Mortgage financing is inextricable from real estate practice and matters that come within the purview of a real estate lawyer’s role in working with lenders evolve with the times. With new issues and an increase in varied lenders entering the Alberta marketplace, greater efforts must be taken to avoid potential problems. This paper presents a thorough analysis of potential issues that may arise in financed real estate transactions. The author discusses solutions and suggests implementation of specific procedural safeguards to avoid such issues. In particular, topics discussed include receiving and reviewing mortgage instructions, communication with the lender, dealing with difficult or impossible instructions, executing mortgage documents, and being conscious of mortgage fraud, among others.

This paper is part of a collection presented at LESA’s 49th Annual Refresher: Real Estate from April 24 – 26, 2016.