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Real Estate Fees and
Disbursements
Legal fees are what a lawyer charges you for
acting on your behalf. It is a service fee. Your
Lawyer must pay all of the overhead expenses
including rents, insurance, professional dues,
equipment and personnel from this.
Disbursements are expenses that your lawyer
charges you for out-of-pocket expenses that you
would otherwise be required to pay if you
handled the transaction yourself. Because
your lawyer generally pays these expenses, he
asks you to reimburse him by including these
items in his account.
Examples of disbursements include:
- Registration Costs: It costs $70.70 to
register a deed, a mortgage or any other
document that affects the title to land.
- Title Search Fees: Usually a lawyer will
hire a searcher to conduct a search of the
title on his behalf because it is cheaper
for you than having the lawyer do the
search. The lawyer then reviews the search
on your behalf.
- Teranet User Fees: Usually a lawyer will
"charge through" to you, any costs
associated with linking up to the teranet
system that contains all the land
registration documentation in electronic
form.
- Photocopies, Faxes and Postage: Usually
a lawyer will charge you a reasonable amount
for these items.
- Off-Title Search Costs: In addition to
searching the title to your new home, your
lawyer may make various "off-title searches"
to determine whether there are any problems
that may affect your title. Each such
inquiry usually has a cost associated with
it which your lawyer will ask you to
reimburse him for by including it in your
account.
- Off-Title Searches include:
Tax Search: to ensure that there are no
taxes outstanding on your property;
Zoning Search: to ensure the use of the
property is in compliance with the zoning
that applies to it, and to determine the
coverage, set-back, height and other
restrictions that may apply;
Unregistered Easement Search: to determine
whether or not your new home is subject to
any easements that may not be registered
against the title to your new home;
Property Standard Search: to determine
whether or not the property is in compliance
with the property standards regulations and
whether or not there are any outstanding
work orders that affect the property;
Gas Search: to determine the status of the
gas account, if, any and to notify the gas
provider of the change of ownership;
Hydro and Water Search: to determine the
status of the hydro and water accounts and
to notify the utility company of the change
of ownership;
Corporate Searches: to ensure that any
previous corporate owners of your home were
in good standing and capable of owning and
selling land.
If your property has 2 or more units or is
located in a rural environment; then any of
the following enquires may also be
necessary:
Fire Department Compliance Search: this may
be necessary to ensure that fire safety
standards required where a building consists
of more than one living unit are complied
with;
Hydro Compliance Search: this may be
necessary where a building holds more than
one dwelling unit to ensure compliance with
safety regulations;
Drainage Act and Title Searches: these may
be necessary to ensure the rural property is
not encumbered by a drainage act or tile
debenture.
Some or all of these off-title searches and
their related costs may be eliminated if
title insurance is used, in which event your
account will reflect the fee for the policy
of title insurance as a disbursement (but
not the fees for the searches that were not
required).
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