Real Estate Litigation

Our lawyers provide litigation and dispute resolution counsel for a wide range of issues relating to real estate at all levels of court. This includes litigation involving collapsing transactions, misrepresentation and breach of warranty claims in real estate contracts, and land use disputes between neighbouring property owners.  We also provide counsel in practice areas relating to the ownership and operation of real estate investments, with particular experience in construction law and builders liens.

 

Our lawyers have practical knowledge of the real estate industry. Our firm uses current law practice information technology and a project management approach to document intensive or factually complex litigation.  This  ensures that all our client's legal options are identified and effectively pursued.

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Representative work of our lawyers' experience in real estate litigation includes the following:

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• Counsel for the successful landlord at trial, dismissing the tenant’s claim of unreasonable refusal to assignment of a lease, with the landlord’s counterclaim for damages due to abandonment of lease allowed, see Persica Consulting Inc. v. Wescana Properties Inc., 2021 BCSC 2268.

• Counsel for the successful respondent before the British Columbia Court of Appeal in a case confirming that relief from forfeiture is not available to residential tenants in British Columbia, see Seignoret v. Bakonyi Holdings Ltd., 2019 BCCA 105

• Successfully representing a purchaser of residential real estate before the British Columbia Court of Appeal for the purpose of obtaining a court order compelling a vendor to complete the sale of the property, see Guraya v. Kaila, 2019 BCCA 367.

• In the context of a land use dispute and encroachment claim, and without the need to lead expert rebuttal evidence, obtaining a judicial finding rejecting the opposing party's highly experienced real estate appraiser's opinion evidence, based on counsel's submissions about evidentiary gaps within the appraiser's expert report, with the result that the plaintiff's claim for over $100,000 was reduced to $1.00, see Urbanczyk v. 1128 Enterprises Ltd., 2019 BCSC 117.

• Representing a commercial tenant and obtaining an order of specific performance compelling a commercial landlord to perform its obligations under an option to purchase, with a finding that the commercial landlord breached its duty of honest contractual performance, see Go Ha & Associates Ltd. v. 611414 B.C. Ltd., 2018 BCSC 2118.