All About Estates

Category: Real Estate

Total 85 Posts

Gefen Estate v. Gefen

The Ontario Court of Appeal (“ONCA”) decision in Gefen Estate v. Gefen is an interesting read which provides insight into a variety of topics including mutual wills and mutual will agreements, secret trusts, the doctrine of unconscionable procurement, and more! By way of background, Elias and Henia Gefen were married…

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What Happens When One Joint Owner is in Debt?

While the right of survivorship is often thought of as the defining characteristic of joint tenancy, joint tenancy is also defined by “four unities.” Justice Perell succinctly defined the “four unities” in Royal & SunAlliance Insurance Company v Muir, 2011 ONSC 2273: A joint tenancy is distinguished by what are…

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Flipped property – estates beware

Executors generally liquidate the assets of an estate in a timely manner following an individual’s death. This may include the disposition of the deceased’s primary residence, cottage or rental property (herein referred to as a “housing unit”). An estate may realize a gain on a housing unit if it is…

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Revisiting the importance of language when using multiple wills

This blog contributed by Mohena Singh, Associate @ Fasken LLP A long-time practice of estate planners has been preparing multiple wills for clients to minimize the amount of estate administration tax an estate must pay. The general idea of a primary and secondary will is to exclude property that does…

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Will The Vacant Home Tax Impact Use of the Principal Residence Exemption; Estate Planning Considerations

  Overview The Ontario government has enabled municipalities to enact a tax on vacant residential units in their regions (Granted under Part IX.1 of the Municipal Act).[1] Each municipality has to pass a By-Law stating the tax rate and conditions of vacancy that, if met, make a property subject to…

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Valuation of Interests in Discretionary trusts and Family Law

These days, it is quite common to find intergenerational wealth transfer to consist of property held in a discretionary family trust whose beneficiaries may or may not have been in marital relationships at the time of the time the trusts were created. A siginifcant number of legal and financials issues…

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Suspicious Circumstances – For Wills Only

Because the doctrine of suspicious circumstances was developed in respect of probate and wills, it cannot easily be exported into other areas of law, including contract law.

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Can You Sever Joint Tenancy After Death?

Joint tenancy has a lot in common with the TV show Survivor: the goal is to outlast your fellow castaways to win the prize – full ownership of the property. To escape this game show mentality, owners may sever the joint tenancy.

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Principal residence – deceased vs. estate (Part 2): Time is of the essence

In my previous blog, Principal residence – deceased vs. estate, I discussed the opportunity for an estate to claim a capital loss on a property that was previously the principal residence of the deceased and carry it back to the deceased’s final tax return under subsection 164(6) of the Income…

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Principal residence – deceased vs. estate

The over-heating of the housing market that started in 2021 is starting to slowly cool off as a result of rising interest rates. This cooling of the over-heated housing market has given rise to a potential scenario that was originally addressed by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) in a technical…

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