The PYB Blog

A new initiative launched by Protect Your Boundaries Inc. and Teranet Inc. will empower Ontario's land professionals with expanded access to the digital resources they need to thrive in a real estate and property sector being disrupted by technological innovation and the impacts of COVID-19. The expanded partnership aims to make critical land data more accessible and easier to understand for buyers and sellers. “We’re democratizing land data by compiling and explaining official property and boundary information so that it’s more accessible and easier to understand,” said Chris Kamarianakis, CEO of Protect Your Boundaries. “We’re making sure the right information gets into the right hands so people can make informed choices about what for many is the biggest financial decision that they’ll ever make.” To learn more, see the news release below.

Assuming you have a survey that you determine is decent to use, the first thing you're going to do is look and see / determine where the boundary is. And the boundary on a survey plan is always the thick, dark line. Look for the thickest, darkest line, that's going to be your boundary. 

Now, don't confuse the front boundary of the property with where the road is or the curb or the sidewalk is. That's not where the boundary is. Some people take measurements from ...

Many of you I know practiced real estate before title insurance came in, right? And those of you who did will remember the amount of work that the lawyer used to do prior to closing, to assure good title.

You always had to get a survey plan by the way and the lawyer did a full 40 year title research, and off title search to make sure that there were no outstanding permits or warrants or anything else like that. They also looked ...

“Land Survey” is the term that encapsulates pretty much all the different types of plans the surveyor would produce. Within that there are two general types of land survey. Public plans and Private Plans.

Public Plans

Public plans include Registered Plans, Reference Plans, Plans of Subdivision and Condo Plans. These are the plans that normally you'll find at the Registry Office. These types of plans typically only have a certain amount of information on them. What do they show? Well, these types of plans show ...

We at the BoundaryWise Academy and Protect Your Boundaries, know that title insurance is an exceptional product, a great insurance product that protects lenders and lawyers and homeowners in valued ways.

The other thing that I want you to take home out of this is that real estate lawyers are not trying to be nefarious or lazy or any of those other things that they sometimes get accused of when it comes to this whole conversation around title insurance. The simple answer to the question of...

So, when somebody asks you, can I claim adverse possession? Really, there are two questions that you should come back with: First, what is the land status? Then, if it is Land Titles Qualified, you ask, what is the date of conversion? Only once you have that information can you really give any advice or any counsel to your client.  

So where do we find out where the land status is, and where do we find out where the date of conversion is? It's the Parcel Register.

What you see is not what you get when it comes to condominium areas. You are buying a twelve hundred square foot condo, that twelve hundred feet is determined according to Tarion’s Bulletin 22 and is called the marketing area or the salable area of the condo.

Now, what you end up living in, though, is that square footage, minus half the thickness of the demising walls, minus the full thickness of exterior walls, minus the thickness of the corridor walls, minus the area ...

A survey plan is probably the single most powerful document that you can acquire to attach to your deal using your deal that protects you and your client and your deal. First and foremost, it’s a legal document. It is a written contract with various components to it. The second thing is it is a diagrammatic representation of land boundaries, physical features and structures.

So it's both a legal documents that counters legal weight, but it's also a diagrammatic representation.

What's interesting about this is that there are certain situations, certain types of condo where the disparity between usable area and marketing area is most significant.

The Tarion Bulletin 22 contains, the area that's calculated includes all the way to the outside of exterior walls. That means if you have a corner unit, you have an additional exterior wall that you are going to pay that full width of in square footage. If the walls are a foot thick, and it's a 20 foot wall...

Technically speaking your neighbour is within their rights to build their walkway up to the property boundary (providing they are not violating any municipal zoning setback bylaws). However that right does not extend to them damaging any features or structures on your side of the property line. You have several pathways to resolution available to you:

1. Do nothing.

2. Resolve the situation with your neighbour.

3. Seek legal help. A lawyer who specializes in land and boundary issues can help you determine how to use..