Hi,

We, Levy Zavet PC (the “Firm”), will be pleased to provide you with our services in connection with the purchase of your residential property.  This letter contains our standard terms of engagement for your review.  It also confirms our billing procedures, practice regarding potential conflicts and requests certain information we need from you our client in order to ensure an expedient and accurate transaction.

Services and Billing

Our legal fee generally ranges from $1,195.00 to $1,395.00 for this type of closing/transaction but does not include HST and your disbursements such as title insurance, government registration fees, Ontario and municipal land transfer taxes, where applicable.  The legal fee will be quoted to you by email sent from the lawyer or clerk on your file. The fee quote emailed to you will be deemed accepted upon us beginning any work on your transaction pursuant to this retainer.

The fee noted above is in respect of a standard, routine transaction that we typically encounter when completing a purchase of residential property with one to two single family dwelling units. In the event of complexities, which result in additional work or extra disbursements we shall advise you of the increase in costs.  In particular please note:

If the title to the property you are purchasing is defective and additional work is required in order to clear the title you will be charged for the extra time spent on the file.

In the event that your closing is advanced or postponed for any reason by mutual extension or otherwise, extension fees may apply.

Should you decide to withdraw your retainer prior to closing or your closing does not take place for any reason, you will be charged for all disbursements incurred and a reasonable fee for services rendered.

Please arrange for your mortgage instructions to be sent to us at least five (5) business days prior to your closing date to ensure that there are no complications to your closing due to delay in receiving mortgage funds.  A fee may apply if mortgage instructions are not received five business days prior to closing to accommodate for a rush closing.

We do not at this time ask for an initial retainer to start work as we will deduct all fees from the proceeds received on the day of closing. Due to circumstances beyond our control, on some occasions we are unable to estimate the balance of the funds owing until a day or two before closing and in this situation we would require your cooperation in delivering the funds to our office promptly upon request, by wire, certified cheque or banker’s draft, in any event at least one day before closing.

Our statement of account and trust ledger will be provided to you after closing outlining all your receipts and expenditures. A draft of same will be provided to you as soon as we have all the necessary information to complete it.

Unless otherwise agreed in advance, any services in addition to the purchase of your property will be charged at our usual hourly rates.  If required, we will be assisted in the performance of certain work by our other lawyers whose rates can be higher.

We will provide you with complete, accurate and fair monthly accounts for any work in addition to the purchase of your property.  We encourage you to promptly raise any questions or comments you have regarding any account.  In return, we ask for payment of our accounts within 7 days of receipt.

IF YOU ARE GETTING A MORTGAGE PLEASE MAKE SURE TO PROVIDE THE CONTACT INFO OF YOUR ASSIGNED LEVY ZAVET LAWYER, AS WE HAVE MANY AMAZING REAL ESTATE LAWYERS EACH HELPING ALL OUR CLIENTS

Tax Consequences

We will not be providing you with advice on tax issues related to the above mentioned transactions.  Please note that your proposed purchase may have tax consequences.  We encourage you to contact an accounting professional to obtain tax advice.

Title Insurance in Lieu of a Lawyer’s Opinion on Title

Title insurance is not mandatory although we strongly encourage that you obtain coverage as we will not be providing a title opinion.  Our firm’s policy is to not act on purchases that are not title insured unless agreed to prior to our retainer, and regardless we will not provide you with a title opinion. We will explain to you the various options available to protect your ownership interests and the advantages and disadvantages of protecting your interests through title insurance as compared to a lawyer’s opinion on title (which we will not provide). Please be advised that we may be paid an examining counsel fee by the insurer. For more information, please visit Understanding Title insurance | Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (fsrao.ca).

Building & Zoning Considerations

We do not review nor provide any advice or opinions on the building and zoning of your property, including current and future uses, construction or development or how other lawful authorities may influence your intended uses and future plans for the property. We encourage you to contact a surveyor, planner and/or architect to obtain any zoning and building advice.

Privacy

The Firm is subject to the Personal Information and Protection Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).  You understand that we will be collecting personal information, including your address, telephone number and e-mail.  We will use that information to communicate with third parties on your behalf and will use it to advise you of our services.  However, we can assure you that we will not share this information with anyone without your instructions and will not sell your personal information.

Email Communication:

We are always happy to communicate with you by e-mail.  We find that this saves time and we feel that the use of e-mail fits in with the way most companies and individuals conduct business nowadays. Although we employ electronic and physical protection measures which meet our industry and regulator’s standards, there is a risk of interception of information when communication is exchanged by emails. If you do not wish to use email communication with us, we will employ traditional communication measures (telephone, fax, mail) but additional charges may apply.  Regardless it is incumbent on you to protect any correspondence and communication received by us and we assume no liability in this regard.  You must let us know immediately if you no longer wish to continue to communicate through email.

We have performed a conflicts check of our other clients to see if representing you in this matter would create a conflict of interest.  To the best of our knowledge, there are no conflicts, but please let us know otherwise.

If a conflict arises, we will advise you as soon as we become aware of it and will attempt to resolve it in a manner acceptable to all parties.  If we cannot resolve the conflict, we may be required, under our Rules of Professional Conduct, to withdraw from representing you, the other party, or both, depending on the nature of the conflict.

If the Firm or any of its lawyers have been requested to act for each of you, or more than one party to this transaction, or more than one purchaser, borrower on the mortgage or guarantor, if applicable, in connection with the above-noted transaction (the “Transaction”):

1. The Firm has recommended that each of the said parties obtain Independent Legal Advice about jointly retaining the Firm or any of its lawyers in connection with the Transaction;
2. In acting for the said parties, no information received by the Firm or any of its lawyers from either party in connection with the Transaction can be treated as confidential insofar as the other parties are concerned;
3. If a conflict of interest should arise which cannot be reasonably resolved, arbitrated or settled, the Firm or any of its lawyers cannot continue to act for the undersigned, and in such case the Firm or any of its lawyers may have to withdraw completely from the Transaction, however you hereby confirm and agree that, and if allowed or granted in law, the Firm or any of its lawyers may choose to act for and represent any one or more of the parties herein to the extent granted and that you waive any such rights to otherwise object to same; and
4. The Firm or any of its lawyers may take instruction or communicate with any of the said parties in regards to the Transaction, without having to notify the other said parties.  For example, this is very common between spouses, where often only one of the spouses are providing us with instructions.

File Retention

After this Agreement and engagement (the “Retainer”) terminates or expires, we will close all files relating to the Retainer, Transaction or matter, in accordance with its File Retention and Destruction policy. The file will be stored off-site during this period and destroyed as soon as its Destruction policy allows. In the event that you instruct us to extract the file from off-site storage and reopen it, you will be required to pay an administrative fee over and above any legal fees in connection with the Retainer. This clause will survive the termination of this Agreement indefinitely.

The Retainer will terminate on the sooner of the closing date of the Transaction contemplated herein or as extended and the date in which the Transaction may be cancelled or fail to close, unless otherwise terminated by the parties hereto with notice by email or in writing.

Indemnification

You shall indemnify us, our Firm, our lawyers and employees harmless from any and all losses, costs, liabilities and expenses (including legal costs) in connection with:

1. A breach by you of this Agreement (including any third party legal proceedings arising out of that breach);
2. A claim against us, our Firm, our lawyers and employees from a third party arising out of us representation you pursuant to this Retainer.  Provided that the indemnity in this subparagraph will not apply if the third party claim is a direct result of a breach of this Agreement by us, our lawyers and employees or professional negligence on the part of us.

