Anna Gurevich Law Office

04/03/2026

New Housing Tax Breaks in Ontario! 🏠

As of now:

You could save up to $130,000 in taxes thanks to new rules! Here is a simple breakdown:

- For first-time buyers a newly built residential property (already law!), if you are buying your first home (to live in), you now get a 100% rebate on the 5% Federal GST.

Savings: Up to $50,000 back in your pocket.

Dates: Covers contracts signed from March 2025 until Dec 2030.

- The big 13% rebate is still a proposal.
The plan to give the full 13% HST back to all buyers of a newly built residential property is currently a Budget Proposal. It is not law yet. It requires new provincial and federal laws to pass (expected late April/May 2026).

The goal: If passed, it will cover contracts signed between April 1, 2026, and March 31, 2027.

03/23/2026

“I’ve Never Owned in Canada — So I Qualify.”

❋ The statement is usually made with certainty.
“I’ve never owned property in Canada. I’m a first-time buyer.”
But when it comes to the Ontario Land Transfer Tax first-time home buyer rebate, the law does not confine the question to Canada.

❋ To qualify for the Ontario land transfer tax rebate, a purchaser must not have previously owned an interest in an eligible home anywhere in the world at any time.

❋The rule is not national. It is global.
A condominium purchased overseas, a partial ownership interest inherited abroad, or a property acquired years before immigrating to Canada. Each of these may affect eligibility for the Ontario Land Transfer Tax rebate.

❋ There are also specific statutory rules that address how a purchaser’s spouse’s prior home ownership can impact eligibility. Those rules are nuanced and depend on timing and circumstances, but they exist — and they matter.

❋ The misunderstanding arises because “first-time buyer” sounds intuitive — as though it refers only to buying in Ontario, or only to buying in Canada. In legislation, it is defined more precisely.

❋ If you are relying on first-time buyer status to reduce your land transfer tax payable, it may be worth reviewing both your own ownership history and any spousal considerations that may apply.

03/16/2026

Common Misconceptions in Real Estate Matters
Part Ⅳ
“The Rebate Will Cover It.”

A young couple purchases their first home in Ontario. They have heard about the first-time home buyer rebate. Friends mention it casually. Online forums speak of “getting the tax back.”

They assume the land transfer tax will effectively disappear.

When they begin working with their lawyer and reviewing the numbers, they discover that the rebate is capped.

In Ontario, the maximum provincial land transfer tax rebate is $4,000.
In the City of Toronto, an additional municipal rebate of up to $4,475 may apply.

The figures are fixed.

On most of the properties in the GTA and Toronto, the land transfer tax exceeds those limits. The balance remains payable.

Expectation and structure begin to diverge.

The rebate exists.
It reduces cost.
It does not eliminate it.

Before financial assumptions settle into certainty, it may be worth confirming exactly how the calculation applies to your purchase.

In real estate transactions, small misunderstandings tend to become large numbers.

03/09/2026

Common Misconceptions in Real Estate Matters
Part Ⅲ
“Joint Ownership Equals Equal Ownership”

✶ Two siblings purchase a property together. One contributes a larger portion of the down payment. The other invests time, labour, and renovation effort. At the outset, they agree — informally — that it is “equal.”

✶ For years, the arrangement works.

✶ Then circumstances change. A sale becomes necessary. One sibling believes the greater financial contribution should be reflected in the division of proceeds. The other points to the title: we own it jointly.

✶ And here is where expectation and structure begin to diverge.
Joint ownership defines how property is legally held.
It does not automatically define how value should be allocated between co-owners.

✶ Courts may look beyond title and examine evidence of intention, contribution, and surrounding circumstances. But absent clear documentation, disputes become expensive, personal, and uncertain.

✶The assumption that “joint” means “fair” often rests on goodwill — not on legal clarity.

✶ If you co-own property and have relied on informal understandings, this may be the ideal moment to pause. While relationships are stable and everyone is able to speak openly, review the structure from multiple perspectives: legal title, financial contribution, tax consequences, and succession planning.

✶ Clarity created early rarely harms a relationship.
Ambiguity introduced later often does.

03/03/2026

Common Misconceptions in Real Estate Matters

Part Ⅱ
"Adding Someone to Title Is Just an Administrative Step.”

✴ A widower remarries and adds his new spouse as a joint tenant to the home he owned for years. He believes this ensures simplicity.

Years later, he dies. The home transfers automatically to the surviving spouse. It does not form part of the estate. His will does not govern it.

His adult children from a prior marriage had assumed otherwise.

✴Nothing improper occurred. The structure functioned exactly as joint tenancy is designed to function.

But legal simplicity does not always equal emotional clarity.

✴ In situations like this, a difficult question almost always arises:

Did the father truly intend to leave his children without any share in the value of the home? Or did that outcome occur unintentionally?

⇒ If it was intentional, that is one thing.
⇒ If it was accidental, the result can feel doubly painful — to the father’s own children, and perhaps even to the father himself, had he fully understood the consequences.

✶ In blended families, inheritance is rarely simple or automatic. Property structures that appear straightforward can produce results that do not reflect anyone’s deeper intention.

✶ If you have a blended family — or if your property ownership has evolved over time — it may be worth reviewing your documents.
⇒ Do they truly express your intentions?
⇒ Does the structure reflect what you actually want to happen?

⇒ Or does it merely appear convenient?

Clarity is rarely urgent — until it is.

02/28/2026

Common Misconceptions in Real Estate
Part Ⅰ
“If I’m on Title, I Own It. End of Story.”

