Toronto Real Estate and Neighbourhoods Blog | Move Smartly

Historic house turns into 'renovation from hell'

Bob Aaron in Legal

When Amos Hertzman and Caitlin Pencarrick bought their small frame house in Vancouver's historical Strathcona neighbourhood five years ago, they never imagined it would turn into the "renovation from hell." Nor could they have anticipated that the City of Vancouver would ever force them to move the house eight inches sideways because it was encroaching over a neighbour's property line.

Media Roundup

Many of our regular subscribers have enquired about the status of our media roundup which we haven't published over the past few weeks due to summer absences.

Our weekly Media Roundup will resume on Friday September 11th.

Insist on fireplace inspection when purchasing home

Bob Aaron in Legal

I was reviewing an offer to purchase a Toronto house last week and was surprised to see a condition that I had never seen before in an offer on a city home.

The clause made the agreement conditional on the buyer obtaining a satisfactory Wood Energy Technology Transfer (WETT) inspection report for the fireplace in the house.

In Canada, Wood Energy Technology Transfer Inc. (www.wettinc.ca) is a non-profit training and education association. It functions as the national registrar of the WETT program, promoting the safe and effective use of wood-burning systems in Canada.

It also maintains a WETT training program to provide training to installers and inspectors of wood burning systems.

Typically, a WETT inspection is required for cottages and rural properties which contain woodstoves. Many of these stoves are "weekend jobs" where the homeowner bought and installed a woodstove without the involvement of a professional.

Toronto Real Estate Sales up 27% First Half of August

John Pasalis in Toronto Real Estate News

From the Toronto Real Estate Board:

In the first two weeks of August, Greater Toronto REALTORS® reported 3,832 sales – up 27 per cent compared to the first two weeks of August 2008. The average price for these transactions was up three per cent year-over-year to $383,796.

"The results for the first half of August indicate that many households in the GTA remain confident in their ability to purchase and pay for a home over the long term," said TREB President Tom Lebour.

Year-to-date sales, at 54,303 are up slightly compared to 54,138 in 2008. Average price, at $385,603 is down by less than one half of one per cent.

"Strong resale housing demand will contribute to broader economic recovery as each transaction results in substantial spin-off benefits to other sectors of the economy," explained Jason Mercer, TREB's Senior Manager of Market Analysis.

John Pasalis is the Broker owner of Realosophy Realty Inc in Toronto. Email John

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Sellers statement often results in expensive court proceedings

Bob Aaron in Legal

Back in the spring of 2004, Timothy and Cherese Scherbak signed a listing agreement to sell their property on Boland Ave. in Sudbury, using the services of Wendy Weddell and Re/Max Sudbury Inc. The Sellers Property Information Statement (SPIS), which they signed at the same time, resulted in years of litigation, hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, and damages amounting to twice the value of the house.

Following an open house, Zoriana Krawchuk signed an agreement to purchase the house from the Scherbaks. The offer was not conditional on financing or home inspection, and came in at $10,100 over the $100,000 asking price.

Shortly after closing, Krawchuk discovered that the entire north foundation wall and the northern portions of the east and west foundation walls had settled and were continuing to sink into the ground below. The settling resulted in the failure of proper support for the floor joists and building above.

The city of Sudbury issued a work order requiring the problems to be rectified.

Correcting the foundation problem required lifting the home from its foundations, followed by excavation, removal and replacement of the cement basement floor, foundations and subsoil, and placing the house back on the new foundations.

Privacy and personal photos at heart of case

Bob Aaron in Legal

A decision released by the Supreme Court of Canada last month raises the interesting question of how much privacy an individual may expect with respect to personal photographs taken inside his or her own home.

The story began in June 2001. Agnieska Wojtanowska (Agnes) lived with Douglas Weil in a house in the Regional Municipality of Halton.

On June 1, 2001 she delivered some photographs taken inside their residence to Black's Photography, located at the Bramalea City Centre, to be developed.

The photographs showed marijuana plants growing in the house. They also included "personal" photographs.

Employees of Black's turned copies of the developed photographs over to officers of the Peel Police Service before they gave the original photos to Wojtanowska. The Peel police then delivered the photographs to the Halton Regional Police Service.

Media Roundup August 7th, 2009

Media Roundup

Real Estate News

Best July ever for Toronto real estate (National Post)

July home sales hottest ever (Toronto Star)

Toronto condo sales rebound (Toronto Star)

Real estate growth continues with hike in housing sales (Globe and Mail)

End of U.S. housing slump? Not exactly (Globe and Mail)

HELOCs & Credit Scores (Canadian Mortgage Trends)

Neighbourhoods and Urban Planning

Toronto approves plan for Union Station (Globe and Mail)

Council approves Union Station revitalization (Spacing)

The fault, dear city, lies not in our mayor but ourselves (Toronto Star)

Toronto Real Estate Sales Post July Record – 1 in 7 Houses Get Multiple offers

John Pasalis in Toronto Real Estate News

The Toronto Real Estate Board reported a record 9,967 resale home sales for July, a 28% increase over the same month last year.  Average prices increased last month by 6% to $395,414.

"Households confident in their positioning within the current economic environment have taken advantage of housing affordability in the GTA," said TREB President Tom Lebour. "The real estate sector has been one of the sectors making a positive contribution to economic growth in the GTA, not to mention Ontario and Canada more broadly."

But the big story continues to be the shortage of homes available for sale in Toronto’s real estate market.  The inventory of homes available for sale dropped by 36% over last year.  Surging demand for homes and a dwindling supply is pushing prices higher and driving the multiple offers we are seeing in the market. 

A street by any other name is just as sweet

Bob Aaron in Legal

Some roads named in a person's honour are well thought out; other choices come into question

Searching title to a local condominium townhouse last month, I was surprised and pleased to discover a Toronto street name that was completely new to me. Joe Shuster Way is in the King West Village area, north and east of King and Dufferin Sts.

Joe Shuster (1914-1992) was a native Torontonian and is best known as the co-creator of Superman, one of the most famous and commercially successful fictional characters of the 20th century.

His family lived nearby in the area of Bathurst and College Sts. before moving to Cleveland for business reasons.

As a youngster, Shuster worked as a newspaper boy for the Toronto Daily Star. When Superman first appeared in 1938, his alter ego, Clark Kent, worked for the Daily Planet, modelled after this newspaper. Toronto was the inspiration for Metropolis, Superman's home city.

In another tribute to the artist, the Joe Shuster Awards were named in his honour and are presented annually to honour achievements in the field of Canadian comic book publishing.