The foundations of residential real estate remain steady, but new trends and technologies continue to reshape how lawyers practice real estate law in city centres and rural areas throughout Alberta. Join colleagues in the beautiful town of Banff for meaningful discussions, networking, practical insights, and fresh perspectives on today’s real estate topics and trends.

Session Details:

Land Titles Update and Changes

Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction (SARTR) are developing Alberta Registries for Land Online (ARLO), a new land titles system designed to improve efficiency and reduce wait times. This session will share key details about upcoming changes, including implications for legal professionals and what you need to know to prepare your practice for this transition.

New Home Warranty Coverage

Unless real estate lawyers personally own a new home, most of their dealings with new home warranty issues relate to their clients’ new homes. This session will cover important and sometimes controversial topics, including the definition of “defect” (vs. deficiency), commencement certificates and criteria (occupancy permit vs. title transfer and actual occupancy), holdbacks, contractual obligations vs. warranty obligations, differences between “repair” and “replacement”, and timelines and warranty expiry dates. It will also address common issues  and misconceptions.

The Rise of the Super Firm and What This Means for Alberta Lawyers

What is a residential real estate super firm? This session will explore what they are, where they are currently operating, what their business model looks like, and what opportunities and threats these firms present to Alberta real estate lawyers.

“Controversial and Best Practices”

This session will address the most common real estate issues that Practice Advisors are consulted about. Learn approaches to effectively and ethically address those challenges.

Mortgages: Unusual Lenders and Unusual Instructions

This session will discuss the common (and not-so-common) challenges with non-standard lenders and with unusual mortgage instructions. Get practical tips for managing these files.

Cybersecurity for Law Firms

Many law firms (typically small and medium sized firms) know they should be doing something to protect themselves against the risk of a cybersecurity attack, but they don’t know where to start. This session will focus on important things a law firm can do to protect itself from a cybersecurity attack; cyber insurance, and what it does and does not cover; and a discussion on what a breach coach is and why a law firm should consider having one.

Dower in Real Estate

Dower is not complicated, and yet it can be a minefield if you get it wrong. Explore most everything a practicing real estate lawyer needs to know about dower. This session will discuss when the Dower Act applies (and does not apply), the number of homesteads a person can have, what a non-owing spouse gives up by signing a consent to disposition or release of dower rights, what to do if you cannot get consent for a disposition, release of dower rights, and practical considerations for a life estate given with dower rights.

“I Thought That Was Covered”: Conditions and Exceptions in Title Insurance Policies

As title insurance has become more commonplace, practitioners should be aware that the coverage provided is subject to certain conditions and exceptions. This session will dive into these important but often overlooked terms of the policy.

Rent-to-Owns: Pay You Thursday for a House Today

Occasionally real estate lawyers receive instructions to help parties put a rent-to-own transaction together. This session will explore such situations from the perspectives of sellers, buyers, and lenders and delve into potential pitfalls and factors that lawyers need to consider when acting for one of these parties. It will also provide practical options and examine best practices.

The Family Cabin: Intergenerational Transfers of Recreational Properties

Description coming soon.

A Discussion with AREA

In this session, AREA will walk through how form changes are proposed, reviewed, and approved—and share the reasoning behind some of the most recent updates. Topics will include: AREA Forms and Practice Committee Overview, AREA Provincial forms change process, recent changes to the AREA Residential Purchase Contract and recent changes to AREA Residential Resale Condominium Purchase Contract.

Navigating Collapsing Deals

Learn to navigate collapsing real estate deals. This session will discuss navigating a collapsing deal with a seller breach, navigating a collapsing deal with a buyer breach and assisting clients to collapse a deal when there are potential contractual outs.

___

Refresher conference registration does not include hotel accommodations. Please see the “Accommodations” tab for hotel information.