✴ Being registered on title feels definitive. It looks official. Conclusive.

But ownership under Ontario law can be divided into legal title and beneficial ownership — and those are not always the same.
✴ A common example:
A parent adds an adult child to the title “for convenience” — perhaps to avoid probate, perhaps to help manage the property. No money changes hands. The parent continues paying expenses and living in the home.
After the parent’s death, the other siblings are surprised to learn that the child on title claims full ownership through survivorship.

✴ The courts will not simply stop at the land registry. They will ask:

⇒ Was there an intention to gift?
⇒ Was the child merely holding legal title in trust?
⇒ What evidence exists of the parent’s intention?

In many cases, the presumption of resulting trust applies — meaning the property may fall back into the estate despite what the title suggests.

✴ Title is powerful.
But intention can be stronger.

✴ Does this situation sound familiar?

Are you the parent who believes that by adding one child to title, the property will automatically belong to that child alone?

Or are you the child whose name was added — confident that one day the home will simply become yours, and that brothers or sisters will have no claim?

Perhaps that will indeed be the outcome.

But perhaps not.

Before assumptions quietly turn into expectations, it may be worth revisiting the structure. Review how the title is held. Consider how it interacts with estate law, family law principles, and potential tax implications.

Clarity is far easier to achieve when everyone can still explain their intention.

If there are questions — ask them now.

02/21/2026

Lately, I’ve noticed a pattern. More and more emails arrive from young people inquiring about legal services. They begin confidently:

“Please provide your fees for the following service…”
And then comes a structured list of legal questions.

At first glance, the message looks polished. But after a few lines, something feels off. The terminology is American, not Canadian. The concepts don’t quite align with Ontario law. Some of the questions don’t apply at all. It quickly becomes clear that the text was likely generated by AI — and probably prompted in very general terms.

And then I find myself hesitating.

How do you respond politely when it’s not entirely clear what the person is actually asking? How do you explain, briefly and kindly, that the legal framework they’re referring to doesn’t exist here — without writing a long explanation that may not be understood?

This is the paradox of AI in legal services. It writes confidently. It sounds informed. It gives the impression of precision. But if the question behind it is vague or incorrect, the answer will be just as misplaced — even if it reads beautifully.

AI can assist. It cannot replace understanding. If you don’t yet know what you need to ask, no algorithm will truly think it through for you.

I’m curious — are you seeing something similar in your field? Has AI improved the way people approach your profession, or simply changed the way confusion arrives in your inbox?

02/18/2026

He complains about the paperwork before he even sits down.

Two countries. Two courts. Endless forms. Certified translations. Apostilles. Waiting. Always waiting.

His wife died without a will. She was a Canadian citizen. So is he. But their assets — the apartment, the accounts, the savings — are abroad. Under Ontario law, dying without a will means the statute steps in. The court must appoint an estate trustee. Shares are prescribed. Nothing moves quickly. Add a foreign jurisdiction, and the process becomes a duet between legal systems that do not particularly enjoy dancing together.

He knows this now. He feels it in every delay, every invoice, every official stamp.

“If only we had done it differently,” he says.

It would seem like the perfect moment for clarity. He could prepare a will in Ontario. Perhaps another in the country where he resides, carefully coordinated so one does not revoke the other. He could decide who administers his estate, simplify the process, spare his children the bureaucratic pilgrimage he is currently making.

Instead, he shrugs.

“After me, it won’t matter.”

There is a quiet drama in that sentence. Not rebellion. Not ignorance. Just postponement.

But is it really true that it won’t matter?

Ontario’s succession regime will operate with mathematical precision. Courts will apply the rules. Foreign authorities will insist on their own procedures. The law is efficient in one respect: it does not disappear simply because we decline to plan.

The real intrigue is not legal — it is human.

When you experience difficulty, do you treat it as instruction? Or as an inconvenience you hope ends with you?

If you are navigating complexity today — cross-border property, probate applications, the absence of a will — are you thinking about relief for your heirs? Or are you quietly repeating the same sentence:

After me — the flood?

10/16/2024

There is a new podcast about the Real Estate Law & what you need to know

You will learn the following:
- when should they reach out to a lawyer, and what should they expect during that process?

- What are some of the common issues you've seen that prevent a transaction from reaching completion?

- What steps can be taken to address or prevent the issues that typically arise?

- the advice would a real estate lawyers offers to a seller who's looking to sell a property with a tenant currently living in it?

- advice on construction agreements or securing construction loans And what you should consider regarding insurance coverage

Thank you, Mary, Christine, and Maria, for inviting me to your show. It was a pleasure to be there.

Listen to the podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2368009/episodes/15931067

09/12/2024

A Power of Attorney for Property allows you to appoint someone to manage your finances if you become unable to do so. In Ontario, a Continuing Power of Attorney for Property remains valid even if you lose mental capacity. Setting this up while you're still capable ensures your loved ones can easily manage your affairs, avoiding the costly and time-consuming process of seeking court approval. Preparing now is a simple and practical step to safeguard your future.

09/04/2024

This article by Anna Gurevich offers valuable insights into the role of a real estate lawyer in mortgage transactions. It highlights the importance of early consultation with a mortgage broker to avoid last-minute surprises, the strict nature of bank mortgage instructions, and how lawyers manage discrepancies in mortgage documents. Anna Gurevich’s real estate law services can guide you through these complex processes, ensuring a smooth and stress-free property transaction.

Book your consultation at 289-848-0096 or [email protected]

12/19/2022