June 16 FOLA Real Estate Update
The latest update from the Federation of Ontario Law Associations (FOLA) has been released.
Paying Mortgage Discharge Amounts by Wire
Further to our update of June 12, 2020 (available here) confirming that RBC has implemented a new protocol to allow lawyers to pay mortgage discharges by wire, we encourage you speak with your own financial institution or those you regularly work with to determine if they will be making similar arrangements to avoid the need for someone to attend at the bank personally to provide discharge payments.
Temporary Restrictions on Evicting Commercial Tenants
Bill 192, the Protecting Small Business Act, 2020 passed first, second and third reading on June 17, 2020 and received royal assent on June 18, 2020. The Act amends the Commercial Tenancies Act to temporarily halt or reverse evictions of commercial tenants and protect them from being locked out or having their assets seized during COVID-19. The Act also prohibits a judge from ordering a writ of possession if the basis for ordering the writ is an arrears of rent. The legislation applies to businesses that are eligible for federal/provincial rent assistance for evictions from May 1, 2020, until August 31, 2020.
The pause on evictions does not apply to those participating in the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance (CECRA) for small businesses, as the program requires landlords to enter into a rent reduction agreement with their impacted small business tenants and commits them to a moratorium on evictions for three months.
A copy of the Act can be found here.
Land Titles Applications to be Processed Starting July 2, 2020
Further to his letter of April 14, 2020 re: Registered Mail for Land Titles Absolute Plus Application During the Covid-19 Pandemic, the Director of Titles issued a notice on June 15, 2020 confirming that Land Titles Applications will be processed again starting July 2, 2020. The June 15, 2020 notice can be found here.
If and when we receive further information of interest to the real estate bar, we will pass it along.
Stay up to date with FOLA’s real estate information at https://fola.ca/real-estate-law.