Canada require us to inform you of the following:

1.	As lawyers, we owe you a duty to advise you that title insurance is not mandatory and may not be the only option available to protect your interests.
2.	We cannot and will not receive any compensation, fee or any portion of the premium, whether directly or indirectly, from any title insurer, agent or intermediary for recommending or providing a specific title insurance product.

Issue	Our Qualified Opinion on Title	Title Insurance Policy
What services will we provide?	Undertake extensive searches and inquiries related to assuring you of good title; Act as your advisor on title related and other legal issues affecting your purchase; Facilitate the closing process; Provide a qualified letter of opinion on whether you have good and marketable title to the property.	Same, except there may be fewer required searches. Same Same Apply, on your behalf, and issue to you and your mortgage lender a title insurance policy.
What do you pay for and how much will it cost?	Legal fees (our fees are higher in non-title insured transactions); Disbursements we have to pay to do the required searches and inquiries; Land Transfer Tax and registration fees; You may be required to provide an up-to-date survey.	Legal fees; Disbursements we have to pay to do the required searches and inquiries (generally less in title insured transactions); Land Transfer Tax and registration fees; Title insurance premium which varies with price of home; Overall cost may be less than cost of Qualified Opinion on Title depending on search requirements; Generally, title insurance will provide survey coverage without an up-to-date survey; As fewer searches are required, Title Insurance can assist in expediting a short closing period.
What kind of coverage or protection do you have?	Indirectly through our malpractice insurance, you are covered if: We make a negligent mistake or omit to do something that affects your title to the property, and We are negligent in our legal services.	Directly though the title insurer, if a problem exists at the time of purchase, you have coverage for: Title related problems, Regulatory compliance problems, Inability to live in home as a single residential dwelling under zoning by-laws, Access related problems
What are the restrictions or limits on coverage?	Coverage limited to terms of our malpractice insurance: You must prove our legal services fell below normal standard of practice (ie. negligence) Our malpractice insurance is limited to $1 million. Our opinion is qualified, which qualifications include the exclusions contained in title insurance and additional broader exclusions.	You are compensated for actual financial loss (as defined in the policy) up to the policy amount (generally the purchase price plus an inflation adjustment). You only have to prove actual loss; you do not have to prove negligence. Standard exclusions include: Some rights government may have in your land, Environmental hazards, Future change of use, and future renovations and additions, Native land claims, Problems that you agreed to in the purchase agreement or failed to tell us about, If you do not pay fair value for the property (ie. a gift – however coverage can be obtained for gifts), Encroachments by fences and other non-building structures, Other exceptions specific to the transaction.
Who is covered?	Our opinion may only be relied upon by you, and, if we have acted for your mortgage lender, we will also provide it an opinion.	You as the homebuyer, your spouse, if not the homebuyer, your heirs, and your mortgage lender.
What does a title insurance policy cover that a lawyer's opinion does not?	Our qualified opinion does not cover fraud, forgery, errors in public records, unregistered easements, rights of way, zoning violations, municipal by-law infractions, contraventions of subdivision and development agreements, survey errors and undisclosed or undetectable defects in title. Similarly, although the province assures title if your property is in the Land Titles System for errors in public records, it does not protect against a number of the other potential problems as stated above. Title insurance provides coverage of these matters.
What happens if there is a problem after closing?	You do not have an absolute right to compensation, but instead: You must prove our services fell below the normal standard of practice, You may have to hire another lawyer to sue us, You must make a claim against us promptly, We must have malpractice insurance at the time you make the claim (otherwise, we may be liable, but we will not be insured), We must make a claim to our insurer. If we are no longer in existence or in other possible circumstances, you may not be compensated.	You have a contractual right to compensation and will receive compensation if: You make a claim directly to the title insurer and the problem is covered by the policy, You make a claim against the title insurer promptly, However, if you require our to assist you in making your claim, you will have to pay our additional fees for that service.
What if we make no mistake but someone else does?	If we do not fall below the normal standard of practice, there will be no compensation from us.	It does not matter who committed the error, provided that the loss relates to a covered peril.
Do you need a survey for protection?	We require an up-to-date survey to provide any opinion regarding survey related matters, and generally, our qualified opinion will limit survey issues.	Normally survey coverage is available without the cost of an up-to-date survey.

Portions reproduced from other sources including: The Law Society of Upper Canada, LawPro and the Canadian Bar Association.

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