Ajax Pickering Real Estate Blog

Land Transfer Tax

This is a provincial tax levied when title to land is transferred. It is payable by the purchaser upon the registration of every transfer of land. (i.e. on closing day). The calculation of this tax on a single family is as follows:

Amounts up to and including $ 55,000.00 - 0.5%
Amounts exceeding $55,000.00 up to and including $250,000.00 - 1.0%
Amounts exceeding $250,000.00 up to and including $400,000.00 - 1.5%
Amounts exceeding $400,000.00 and up - 2.0%

Legal Fees

A lawyer will charge a fee for his/her service plus pass on to the client all costs that are incurred in the process. A partial list of these items is as follows:
- Title Insurance (if required)
- Registering the transfer & Mortgage
- Obtaining tax certificate
- Obtaining utility arrears certificates
- Obtaining estoppel certificate (Condo)
- Obtaining sheriff’s certificate
- Managing closing day
- Courier, photocopying etc.

Home Insurance

Lenders will require that the home is protected against perils, such as fire, before the mortgage loan is advanced.

Moving Costs

Depending on whether you move yourself or hire a company, the cost may vary. Right At Home Realty has arranged with AMJ Campbell “The Ultimate Service Moving Program”:
- Hand picked Crews
- Free Wardrobe Service
- 15% off hourly rates
- 25% off packing and unpacking rates
- Hassle free & Worry free move with full nation wide support
- Canada largest coast to coast moving company
- Free written, no obligation estimates

Home Inspection

A professional home inspector may be employed by either the seller, prior to marketing the home for sale, or the buyer, prior to firming up the offer. An inspection is done to ensure that no major deficiencies exist at the time of selling or buying.

Adjustments

The funds required to complete the transaction will include adjustments for prepaid expenses. For example, if a vendor had paid the property taxes for the entire year, the new purchaser would owe the vendor that prepayment. Other such adjustments are as follows:
- Property taxes
- Utility bills
- Condominium fees
- Interest adjustments
- Any other cost which the vendor has paid for which the purchaser will benefit

Another way to explain, is to simply say that the Purchaser pays for all expenses of the home starting from (and including) the day of closing.

Federal and Provincial Taxes

Typically resale homes are exempt from GST. Taxes may be payable on the many services listed on this page. A new home is not exempt from GST and may be paid by the builder or buyer, depending on what is negotiated at the time of purchase.

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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information - 416-388-1960

Mistaken Identity

Carpenter Ants should not be confused with termites. Termites are white in colour and are smaller than a grain of rice. Carpenter ants look like regular black ants, except a little bigger. Adult carpenter ants grow to be as much as one-half inch long. Queens are often twice that size.

If you get really intimate with a carpenter ant you will notice that they have bent or “elbowed” antennae. They only have one node or bump on the joint between their thorax and abdomen (the thorax is the middle section and the abdomen is the rear section), and the thorax on some carpenter ants is burnt orange or chestnut red in colour. They also have hairy abdomens.

You will never see a termite unless you break open a piece of infested wood or a shelter tube (tunnels that termites use to get from the soil, where they live, to the wood they are eating). Carpenter ants, on the other hand, roam around looking for food the same way ordinary ants do.

Termites eat wood. Carpenter ants do not. Instead, they burrow into wood to make a nest and they push the wood and other debris (called frass) out of their colonies. The inside of the infested wood is spotlessly clean and consists of smooth galleries through the wood.

Finding A Home

Most carpenter ant nests are outdoors in tree stumps, fence posts, and unfortunately, sometimes in porches. But these ants will also nest indoors in rotten or damp wood or sound wood adjacent to a source of moisture such as a sweaty pipe, washing machines, dishwashers or baseboards in damp areas. Although they normally excavate their colonies, they sometimes live in hollow doors, window frames, etc.

Carpenter ants are omnivorous meaning they eat all different types of food. Outdoors they eat plants, insects, (their favourite are aphids), fruit, etc. Indoors they eat household foodstuff, especially syrup, honey, sugar, fat and grease.

On their way back to the colony, they rarely take the same route twice, which can make it difficult to locate the nest. Even though the colony may be indoors, most of the ants will go outdoors to feed. This also reduces the likelihood of detection. To make matters worse, the ants are more active at night than in the daytime and some colonies go dormant during the winter. (The colony is most active during the spring and summer.)

Coming Out of the Closet

In the summer months, swarms of winged carpenter ants (both male and female) leave the colony. They mate on the fly, return to earth and shed their wings. The female (queen) then finds a suitable place to lay her eggs which hatch into larvae. The larvae develop into adults in 2 to 10 months depending on the temperature. These adults are workers and at this stage the colony is only a queen plus 10 to 20 workers. The colony takes 3 to 6 years to develop, during which time the queen lays eggs and the workers care for the young. A queen has a life expectancy of 8 to 12 years while workers can live 4 or 5 years. When the colony has developed, winged males and females form. They remain in the colony over the winter and take flight the next summer to begin the process again. A developed colony may contain thousands of ants. Needless to say, the damage to wooden components can be significant to make a home for this many ants.

