A real estate lawyer handles the legal side of selling your Ontario home — reviewing the agreement, answering the buyer's requisitions, discharging your mortgage, and calculating your closing adjustments and net proceeds. Start your file online today; a licensed Ontario lawyer confirms everything with you by tomorrow.
Our charges include HST. Disbursements are extra and billed at cost — itemized and estimated in writing before any work begins. As the seller, you do not pay Land Transfer Tax; that's a buyer-side cost.
Selling looks simple from the outside — sign, hand over keys, get paid. Underneath, your lawyer is managing four moving pieces to get you a clean closing and a correct payout.
Most Ontario homes are sold with an existing mortgage still registered on title. That mortgage has to be discharged — paid out and formally removed — before or at the same moment the sale registers, so your buyer receives clear title. Your lawyer coordinates the discharge timing with your lender directly, so you don't have to chase paperwork or worry about the sale falling through over a missed payout deadline.
Requisitions are the buyer-side lawyer's formal list of title concerns — an old easement that was never discharged, a work order on file with the municipality, a boundary discrepancy. Most are routine and resolved with a document or a short letter; a few need more legwork. Either way, your lawyer manages the exchange with the buyer's lawyer so you're not fielding legal questions directly.
Want the details? Read our breakdowns of seller closing costs, discharging a mortgage on sale, and how requisition letters work — from our Ontario article library.
It's one of the most common questions we get from sellers — and the answer is simple.
Land Transfer Tax is a government tax that Ontario buyers pay on closing, calculated on the purchase price. Sellers never pay it. If you're also buying your next home, your own closing will include LTT as the buyer on that transaction — worth budgeting for separately from your sale proceeds.
Your net proceeds from the sale are calculated on a Statement of Adjustments: sale price, less your mortgage payout, less prorated property tax and other adjustments, less our legal fee and disbursements. That's the number that lands in your account on closing day.
Estimate a Buyer's Land Transfer Tax →From the moment your file opens, we keep you in the loop — what we've done, what's next, and what we need from you. Selling remotely, moving out of province, or already relocated? A signing can be done anywhere by secure video.
Open My File Online →Yes. Ontario closings are completed through the electronic land registration system, which only a licensed lawyer can access. Your lawyer reviews the agreement, responds to the buyer's requisitions, discharges your mortgage, calculates adjustments, and releases the signed transfer and your sale proceeds on closing day.
No. Land Transfer Tax is a buyer-side cost only. As the seller, you do not pay it, though it does factor into your buyer's closing math and, occasionally, into negotiated terms.
Requisitions are formal questions and requirements the buyer's lawyer raises about title after reviewing the search results — things like outstanding work orders, easements, or liens. Your lawyer reviews and responds to each one within the requisition deadline in your agreement, resolving anything that needs fixing before closing.
Your lawyer requests a payout statement from your lender, pays the outstanding balance from your sale proceeds on closing, and registers the discharge on title. You never deal with the lender directly — the discharge is arranged and confirmed as part of your file.
On closing day, once the buyer's funds and signed transfer are received and the deal is registered. Your lawyer prepares a Statement of Adjustments showing exactly how your net proceeds are calculated — sale price, less mortgage payout, adjustments, and legal costs — before funds are released to you.
Also buying your next home? See our buying a home and mortgage pages, or check closing costs and title transfers. Compare every service on Pricing, or start from our Real Estate Law overview.
Open your file tonight — a licensed Ontario lawyer will confirm everything with you by tomorrow.