This paragraph will survive the termination or expiry of this Agreement.

Our Liability To You

We acknowledge that we have solicitor/client liabilities to you (such as possibly a duty of loyalty and duty of care), arising out of our services in this Retainer as contemplated in Section 22 of the Solicitor’s Act (Ontario).

You acknowledge and agree that we, our Firm, our lawyers and employees, are prepared to accept liability together in aggregate of up to $1,000,000.00 that being the maximum potential insurance claim under our lawyer’s basic errors and omissions insurance, with no exception and regardless of any excess insurance we may have, and that you will never claim for more in aggregate including all legal fees and disbursements.

Change in Representation

If you choose to change lawyers at any time, in consideration of our review of documents and agreements, and any other time spent on your file, the fees are deemed earned by the Firm and you will be responsible for the fees and disbursements.

*       *       *

If no objection is raised with the above terms within one (1) business day after you receive this retainer by reviewing it here on our website and sending us your Transaction details, or if emailed to you, or we proceed with your Transaction for any reason as instructed or provided by you or your agents, realtors, mortgage broker, family members, or advisors, you are deemed to have agreed to be bound by the above terms.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

 Thank you very much for choosing our firm to assist you in this matter.

Note: This message is not intended to be or replace any family law advice, wills or estates or otherwise opinions or advice from your legal counsel or anyone, however, if you are going through a divorce or separation, you should question and consider changing your power of attorney(s), will(s), beneficiary designations of any pensions, RRSPs, other registered accounts and investments, and to sever any joint tenancies on real estate properties, should any of the foregoing include a separating/divorcing spouse as a recipient (e.g. joint tenant or account holder). 

Hi

We, Levy Zavet PC (the “Firm”), will be pleased to provide you with our services in connection with the sale of your residential property.  This letter contains our standard terms of engagement for your review.  It also confirms our billing procedures, practice regarding potential conflicts and requests certain information we need from you our client in order to ensure an expedient and accurate transaction.

Services and Billing

Our legal fee is generally between $995.00 and $1,295.00 for these types of closings/transactions but does not include HST and your disbursements where applicable, which will be charged separately. The legal fee will be quoted to you by email sent from the lawyer or clerk on your file. The fee quote emailed to you will be deemed accepted upon us beginning any work on your transaction pursuant to this retainer.

The fee noted above is in respect of a standard, routine transaction that we typically encounter when completing a sale of residential property with one to two single family dwelling units. In the event of complexities, which result in additional work or extra disbursements we shall advise you of the increase in costs.  In particular please note:

If the title to the property you are selling is defective and additional work is required in order to clear the title you will be charged for the extra time spent on the file.

In the event that your closing is advanced or postponed for any reason by mutual extension or otherwise, extension fees may apply.

Should you decide to withdraw your retainer prior to closing or your closing does not take place for any reason, you will be charged for all disbursements incurred and a reasonable fee for services rendered.

We do not at this time ask for an initial retainer to start work as we will deduct all fees from the proceeds received on the day of closing. Due to circumstances beyond our control, on some occasions we are unable to estimate the balance of the funds owing until a day or two before closing and in this situation we would require your cooperation in delivering the funds to our office promptly upon request, by certified cheque or banker’s draft, in any event at least one day before closing.

Our statement of account and trust ledger will be provided to you after closing outlining all your receipts and expenditures. A draft of same will be provided to you as soon as we have all the necessary information to prepare it.

Unless otherwise agreed in advance, any services in addition to the sale of your property will be charged at our usual hourly rates.  If required, we will be assisted in the performance of certain work by our other lawyers whose rates can be higher.

We will provide you with complete, accurate and fair monthly accounts for any work in addition to the sale of your property.  We encourage you to promptly raise any questions or comments you have regarding any account.  In return, we ask for payment of our accounts within 7 days of receipt.

Tax Consequences

We will not be providing you with advice on tax issues related to the above mentioned transactions.  Please note that your proposed sale may have tax consequences.  We encourage you to contact an accounting professional to obtain tax advice.

Privacy

The Firm is subject to the Personal Information and Protection Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).  You understand that we will be collecting personal information, including your address, telephone number and e-mail.  We will use that information to communicate with third parties on your behalf and will use it to advise you of our services.  However, we can assure you that we will not share this information with anyone without your instructions and will not sell your personal information.

Email Communication:

With your approval, we are always happy to communicate with you by e-mail.  We find that this saves time and we feel that the use of e-mail fits in with the way most companies and individuals conduct business nowadays. Although we employ electronic and physical protection measures which meet our industry and regulator’s standards, there is a risk of interception of information when communication is exchanged by emails. If you do not wish to use email communication with us, we will employ traditional communication measures (telephone, fax, mail) but additional charges may apply.  Regardless it is incumbent on you to protect any correspondence and communication received by us and we assume no liability in this regard.  You must let us know immediately if you no longer wish to continue to communicate through email.

Conflicts

We have performed a conflicts check of our other clients to see if representing you in this matter would create a conflict of interest.  To the best of our knowledge, there are no conflicts, but please let us know otherwise.

If a conflict arises, we will advise you as soon as we become aware of it and will attempt to resolve it in a manner acceptable to all parties.  If we cannot resolve the conflict, we may be required, under our Rules of Professional Conduct, to withdraw from representing you, the other party, or both, depending on the nature of the conflict.

If the Firm or any of its lawyers have been requested to act for each of the parties that are involved in this transaction, or more than one seller, in connection with the above-noted transaction (the “Transaction”):

1. The Firm has recommended that each of the said parties obtain Independent Legal Advice about jointly retaining the Firm or any of its lawyers in connection with the Transaction;
2. In acting for the said parties, no information received by the Firm or any of its lawyers from either party in connection with the Transaction can be treated as confidential insofar as the other parties are concerned;
3. If a conflict of interest should arise which cannot be reasonably resolved, arbitrated or settled, the Firm or any of its lawyers cannot continue to act for the undersigned, and in such case the Firm or any of its lawyers may have to withdraw completely from the Transaction, however you hereby confirm and agree that, and if allowed or granted in law, the Firm or any of its lawyers may choose to act for and represent any one or more of the parties herein to the extent granted and that you waive any such rights to otherwise object to same; and
4. The Firm or any of its lawyers may take instruction or communicate with any of the said parties in regards to the Transaction, without having to notify the other said parties.  For example, this is very common between spouses, where often only one of the spouses are providing us with instructions.

File Retention

After this Agreement and engagement (the “Retainer”) terminates or expires, we will close all files relating to the Retainer, Transaction or matter, in accordance with its File Retention and Destruction policy. The file will be stored off-site during this period and destroyed as soon as its Destruction policy allows. In the event that you instruct us to extract the file from off-site storage and reopen it, you will be required to pay an administrative fee over and above any legal fees in connection with the Retainer. This clause will survive the termination of this Agreement indefinitely.

The Retainer will terminate on the sooner of the closing date of the Transaction contemplated herein or as extended and the date in which the Transaction may be cancelled or fail to close, unless otherwise terminated by the parties hereto with notice by email or in writing.