Kissing Your Ants Goodbye

We have to find the colony to get rid of the ants. This can be tricky. Sawdust at entrances to the colony is one method. Listening for the ants is another. At quiet times, a dry rustling sound can be heard from the colony (some specialists use stethoscopes to listen for them). If you bang on the wood, it disturbs them and the noise level from the colony will increase. Finding and eliminating the colony is best left to a pest control specialist.

Your best defence against carpenter ants is elimination of damp environments and rotted wood within the home. Storing firewood adjacent to the house or in the basement is not wise. While chemical treatment can kill the colony, they’ll be back next year if suitable conditions exist.

This article was submitted by Carson Dunlop, a Toronto based Consulting Engineering company that has specialized in Home Inspection since 1978. For more information, call 1-800-268-7070 or visit www.carsondunlop.com.

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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information - 416-388-1960

What is carbon monoxide?

• CO is a colourless, odorless, tasteless gas.
• It is a by-product of incomplete combustion (unburned fuel such as gas, oil, wood, etc.)
• Low concentrations of CO can go undetected and can contribute to ongoing, unidentified illnesses. At high concentrations, it can be deadly.

Why is it dangerous?

If there is CO in the air you breath, it will enter your blood system the same way oxygen does, through your lungs. The CO displaces the oxygen in your blood, depriving your body of oxygen. When the CO displaces enough oxygen, you suffocate.

What are the symptoms?

Continued exposure or high concentrations
• Confusion
• Severe headaches
• Cardiac problems
• Breathing difficulties
• Brain damage
• Dizziness
• Death

Long term exposure to low concentrations
• Slight headaches
• Fatigue
• Shortness of breath with only moderate exertion
• Nausea
• Dizziness and confusion

Why is it called the “great immitator”?

• Symptoms of CO poisoning are very similar to the flu.
• Illness in your pets just preceding illness in a family member may suggest CO poisoning.

Who is at greater risk?

• Senior citizens
• Unborn babies
• People with respiratory or coronary problems
• Infants
• Pregnant women
• Young children

Note: Vulnerable people who are exposed even to low levels of CO for long time periods may have similar health affects as those exposed to high concentrations of CO.

What can produce CO in our homes?

Anything that burns fuel or generates combustion gases including
• Gas Stoves
• Fireplaces
• Automobiles
• Barbecues
• Furnaces
• Ranges
• Boilers
• Space heaters
• Water heaters

Solid fuels, such as wood, always produce carbon monoxide when they are burned. Gas and liquid fuels may produce no CO or very little.

What are the most common sources of carbon monoxide?

1. Automobile exhaust in attached garages. This is responsible for 60% of all CO alarms. People who warm their cars up in the garage are trapping CO inside the garage. The CO can find its way into the home.

2. Gas cooking appliances. Reported to account for 20% of CO alarms. May be a result of a misused, poorly maintained, poorly installed, or unvented cooking appliance.

3. Poor draft/venting for fuel burning appliances. This is one of the most common and serious causes for CO build up and has been reported to account for up to 19% of CO alarms. The products of combustion are not being safely expelled to the exterior. This could be due to venting problems, such as blocked chimney flues or inadequate venting for appliances or fireplaces. Other problems include poor installation and negative air pressure in the house, causing backdrafting, often due to exhaust fans.

4. Poor combustion at furnace. Inadequate combustion air to the furnace can result in incomplete combustion. If the furnace has a cracked heat exchanger, it is possible to get CO into the circulating air. It is also imperative that we do not deprive our heating equipment and fuel burning appliances of air; especially in air-tight homes where running exhaust fans can result in a shortage of combustion air. Combustion air is essential for safe operation of furnaces, water heaters, and other fuel burning equipment.

5. Leakage. A leak in a chimney or flue pipe.

6. Ventilation. Barbecues or gasoline powered equipment operating in a attached garage, basement, or enclosed area.

Are there more problems with carbon monoxide today than 30 years ago?

Yes, due to:
• More energy-efficient, air-tight homes
• Less natural ventilation

How can I guard against carbon monoxide poisoning?

The first line of defense is to have your home heating systems, fuel burning appliances, flues and chimneys checked and/or cleaned annually.

Inspection checklist:
• Blocked openings to flues and chimneys
• Cracked,rusted,or disconnected flue pipes
• Dirty filters
• Rusted or cracked heat exchangers
• Soot or creosote build-up inside fireplaces and chimney flues
• Exhaust or gas odours.
• Attached garages require gas proofing and automatic closers for doors into the home
• Adequate combustion air
• Adequate venting on indoor combustion appliances (i.e. gas stoves)

The second line of defense is a CO detector.

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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information - 416-388-1960