As of April 24, 2017, there are changes respecting the information that lawyers must provide to the Ontario government when someone purchases real estate.  Those changes add to the information that must be collected through the Land Transfer Tax system. In addition to information identifying the property being purchased and the price being paid, the new information required includes (but is not limited to) the following:

• whether the home is intended to be occupied by the person who purchases or acquires the land, or their family member(s), as their principal residence;
• the type of dwelling (detached, semi-detached, condominiums, cottages, etc)
• whether the property, in part or in whole, is intended to be leased out;
• residency, citizenship and permanent resident status, if the person who purchases or acquires the land is an individual;
• information about incorporation, ownership and control, if the purchasers are corporations, and
• information about beneficial owners, if the person who purchases or acquires the land is acting as a trustee, nominee or in a similar capacity.

These changes will obviously require the lawyer to ask more questions than they had been asking up to date. It would be best to have the information respecting the above listed items available to your lawyer at your first meeting.