Key takeaways
- In an ordinary Ontario residential purchase a lawyer is effectively required, because only a lawyer can make the compliance-with-law statements that electronic registration depends on.
- Your lawyer’s job runs from the day you sign the agreement to the moment closing is complete, not just the final signing.
- On a typical resale, the seller’s lawyer prepares the statement of adjustments and your lawyer reviews it. New builds and some private sales work differently.
- Land Transfer Tax is part of your closing funds, and title insurance is something your lawyer will advise you on.
What is a real estate lawyer, exactly?
A real estate lawyer is a licensed legal professional who manages the legal side of buying or selling property. In a home purchase, your lawyer works for you. Their goal is straightforward: make sure that when the deal closes, you become the legal owner of the property, that the title is in good order, and that your lender’s conditions are met.
Buying a home is one of the largest transactions most people ever make, and a lot happens behind the scenes between signing and moving in. Your lawyer is the person who quietly handles those moving parts so the transfer of ownership goes through correctly.
When does my lawyer get involved?
Ideally, early. Many buyers think of the lawyer as someone they see only at the end, but the most useful time to bring one in is soon after your offer is accepted, or even before you sign, if you have questions about the agreement.
Here is the arc of what your lawyer does in an ordinary residential purchase:
- Reviews the Agreement of Purchase and Sale to confirm the terms, dates, and conditions are clear and workable.
- Investigates title and relevant off-title matters, such as certain municipal or utility inquiries.
- Advises you on title insurance and what it does and does not cover.
- Satisfies your lender’s mortgage instructions, meaning the conditions the bank sets before it will release your mortgage funds.
- Reviews the seller’s statement of adjustments and prepares your own calculation of the funds you need.
- Calculates the total funds required for closing, including your down payment balance, adjustments, taxes, and fees.
- Pays the applicable Land Transfer Tax as part of the closing and registration process.
- Completes the electronic registration of the transfer and mortgage, and finalizes closing.
That is a lot of ground, and each step protects you in a different way.
What does my lawyer check in the purchase agreement?
The Agreement of Purchase and Sale is the contract that governs your deal. Your lawyer reads it closely to make sure it says what you think it says.
They look at the closing date, the deposit terms, what is included in the sale (appliances, fixtures, and so on), and any conditions such as financing or a home inspection. They also check for anything unusual that could create risk or cost later. If something needs clarifying or correcting, it is far better to catch it early than to discover a problem days before closing.
What is a title search, and what does it actually show?
“Title” is the legal right of ownership to a property. A “title search” is your lawyer’s review of the public land registration records to see what is registered against that title.
A title search reveals registered interests and other searched matters, such as existing mortgages, liens, easements, or rights of way. It is an important safeguard, but it is worth being precise about what it does: it shows what has been registered and searched, subject to the terms of your agreement, any off-title searches, and the coverage and exclusions of title insurance.
What a title search does not do is prove, with absolute certainty, that a property is entirely free of every possible debt or claim. That is one reason your lawyer will advise you on title insurance, which can protect you against certain title problems that a search might not surface.
Do I really need a lawyer to register the purchase?
For an ordinary Ontario residential purchase, the practical answer is yes. It is worth being precise about why. Ontario’s electronic land registration system does not restrict access to lawyers: trained non-lawyer staff can be authorised users with their own credentials, and they routinely prepare and submit registrations. What is reserved to lawyers is narrower and more important. Under the regulations made under the Land Registration Reform Act, only a person entitled to practise law in Ontario may make the compliance-with-law statements that stand in place of filing paper evidence on an electronic registration. Giving you legal advice, reviewing and signing the title opinion, the letter of requisition and the reporting letter, and taking ultimate responsibility for the file are also the lawyer’s alone under the Law Society’s rules. Your lender will require a lawyer as well.
So the accurate statement is not “only a lawyer can register a land document.” It is that the legal work a residential purchase requires — the advice, the certifications, the title opinion and the responsibility for the file — must come from a lawyer. For practical purposes, you will need one to close.
What happens on closing day?
Your lawyer exchanges documents and funds with the seller’s lawyer under the escrow terms of a Document Registration Agreement, confirms the money is in the right place, remits the Land Transfer Tax through the registration, and completes the electronic registration that transfers ownership to you.
One common misunderstanding is that your lawyer personally hands you the keys. Usually they do not. Keys or lockbox access are released under the closing arrangements once the deal is complete, and this is often coordinated through the real estate representatives rather than the lawyer’s office. Your lawyer’s core job is to make sure the legal transfer is done properly, at which point you are the owner.