Indemnification

You shall indemnify us, our Firm, our lawyers and employees harmless from any and all losses, costs, liabilities and expenses (including legal costs) in connection with:

1. A breach by you of this Agreement (including any third party legal proceedings arising out of that breach);
2. A claim against us, our Firm, our lawyers and employees from a third party arising out of us representation you pursuant to this Retainer.  Provided, that the indemnity in this subparagraph will not apply if the third party claim is a direct result of a breach of this Agreement by us, our lawyers and employees or professional negligence on the part of us.

This paragraph will survive the termination or expiry of this Agreement.

Our Liability To You

We acknowledge that we have solicitor/client liabilities to you (such as possibly a duty of loyalty and duty of care), arising out of our services in this Retainer as contemplated in Section 22 of the Solicitor’s Act (Ontario).

You acknowledge and agree that we, our Firm, our lawyers and employees, are prepared to accept liability together in aggregate of up to $1,000,000.00 that being the maximum potential insurance claim under our lawyer’s basic errors and omissions insurance, with no exception and regardless of any excess insurance we may have, and that you will never claim for more in aggregate including all legal fees and disbursements.

Change in Representation

If you choose to change lawyers at any time, in consideration of our review of documents and agreements, and any other time spent on your file, the fees are deemed earned by the Firm and you will be responsible for the fees and disbursements.

*       *       *

If no objection is raised with the above terms within one (1) business day after you receive this retainer by reviewing it here on our website and sending us your Transaction details, or if emailed to you, or we proceed with your Transaction for any reason as instructed or provided by you or your agents, realtors, mortgage broker, family members, or advisors, you are deemed to have agreed to be bound by the above terms.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thank you very much for choosing our firm to assist you in this matter.

Note: This message is not intended to be or replace any family law advice, wills or estates or otherwise opinions or advice from your legal counsel or anyone, however, if you are going through a divorce or separation, you should question and consider changing your power of attorney(s), will(s), beneficiary designations of any pensions, RRSPs, other registered accounts and investments, and to sever any joint tenancies on real estate properties, should any of the foregoing include a separating/divorcing spouse as a recipient (e.g. joint tenant or account holder). 

Hi,

We, Levy Zavet PC (the “Firm”), will be pleased to provide you with our services in connection with the mortgage or refinance of your residential property.  This letter contains our standard terms of engagement for your review.  It also confirms our billing procedures, practice regarding potential conflicts and requests certain information we need from you our client in order to ensure an expedient and accurate transaction.

Services and Billing

Our legal fee is generally between $895.00 and $1,195.00 for this type of closing/transaction.  This does not include HST and your disbursements such as title insurance and government registration fees, where applicable. You will be charged separately for these. The legal fee will be quoted to you by email sent from the lawyer or clerk on your file. The fee quote emailed to you will be deemed accepted upon us beginning any work on your transaction pursuant to this retainer.

The fee noted above is in respect of a standard, routine transaction that we typically encounter when completing a mortgage refinance or new mortgage to be registered against one residential property. In the event of complexities, which result in additional work or extra disbursements we shall advise you of the increase in costs.  In particular please note:

If the title to the property you are Mortgaging or Refinancing is defective and additional work is required in order to clear the title you will be charged for the extra time spent on the file.

In the event that your closing is advanced or postponed for any reason by mutual extension or otherwise, extension fees may apply.

Should you decide to withdraw your retainer prior to closing or your closing does not take place for any reason, you will be charged for all disbursements incurred and a reasonable fee for services rendered.

Please arrange for your mortgage instructions to be sent to us at least five (5) business days prior to your closing date to ensure that there are no complications to your closing due to delay in receiving mortgage funds.  A fee may apply if mortgage instructions are not received five business days prior to closing to accommodate for a rush closing.

We do not at this time ask for an initial retainer to start work as we will deduct all fees from the proceeds received on the day of closing. Due to circumstances beyond our control, on some occasions we are unable to estimate the balance of the funds owing until a day or two before closing and in this situation we would require your co-operation in delivering the funds to our office promptly upon request, by wire, certified cheque or banker’s draft, in any event at least one day before closing.

Our statement of account and trust ledger will be provided to you after closing outlining all your receipts and expenditures. A draft of same will be provided as soon as we can prepare it, having all the information we need.

Unless otherwise agreed in advance, any services in addition to the Mortgage or Refinance of your property will be charged at our usual hourly rates.  If required, we will be assisted in the performance of certain work by our other lawyers whose rates can be higher or lower.

We will provide you with complete, accurate and fair monthly accounts for any work in addition to the Mortgage or Refinance of your property.  We encourage you to promptly raise any questions or comments you have regarding any account.  In return, we ask for payment of our accounts within 7 days of receipt.

WHEN GETTING YOUR MORTGAGE PLEASE MAKE SURE TO PROVIDE THE CONTACT INFO OF YOUR ASSIGNED LEVY ZAVET LAWYER, AS WE HAVE MANY AMAZING REAL ESTATE LAWYERS EACH HELPING ALL OUR CLIENTS

Tax Consequences

We will not be providing you with advice on tax issues related to the above mentioned transactions.  Please note that your proposed Mortgage or Refinance may have tax consequences.  We encourage you to contact an accounting professional to obtain tax advice.

Building & Zoning Considerations

We do not review nor provide any advice or opinions on the building and zoning of your property, including current and future uses, construction or development or how other lawful authorities may influence your intended uses and future plans for the property. We encourage you to contact a surveyor, planner and/or architect to obtain any zoning and building advice.

Title Insurance in Lieu of a Lawyer’s Opinion on Title

Title insurance is not mandatory although we strongly encourage that you obtain coverage as we will not be providing a title opinion.  Our firm’s policy is to not act on mortgages that are not title insured unless agreed to prior to our retainer, and regardless we will not provide you or your lender with a title opinion. We will explain to you the various options available to protect your ownership and the lender’s security interests and the advantages and disadvantages of protecting your interests and your lender’s interests through title insurance as compared to a lawyer’s opinion on title (which we will not provide). Please be advised that we may be paid an examining counsel fee by the insurer. For more information, please visit Understanding Title insurance | Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (fsrao.ca).

Privacy

The Firm is subject to the Personal Information and Protection Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).  By retaining us, you understand that we will be collecting personal information, including your address, telephone number and e-mail.  We will use that information to communicate with third parties on your behalf and will use it to advise you of our services.  However, we can assure you that we will not share this information with anyone without your instructions and will not sell your personal information.

Email Communication:

We are always happy to communicate with you by email.  We find that this saves time and we feel that the use of email fits in with the way most companies and individuals conduct business nowadays. Although we employ electronic and physical protection measures which meet our industry and regulator’s standards, there is a risk of interception of information when communication is exchanged by emails. If you do not wish to use email communication with us, we will employ traditional communication measures (telephone, fax, mail) but additional charges may apply.  Regardless it is incumbent on you to protect any correspondence and communication received by us and we assume no liability in this regard.  You must let us know immediately if you no longer wish to continue to communicate through email.

We have performed a conflicts check of our other clients to see if representing you in this matter would create a conflict of interest.  To the best of our knowledge, there are no conflicts.  But please let us know otherwise.

If a conflict arises, we will advise you as soon as we become aware of it and will attempt to resolve it in a manner acceptable to all parties.  If we cannot resolve the conflict, we may be required, under our Rules of Professional Conduct, to withdraw from representing you, the other party, or both, depending on the nature of the conflict.

