Real Estate Law Blog

On May 29, 2020, the B.C. Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General issued Ministerial Order No. M179 (the “Order”) which has broad sweeping implications for numerous commercial tenancies in the Province. The preamble to the Order outlines one of the purposes of the Order which is that “measures are needed to prevent the eviction of small business tenants” ...

The ongoing global pandemic is currently having an enormous impact on commercial retailers, restaurants, and other commercial tenancies in, among other places, British Columbia and Alberta. We have recently seen a number of tenant defaults (or potential defaults depending on the wording of the relevant lease) which include failing to pay rent and closing down ...

In a recent B.C. Court of Appeal decision, the court was asked to revisit the age old question of whether vendors of real property in British Columbia can still rely on the doctrine of caveat emptor or 'buyer beware' to avoid certain types of claims made by disgruntled purchasers.  In short, the court ultimately recognized the continuing application of the doctrine with only ...

In a recent decision from the BC Court of Appeal, the court once again had to struggle with the often difficult issue of what is a "chattel" and what becomes a "fixture" during the course of a commercial tenancy.  In the result, the court confirmed that the test of a chattel v. fixture is not a subjective one, but rather is objective.  Accordingly, although parties to a commercial ...

A recent Ontario Superior Court case will be of interest to commercial landlords and tenants alike.

In 1251614 Ontario Ltd v. Gurudutt, the tenant signed a 10 year lease that granted the tenant the right to renew the lease for 2 further terms of 5 years each, with rental rates to be negotiated at the time of renewal and settled by arbitration, if necessary. In addition, the lease ...

A recent case from the BC Supreme Court has highlighted yet again that a guarantee or indemnity of a lease (here now referred to as an “Indemnity”) does not necessarily assure payment to a landlord following a default by a tenant.  The terms of the Indemnity must be carefully scrutinized and examined to determine if the specific circumstances outlined in the document are ...

Frequent readers of Lawson Lundell's blogs may recall a post from October 2012, in which we wrote about a Supreme Court of Canada decision that some believed, at the time, would result in the “death knell” for the remedy of specific performance in Canada at least in respect of commercial real estate transactions. Since then, many courts have indeed grappled with ...