If the Firm or any of its lawyers have been requested to act for your, which may mean more than one party, or more than one owner, borrower or guarantor, in connection with the above-noted transaction (the “Transaction”):

1. The Firm has recommended that each of the said parties obtain Independent Legal Advice about jointly retaining the Firm or any of its lawyers in connection with the Transaction.
2. In acting for the said parties, no information received by the Firm or any of its lawyers from either party in connection with the Transaction can be treated as confidential insofar as the other parties are concerned;
3. If a conflict of interest should arise which cannot be reasonably resolved, arbitrated or settled, the Firm or any of its lawyers cannot continue to act for the undersigned, and in such case the Firm or any of its lawyers may have to withdraw completely from the Transaction, however you hereby confirm and agree that, and if allowed or granted in law, the Firm or any of its lawyers may choose to act for and represent any one or more of the parties herein to the extent granted and that you waive any such rights to otherwise object to same; and
4. The Firm or any of its lawyers may take instruction or communicate with any of the said parties in regards to the Transaction, without having to notify the other said parties.  For example, this is very common between spouses, where often only one of the spouses are providing us with instructions.

File Retention

After this Agreement and engagement (the “Retainer”) terminates or expires, we will close all files relating to the Retainer, Transaction or matter, in accordance with its File Retention and Destruction policy. The file will be stored off-site during this period and destroyed as soon as its Destruction policy allows. In the event that you instruct us to extract the file from off-site storage and reopen it, you will be required to pay an administrative fee over and above any legal fees in connection with the Retainer. This clause will survive the termination of this Agreement indefinitely.

The Retainer will terminate on the sooner of the closing date of the Transaction contemplated herein or as extended and the date in which the Transaction may be cancelled or fail to close, unless otherwise terminated by the parties hereto with notice by email or in writing.

Indemnification

You shall indemnify us, our Firm, our lawyers and employees harmless from any and all losses, costs, liabilities and expenses (including legal costs) in connection with:

1. A breach by you of this Agreement (including any third party legal proceedings arising out of that breach);
2. A claim against us, our Firm, our lawyers and employees from a third party arising out of us representation you pursuant to this Retainer.  Provided, that the indemnity in this subparagraph will not apply if the third party claim is a direct result of a breach of this Agreement by us, our lawyers and employees or professional negligence on the part of us.

This paragraph will survive the termination or expiry of this Agreement.

Our Liability To You

We acknowledge that we have solicitor/client liabilities to you (such as possibly a duty of loyalty and duty of care), arising out of our services in this Retainer as contemplated in Section 22 of the Solicitor’s Act (Ontario).

You acknowledge and agree that we, our Firm, our lawyers and employees, are prepared to accept liability together in aggregate of up to $1,000,000.00 that being the maximum potential insurance claim under our lawyer’s basic errors and omissions insurance, with no exception and regardless of any excess insurance we may have, and that you will never claim for more in aggregate including all legal fees and disbursements.

Change in Representation

If you choose to change lawyers at any time, in consideration of our review of documents and agreements, and any other time spent on your file, the fees are deemed earned by the Firm and you will be responsible for the fees and disbursements.

*       *       *

If no objection is raised with the above terms within one (1) business day after you receive this retainer by reviewing it here on our website and sending us your Transaction details, or if emailed to you, or we proceed with your Transaction for any reason as instructed or provided by you or your agents, realtors, mortgage broker, family members, or advisors, you are deemed to have agreed to be bound by the above terms.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thank you very much for choosing our firm to assist you in this matter.

Note: This message is not intended to be or replace any family law advice, wills or estates or otherwise opinions or advice from your legal counsel or anyone, however, if you are going through a divorce or separation, you should question and consider changing your power of attorney(s), will(s), beneficiary designations of any pensions, RRSPs, other registered accounts and investments, and to sever any joint tenancies on real estate properties, should any of the foregoing include a separating/divorcing spouse as a recipient (e.g. joint tenant or account holder). 

Hi,

We, Levy Zavet PC (the “Firm”), will be pleased to provide you with our services in connection with the registration of your Private Mortgage Loan Security against the real estate property of the borrower and as against the borrower and guarantors, if applicable in your mortgage commitment (the “Transaction”).  This letter contains our standard terms of engagement for your review.  It also confirms our billing procedures, practice regarding potential conflicts and requests certain information we need from you our client in order to ensure an expedient and accurate transaction.  We acknowledge that in most cases the borrower pays the lender’s legal fees and disbursements in closing such transactions, but ultimately the obligation falls on the lender.  Furthermore, you acknowledge and agree that at our discretion we may also act for the borrower in accordance with the Law Society of Ontario’s Rules of Professional Conduct, rules 3.4-12 and 3.4-14 (i.e. exception sub-rule (c.1), where the consideration for the mortgage or loan does not exceed $75,000 ).

Services and Billing

Our legal fee is generally between $1,195.00 and $1,395.00 for this type of Transaction.  This does not include HST and your disbursements, where applicable. You will be charged separately for these.   The legal fee will be quoted to you by email sent from the lawyer or clerk on your file. The fee quote emailed to you will be deemed accepted upon us beginning any work on your Transaction, or reviewing your documents or instructions, and as pursuant to this retainer.

The fee noted above is in respect of a standard, routine transaction that we typically encounter when completing the registration of the security required for a private mortgage loan against one residential property and borrower (including spouses). In the event of complexities, which result in additional work or extra disbursements we shall advise you of the increase in costs.  In particular please note:

If the title to the property you are securinig against is defective and additional work is required in order to clear the title you will be charged for the extra time spent on the file.

In the event that your closing is advanced or postponed for any reason by mutual extension or otherwise, extension fees may apply.

Should you decide to withdraw your retainer prior to closing or your closing does not take place for any reason, you will be charged for all disbursements incurred and a reasonable fee for services rendered.

Please arrange for the signed mortgage commitment and instructions to be sent to us at least five (5) business days prior to the closing date to ensure that there are no complications to the closing due to delays in receiving instructions and mortgage funds.  A fee may apply if the signed mortgage commitment and instructions are not received five business days prior to closing to accommodate for a rush closing.

We do not at this time ask for an initial retainer to start work as we will deduct all fees from the proceeds received on the day of closing. Due to circumstances beyond our control, on some occasions we are unable to estimate the balance of the funds owing until a day or two before closing and in this situation we would require your co-operation in delivering the funds to our office promptly upon request, by wire or certified cheque, in any event at least one day before closing.

Our statement of account and trust ledger will be provided to you after closing outlining all your receipts and expenditures. A draft of same will be provided as soon as we can prepare it, having all the information we need.

Unless otherwise agreed in advance, any services in addition to the Transaction will be charged at our usual hourly rates.  If required, we will be assisted in the performance of certain work by our other lawyers whose rates can be higher or lower.

We will provide you with complete, accurate and fair monthly accounts for any work in addition to the Transaction, if any.  We encourage you to promptly raise any questions or comments you have regarding any account.  In return, we ask for payment of our accounts within 7 days of receipt.

WHEN GETTING US MORTGAGE INSTRUCTIONS PLEASE MAKE SURE TO IDENTIFY THE ASSIGNED LEVY ZAVET LAWYER, AS WE HAVE MANY AMAZING REAL ESTATE LAWYERS EACH HELPING ALL OUR CLIENTS

Tax Consequences

We will not be providing you with advice on tax issues related to the above mentioned transactions.  Please note that your proposed Transaction may have tax consequences.  We encourage you to contact an accounting professional to obtain tax advice.

Building & Zoning Considerations

We do not review nor provide any advice or opinions on the building and zoning of the subject real estate properties, including current and future uses, construction or development or how other lawful authorities may influence the intended uses and future plans for the properties. We encourage you to contact a surveyor, planner and/or architect to obtain any zoning and building advice.

Title Insurance in Lieu of a Lawyer’s Opinion on Title

Title insurance is not mandatory although we strongly encourage that coverage is obtained for this Transaction, as we will not be providing a title opinion.  Regardless of your choice or the borrower’s choice, we will not provide you, the borrower or any other lender with a title opinion. We will explain to you the various options available to protect your mortgage security and any other lender’s security interests and the advantages and disadvantages of protecting your interests through title insurance as compared to a lawyer’s opinion on title (which we will not provide). Please be advised that we may be paid an examining counsel fee by the insurer. For more information, please visit Understanding Title insurance | Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (fsrao.ca).

Privacy

The Firm is subject to the Personal Information and Protection Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).  By retaining us, you understand that we will be collecting personal information, including your address, telephone number and e-mail.  We will use that information to communicate with third parties on your behalf and will use it to advise you of our services.  However, we can assure you that we will not share this information with anyone without your instructions and will not sell your personal information.

Email Communication:

We are always happy to communicate with you by email.  We find that this saves time and we feel that the use of email fits in with the way most companies and individuals conduct business nowadays. Although we employ electronic and physical protection measures which meet our industry and regulator’s standards, there is a risk of interception of information when communication is exchanged by emails. If you do not wish to use email communication with us, we will employ traditional communication measures (telephone, fax, mail) but additional charges may apply.  Regardless it is incumbent on you to protect any correspondence and communication received by us and we assume no liability in this regard.  You must let us know immediately if you no longer wish to continue to communicate through email.

We have performed a conflicts check of our other clients to see if representing you in this matter would create a conflict of interest.  To the best of our knowledge, there are no conflicts.  But please let us know otherwise.

If a conflict arises, we will advise you as soon as we become aware of it and will attempt to resolve it in a manner acceptable to all parties.  If we cannot resolve the conflict, we may be required, under our Rules of Professional Conduct, to withdraw from representing you, the other party, or both, depending on the nature of the conflict.

If the Firm or any of its lawyers have been requested to act for you, which may mean more than one party, or more than one owner, lawyer, borrower or guarantor, in connection with the above-noted transaction (the “Transaction”):

1. The Firm has recommended that each of the said parties obtain Independent Legal Advice about jointly retaining the Firm or any of its lawyers in connection with the Transaction.
2. In acting for the said parties, no information received by the Firm or any of its lawyers from either party in connection with the Transaction can be treated as confidential insofar as the other parties are concerned;
3. If a conflict of interest should arise which cannot be reasonably resolved, arbitrated or settled, the Firm or any of its lawyers cannot continue to act for the undersigned, and in such case the Firm or any of its lawyers may have to withdraw completely from the Transaction, however you hereby confirm and agree that, and if allowed or granted in law, the Firm or any of its lawyers may choose to act for and represent any one or more of the parties herein to the extent granted and that you waive any such rights to otherwise object to same; and
4. The Firm or any of its lawyers may take instruction or communicate with any of the said parties in regards to the Transaction, without having to notify the other said parties.  For example, this is very common between co-lenders, co-borrowers, co-guarantors and spouses, where often only one of the parties are providing us with instructions.

File Retention

After this Agreement and engagement (the “Retainer”) terminates or expires, we will close all files relating to the Retainer, Transaction or matter, in accordance with its File Retention and Destruction policy. The file will be stored off-site during this period and destroyed as soon as its Destruction policy allows. In the event that you instruct us to extract the file from off-site storage and reopen it, you will be required to pay an administrative fee over and above any legal fees in connection with the Retainer. This clause will survive the termination of this Agreement indefinitely.

The Retainer will terminate on the sooner of the closing date of the Transaction contemplated herein or as extended and the date in which the Transaction may be cancelled or fail to close, unless otherwise terminated by the parties hereto with notice by email or in writing.

Indemnification

You shall indemnify us, our Firm, our lawyers and employees harmless from any and all losses, costs, liabilities and expenses (including legal costs) in connection with:

1. A breach by you of this Agreement (including any third party legal proceedings arising out of that breach);
2. A claim against us, our Firm, our lawyers and employees from a third party arising out of us representation you pursuant to this Retainer.  Provided, that the indemnity in this subparagraph will not apply if the third party claim is a direct result of a breach of this Agreement solely by us, our lawyers and employees or professional negligence solely on the part of us.

This paragraph will survive the termination or expiry of this Agreement.

Our Liability To You

We acknowledge that we have solicitor/client liabilities to you (such as possibly a duty of loyalty and duty of care), arising out of our services in this Retainer as contemplated in Section 22 of the Solicitor’s Act (Ontario).

You acknowledge and agree that we, our Firm, our lawyers and employees, are prepared to accept liability together in aggregate of up to $1,000,000.00 that being the maximum potential insurance claim under our lawyer’s basic errors and omissions insurance, with no exception and regardless of any excess insurance we may have, and that you will never claim for more in aggregate including all legal fees and disbursements.

Change in Representation

If you choose to change lawyers at any time, in consideration of our review of documents and agreements and any other time spent on your file, the fees herein are deemed earned by the Firm and you will be responsible for the fees and disbursements.

*       *       *

If no objection is raised with the above terms within one (1) business day after you receive this retainer by reviewing it here on our website and sending us your Transaction details, or if emailed to you, or we proceed with your Transaction for any reason as instructed or provided by you or your agents, realtors, mortgage broker, family members, or advisors, you are deemed to have agreed to be bound by the above terms.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thank you very much for choosing our firm to assist you in this matter.

Note: This message is not intended to be or replace any family law advice, wills or estates or otherwise opinions or advice from your legal counsel or anyone, however, if you are going through a divorce or separation, you should question and consider changing your power of attorney(s), will(s), beneficiary designations of any pensions, RRSPs, other registered accounts and investments, and to sever any joint tenancies on real estate properties, should any of the foregoing include a separating/divorcing spouse as a recipient (e.g. joint tenant or account holder). 

When purchasing a new condo, be-it in an apartment style building or townhouse, for example (or in some cases freehold housing), there is a period of time between the day you take possession of your unit and when you take ownership. This is known as interim occupancy.

Once your unit is ready and liveable and the Municipality or City grants the builder permission, you will be able to occupy or take possession of your unit. Although you will be required to live in your unit you will not actually own it yet. Also during this period the building may not be entirely finished.

Prior to your Occupancy date the builder will ask that you complete your Pre-Delivery Inspection, also known as your PDI.  During this appointment you will survey your new property and take note of any deficiencies and repairs for the builder to complete later.  These deficiencies are recorded with Tarion (your home warranty program), if applicable (for residential only), and you will receive a certificate that day to hold on to, and to provide a copy of to your mortgage lender and us.

Hi,

We, Levy Zavet PC (the “Firm”), will be pleased to provide you with our services in connection with the title transfer of your property.  This letter contains our standard terms of engagement for your review.  It also confirms our billing procedures, practice regarding potential conflicts and requests certain information we need from you our client in order to ensure an expedient and accurate transaction.

Services and Billing

Our legal fee generally ranges from $695.00 to $895.00 for this type of transaction but does not include HST and your disbursements such as government registration fees, or Ontario and municipal land transfer taxes, where applicable.  The legal fee will be quoted to you by email sent from the lawyer or clerk on your file. The fee quote emailed to you will be deemed accepted upon us beginning any work on your title transfer, or on reviewing your documents or instructions, and as pursuant to this retainer.

The fee noted above is in respect of a standard, routine transaction that we typically encounter when completing a title transfer of real estate property. In the event of complexities, which result in additional work or extra disbursements we shall advise you of the increase in costs.  In particular please note:

If the title to your property is defective and additional work is required in order to clear the title you will be charged for the extra time spent on the file.

In the event that you delay the scheduled dates of completion.

Should you decide to withdraw your retainer prior to completion or it does not take place for any reason, you will be charged for all disbursements incurred and a reasonable fee for services rendered.

We may not at this time ask for an initial retainer to start work but will require payment in full prior to completion.

Our statement of account and trust ledger will be provided to you after completion outlining all your receipts and expenditures. A draft of same will be provided to you as soon as we have all the necessary information to complete it.

Unless otherwise agreed in advance, any services in addition to the title transfer of your property will be charged at our usual hourly rates.  If required, we will be assisted in the performance of certain work by our other lawyers whose rates can be higher.

We will provide you with complete, accurate and fair monthly accounts for any work in addition to the title transfer of your property.  We encourage you to promptly raise any questions or comments you have regarding any account.  In return, we ask for payment of our accounts within 7 days of receipt.

Tax Consequences

We will not be providing you with advice on tax issues, including income taxes and land transfer taxes, related to the above mentioned transactions.  Please note that your proposed title transfer may have tax consequences.  We encourage you to contact an accounting professional to obtain tax advice.

Building & Zoning Considerations

We do not review nor provide any advice or opinions on the building and zoning of your property, including current and future uses, construction or development or how other lawful authorities may influence your intended uses and future plans for the property. We encourage you to contact a surveyor, planner and/or architect to obtain any zoning and building advice.

Title Insurance in Lieu of a Lawyer’s Opinion on Title

Title insurance is not mandatory although we strongly encourage that you obtain coverage as we will not be providing a title opinion.  Regardless of your choice we will not provide you with a title opinion. We will explain to you the various options available to protect your ownership interests and the advantages and disadvantages of protecting your interests through title insurance as compared to a lawyer’s opinion on title (which we will not provide). Please be advised that we may be paid an examining counsel fee by the insurer. For more information, please visit Understanding Title insurance | Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (fsrao.ca).

Privacy

The Firm is subject to the Personal Information and Protection Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).  You understand that we will be collecting personal information, including your address, telephone number and e-mail.  We will use that information to communicate with third parties on your behalf and will use it to advise you of our services.  However, we can assure you that we will not share this information with anyone without your instructions and will not sell your personal information.

Email Communication:

We are always happy to communicate with you by e-mail.  We find that this saves time and we feel that the use of e-mail fits in with the way most companies and individuals conduct business nowadays. Although we employ electronic and physical protection measures which meet our industry and regulator’s standards, there is a risk of interception of information when communication is exchanged by emails. If you do not wish to use email communication with us, we will employ traditional communication measures (telephone, fax, mail) but additional charges may apply.  Regardless it is incumbent on you to protect any correspondence and communication received by us and we assume no liability in this regard.  You must let us know immediately if you no longer wish to continue to communicate through email.

We have performed a conflicts check of our other clients to see if representing you in this matter would create a conflict of interest.  To the best of our knowledge, there are no conflicts, but please let us know otherwise.

If a conflict arises, we will advise you as soon as we become aware of it and will attempt to resolve it in a manner acceptable to all parties.  If we cannot resolve the conflict, we may be required, under our Rules of Professional Conduct, to withdraw from representing you, the other party, or both, depending on the nature of the conflict.

If the Firm or any of its lawyers have been requested to act for each of you, or more than one party to this transaction, or more than one owner, transferee or transferor, if applicable, in connection with the above-noted transaction (the “Transaction”):

1. The Firm has recommended that each of the said parties obtain Independent Legal Advice about jointly retaining the Firm or any of its lawyers in connection with the Transaction;
2. In acting for the said parties, no information received by the Firm or any of its lawyers from either party in connection with the Transaction can be treated as confidential insofar as the other parties are concerned;
3. If a conflict of interest should arise which cannot be reasonably resolved, arbitrated or settled, the Firm or any of its lawyers cannot continue to act for the undersigned, and in such case the Firm or any of its lawyers may have to withdraw completely from the Transaction, however you hereby confirm and agree that, and if allowed or granted in law, the Firm or any of its lawyers may choose to act for and represent any one or more of the parties herein to the extent granted and that you waive any such rights to otherwise object to same; and
4. The Firm or any of its lawyers may take instruction or communicate with any of the said parties in regards to the Transaction, without having to notify the other said parties.  For example, this is very common between spouses, where often only one of the spouses are providing us with instructions.

File Retention

After this Agreement and engagement (the “Retainer”) terminates or expires, we will close all files relating to the Retainer, Transaction or matter, in accordance with its File Retention and Destruction policy. The file will be stored off-site during this period and destroyed as soon as its Destruction policy allows. In the event that you instruct us to extract the file from off-site storage and reopen it, you will be required to pay an administrative fee over and above any legal fees in connection with the Retainer. This clause will survive the termination of this Agreement indefinitely.

The Retainer will terminate on the sooner of the completion date of the Transaction contemplated herein or as extended and the date in which the Transaction may be cancelled or fail to close, unless otherwise terminated by the parties hereto with notice by email or in writing.

Indemnification

You shall indemnify us, our Firm, our lawyers and employees harmless from any and all losses, costs, liabilities and expenses (including legal costs) in connection with:

1. A breach by you of this Agreement (including any third party legal proceedings arising out of that breach);
2. A claim against us, our Firm, our lawyers and employees from a third party arising out of us representation you pursuant to this Retainer.  Provided that the indemnity in this subparagraph will not apply if the third party claim is a direct result of a breach of this Agreement by us, our lawyers and employees or professional negligence on the part of us.

This paragraph will survive the termination or expiry of this Agreement.

Our Liability To You

We acknowledge that we have solicitor/client liabilities to you (such as possibly a duty of loyalty and duty of care), arising out of our services in this Retainer as contemplated in Section 22 of the Solicitor’s Act (Ontario).

You acknowledge and agree that we, our Firm, our lawyers and employees, are prepared to accept liability together in aggregate of up to $1,000,000.00 that being the maximum potential insurance claim under our lawyer’s basic errors and omissions insurance, with no exception and regardless of any excess insurance we may have, and that you will never claim for more in aggregate including all legal fees and disbursements.

Change in Representation

If you choose to change lawyers at any time, in consideration of our review of documents and agreements, and any other time spent on your file, the fees are deemed earned by the Firm and you will be responsible for the fees and disbursements.

*       *       *

If no objection is raised with the above terms within one (1) business day after you receive this retainer by reviewing it here on our website and sending us your Transaction details, or if emailed to you, or we proceed with your Transaction for any reason as instructed or provided by you or your agents, realtors, mortgage broker, family members, or advisors, you are deemed to have agreed to be bound by the above terms.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

 Thank you very much for choosing our firm to assist you in this matter.

Note: This message is not intended to be or replace any family law advice, wills or estates or otherwise opinions or advice from your legal counsel or anyone, however, if you are going through a divorce or separation, you should question and consider changing your power of attorney(s), will(s), beneficiary designations of any pensions, RRSPs, other registered accounts and investments, and to sever any joint tenancies on real estate properties, should any of the foregoing include a separating/divorcing spouse as a recipient (e.g. joint tenant or account holder). 

Hi,

We, Levy Zavet PC (the “Firm”), will be pleased to provide you with our services in connection with drafting your wills and/or power of attorneys as instructed by you when completing and returning any of our information forms or by you providing the details in an email.  This letter (also known as the “Retainer”) contains our standard terms of engagement for your review and approval.  It also confirms our billing procedures, practice regarding potential conflicts and requests certain information we need from you our client in order to ensure an expedient and accurate transaction.

Services and Billing

Our fee is normally $595.00 to $795.00 and includes the following:

Legal fees for acting in drafting your:

• Will (if a Secondary Will is required the fee will increase by $195.00, we will advise once we review your information form)
• Power of Attorney for Personal Care
• Power of Attorney for Property
• If you require a reciprocal mirrored package includes the selections above for both Spouses the fee will increase by $500.00.

The package does not include HST, disbursements, where applicable. You will be charged separately for these. The legal fee will be quoted to you by email sent from the lawyer or clerk on your file. The fee quote emailed to you will be deemed accepted upon us beginning any work on your wills or POAs and pursuant to this retainer, including reviewing any of your documents or emails.

The fee noted above is in respect of drafting the said documents using our standard forms of precedence, no estate or tax planning advise or opinions are provided or advised on. In the event of complexities, which result in additional work or extra disbursements we shall advise you of the increase in costs.

Should you decide to withdraw your retainer after we begin drafting any of the documents, you will be charged for all disbursements incurred and a reasonable fee for services rendered.

We may not at this time ask for an initial retainer to start work but will ask for full payment upon execution of the above documents.

Our statement of account and trust ledger will be provided to you after closing, which is when you sign and execute the above documents drafted, outlining all your receipts and expenditures.

Unless otherwise agreed in advance, any services in addition the above, will be charged at our usual hourly rates.  If required, we will be assisted in the performance of certain work by our other lawyers whose rates can be higher.

We will provide you with complete, accurate and fair monthly accounts for any work that is in addition but is within the scope of this Retainer.  We encourage you to promptly raise any questions or comments you have regarding any account.  In return, we ask for payment of our accounts upon receipt.

Tax Consequences

We will not be providing you with advice on tax issues related to the above mentioned transactions and drafting of documents.  Please note that your proposed bequests and wills may have tax consequences.  We encourage you to contact an accounting professional to obtain tax advice.

Privacy

The Firm is subject to the Personal Information and Protection Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).  By signing this retainer, you understand that we will be collecting personal information, including your address, telephone number and e-mail.  We will use that information to communicate with third parties on your behalf and will use it to advise you of our services.  However, we can assure you that we will not share this information with anyone without your instructions and will not sell your personal information.

Email Communication:

We are always happy to communicate with you by e-mail.  We find that this saves time and we feel that the use of e-mail fits in with the way most companies and individuals conduct business nowadays. Although we employ electronic and physical protection measures which meet our industry and regulator’s standards, there is a risk of interception of information when communication is exchanged by emails. If you do not wish to use email communication with us, we will employ traditional communication measures (telephone, fax, mail) but additional charges may apply.  Regardless it is incumbent on you to protect any correspondence and communication received by us and we assume no liability in this regard.

Conflicts

We have performed a conflicts check of our other clients to see if representing you in this matter would create a conflict of interest.  To the best of our knowledge, there are no conflicts.

If a conflict arises, we will advise you as soon as we become aware of it and will attempt to resolve it in a manner acceptable to all parties.  If we cannot resolve the conflict, we may be required, under our Rules of Professional Conduct, to withdraw from representing you, the other party, or both, depending on the nature of the conflict.

If the Firm or any of its lawyers have been requested to act for each of  you or otherwise named parties above, or more than one testator, in connection with the above-noted transaction and drafting of documents (the “Transaction”):

1. The Firm has recommended that each of the said parties obtain Independent Legal Advice about jointly retaining the Firm or any of its lawyers in connection with the Transaction;
2. In acting for the said parties, no information received by the Firm or any of its lawyers from either party in connection with the Transaction can be treated as confidential insofar as the other parties are concerned;
3. If a conflict of interest should arise which cannot be reasonably resolved, arbitrated or settled, the Firm or any of its lawyers cannot continue to act for certain parties as decided by the Firm or any of its lawyers, and in such case the Firm or any of its lawyers may have to withdraw completely from this retainer, however you hereby confirm and agree that, and if allowed or granted in law, the Firm or any of its lawyers may choose to act for and represent any one or more of the parties herein to the extent granted and that you waive any such rights to otherwise object to same; and
4. The Firm or any of its lawyers may take instruction or communicate with any of the said parties in regards to this retainer, without having to notify the other said parties.  For example, this is very common between spouses, where often only one of the spouses are providing us with instructions.

File Retention

After this Agreement and engagement (the “Retainer”) terminates or expires, we will close all files relating to the Retainer, Transaction or matter, in accordance with its File Retention and Destruction policy. The file will be stored off-site during this period and destroyed as soon as its Destruction policy allows. In the event that you instruct us to extract the file from off-site storage and reopen it, you will be required to pay an administrative fee over and above any legal fees in connection with the Retainer. This clause will survive the termination of this Agreement indefinitely.

The Retainer will terminate on the sooner of the signing date of the documents contemplated herein, or if cancelled or if you fail to execute, unless otherwise terminated by the parties hereto with notice by email or in writing.

Indemnification

You shall indemnify us, our Firm, our lawyers and employees harmless from any and all losses, costs, liabilities and expenses (including legal costs) in connection with:

1. A breach by you of this Agreement (including any third party legal proceedings arising out of that breach);
2. A claim against us, our Firm, our lawyers and employees from a third party arising out of us representation you pursuant to this Retainer.  Provided, that the indemnity in this subparagraph will not apply if the third party claim is a direct result of a breach of this Agreement by us, our lawyers and employees or professional negligence on the part of us.

This paragraph will survive the termination or expiry of this Agreement.

Our Liability To You

We acknowledge that we have solicitor/client liabilities to you (such as possibly a duty of loyalty and duty of care), arising out of our services in this Retainer as contemplated in Section 22 of the Solicitor’s Act (Ontario).

You acknowledge and agree that we, our Firm, our lawyers and employees, are prepared to accept liability together in aggregate of up to $1,000,000.00 that being the maximum potential insurance claim under our lawyer’s basic errors and omissions insurance, with no exception and regardless of any excess insurance we may have, and that you will never claim for more in aggregate including all legal fees and disbursements.

Change in Representation

If you choose to change lawyers at any time, in consideration of our review of documents and agreements, and any other time spent on your file, the fees are deemed earned by the Firm and you will be responsible for the fees and disbursements.

*       *       *

If no objection is raised with the above terms within one (1) business day after you receive this retainer by reviewing it here on our website and sending us your details to draft a will or POA, or if emailed to you, or we proceed with your will or POA drafting requirements for any reason as instructed or provided by you or your agents, advisors, family members, you are deemed to have agreed to be bound by the above terms.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thank you very much for choosing our firm to assist you in this matter.

Note: This message is not intended to be or replace any family law advice, wills or estates or otherwise opinions or advice from your legal counsel or anyone, however, if you are going through a divorce or separation, you should question and consider changing your power of attorney(s), will(s), beneficiary designations of any pensions, RRSPs, other registered accounts and investments, and to sever any joint tenancies on real estate properties, should any of the foregoing include a separating/divorcing spouse as a recipient (e.g. joint tenant or account holder). 

Hi,

Levy Zavet PC (the “Firm”), will be pleased to provide you with our services in connection with incorporating your business.  This letter (also known as the “Retainer”) contains our standard terms of engagement.  It also confirms our billing procedures, practice regarding potential conflicts and requests certain information we need from you our client in order to ensure an expedient and accurate transaction.

Services and Billing

Our legal fees to incorporate an Ontario provincial or Canadian federal corporation ranges between $1,195.00 to $1,295.00 and includes the following:

1. Legal fees for acting in drafting your:

• Ontario Articles of Incorporation, or
• Federal Articles of Incorporation
• Name Search
• Minute Book
• Incorporation resolutions, minutes, ledgers, registers and share certificates

The package does not include HST, disbursements other than the cost of the filing fee for incorporating, the cost of the minute book and the cost of the name search, where applicable. You will be charged separately for these other disbursements. The legal fee will be quoted to you by email sent from the lawyer or clerk on your file. The fee quote emailed to you will be deemed accepted upon us beginning any work on your incorporation or corporation, including reviewing any of your documents or emails, and as pursuant to this retainer.

The fee noted above is in respect of an incorporation involving our standard suggested forms of share structure and additional provisions, no business, partnership or tax planning advice or opinions are provided or advised on. In the event of complexities, which result in additional work or extra disbursements we shall advise you of the increase in costs.

Should you decide to withdraw your retainer after we begin drafting or filing any of the documents, you will be charged for all disbursements incurred and a reasonable fee for services rendered.

We may not at this time ask for an initial retainer to start work but will ask for full payment upon execution or filing or ordering of the above documents.

Our statement of account and trust ledger will be provided to you after closing, which is when you sign and execute the above documents drafted, outlining all your receipts and expenditures.

Unless otherwise agreed in advance, any services in addition the above, will be charged at our usual hourly rates.  If required, we will be assisted in the performance of certain work by our other lawyers whose rates can be higher.

We will provide you with complete, accurate and fair monthly accounts for any work that is in addition but is within the scope of this Retainer.  We encourage you to promptly raise any questions or comments you have regarding any account.  In return, we ask for payment of our accounts upon receipt.

Tax Consequences

We will not be providing you with advice on tax issues related to the above mentioned transaction, filing and drafting of documents.  Please note that your proposed business may have unique tax consequences.  We encourage you to contact an accounting professional to obtain tax advice to the extent that you need it.

Privacy

The Firm is subject to the Personal Information and Protection Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).  You understand that we will be collecting personal information, including your address, telephone number and e-mail.  We will use that information to communicate with third parties on your behalf and will use it to advise you of our services.  However, we can assure you that we will not share this information with anyone without your instructions and will not sell your personal information.

Email Communication:

We are always happy to communicate with you by email.  We find that this saves time and we feel that the use of email fits in with the way most companies and individuals conduct business nowadays. Although we employ electronic and physical protection measures which meet our industry and regulator’s standards, there is a risk of interception of information when communication is exchanged by emails. If you do not wish to use email communication with us, we will employ traditional communication measures (telephone, fax, mail) but additional charges may apply.  Regardless it is incumbent on you to protect any correspondence and communication received by us and we assume no liability in this regard.

We have performed a conflicts check of our other clients to see if representing you in this matter would create a conflict of interest.  To the best of our knowledge, there are no conflicts (but please let us know otherwise).

If a conflict arises, we will advise you as soon as we become aware of it and will attempt to resolve it in a manner acceptable to all parties.  If we cannot resolve the conflict, we may be required, under our Rules of Professional Conduct, to withdraw from representing you, the other party, or both, depending on the nature of the conflict.

If the Firm or any of its lawyers have been requested to act for each of the parties involved herein or named parties above, or more than one incorporator, shareholder, director or officer, in connection with the above-noted incorporation and drafting of documents (the “Transaction”):

1. The Firm has recommended that each of the said parties obtain Independent Legal Advice about jointly retaining the Firm or any of its lawyers in connection with the Transaction;
2. In acting for the said parties, no information received by the Firm or any of its lawyers from either party in connection with the Transaction can be treated as confidential insofar as the other parties are concerned;
3. If a conflict of interest should arise which cannot be reasonably resolved, arbitrated or settled, the Firm or any of its lawyers cannot continue to act for the undersigned, and in such case the Firm or any of its lawyers may have to withdraw completely from the Transaction, however you hereby confirm and agree that, and if allowed or granted in law, the Firm or any of its lawyers may choose to act for and represent any one or more of the parties herein to the extent granted and that you waive any such rights to otherwise object to same; and
4. The Firm or any of its lawyers may take instruction or communicate with any of the said parties in regards to the Transaction, without having to notify the other said parties.  For example, this is very common between spouses, where often only one of the spouses are providing us with instructions.

File Retention

After this Agreement and engagement (the “Retainer”) terminates or expires, we will close all files relating to the Retainer, Transaction or matter, in accordance with its File Retention and Destruction policy. The file will be stored off-site during this period and destroyed as soon as its Destruction policy allows. In the event that you instruct us to extract the file from off-site storage and reopen it, you will be required to pay an administrative fee over and above any legal fees in connection with the Retainer. This clause will survive the termination of this Agreement indefinitely.

The Retainer will terminate on the sooner of the signing date of the documents contemplated herein or as extended and the date in which the Transaction may be cancelled or fail to execute, unless otherwise terminated by the parties hereto with notice by email or in writing.

Indemnification

You shall indemnify us, our Firm, our lawyers and employees harmless from any and all losses, costs, liabilities and expenses (including legal costs) in connection with:

1. A breach by you of this Agreement (including any third party legal proceedings arising out of that breach);
2. A claim against us, our Firm, our lawyers and employees from a third party arising out of us representation you pursuant to this Retainer.  Provided, that the indemnity in this subparagraph will not apply if the third party claim is a direct result of a breach of this Agreement by us, our lawyers and employees or professional negligence on the part of us.

This paragraph will survive the termination or expiry of this Agreement.

Our Liability To You

We acknowledge that we have solicitor/client liabilities to you (such as possibly a duty of loyalty and duty of care), arising out of our services in this Retainer as contemplated in Section 22 of the Solicitor’s Act (Ontario).

You acknowledge and agree that we, our Firm, our lawyers and employees, are prepared to accept liability together in aggregate of up to $1,000,000.00 that being the maximum potential insurance claim under our lawyer’s basic errors and omissions insurance, with no exception and regardless of any excess insurance we may have, and that you will never claim for more in aggregate including all legal fees and disbursements.

Change in Representation

If you choose to change lawyers at any time, in consideration of our review of documents and agreements, searches conducted, as well as any other consultations or discussions had (if applicable) and any other time spent on your file, the fees are deemed earned by the Firm and you will be responsible for the fees and disbursements.

If no objection is raised with the above terms within one (1) business day after you receive this retainer by reviewing it here on our website and sending us your instructions or details to incorporate (whether complete or incomplete), including by separate email or from your family members, agents, advisors or partners, and we proceed with the work illustrated herein, including drafting of the documents or completing any searches or filings,  you are deemed to have agreed to be bound by the above terms.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thank you very much for choosing our firm to assist you in this matter.