Working with real estate forms is part of members’ regular practice, and it’s important to stay up to date on changes so you can ensure any of your standardized forms packages or client conversations remain current when adjustments are made to the AREA contracts.

Recently, the AREA Forms and Practice Committee reviewed various requests, and after much consideration from practice and legal perspectives, the following changes have been made.

Changes to the purchase contracts

An administrative change has been made to the purchase contracts to combine clauses 5.1(b) and 5.1(c) into one bullet. This is to clarify that the exceptions addressed in the clause are for non-financial homeowner association obligations, not arrears, which must be paid by the seller. While providing a clearer meaning, this change is administrative and does not affect member practice.

You can view the red-line revisions to the purchase contract here.

Condo forms change

Changes have been made to the Residential Resale Condominium Property Purchase Contract and other condo forms with the intent to:

• Clarify that it is the buyer’s responsibility to obtain condo documents and to ensure they are satisfied with the documents they receive before waiving conditions.
• Revise the list of required condo documents in the forms to include only those that are material and relevant to a real estate transaction and clarify that the current/most recent copies of the documents must be provided as per legislation.
• Facilitate smoother closings for instances when the estoppel certificate shows an outstanding balance, as the additions clarify that an updated estoppel certificate or other evidence verifying payment of the balance as of the Completion Day can be provided. This change has also been added to the Country Residential Purchase Contract

A detailed summary of the changes and red-line revisions is available here.

Form retirement

Older agricultural and commercial forms (dated 2012 with AREA’s former logo) with duplicate or updated forms will be retired. A list of the retiring forms and the reasons for retirement are available here.

Join us for Contracts Line-by-Line

It’s never too early to brush up on best practices using forms, and Jeff Kahane of Kahane Law is coming to CREB^® on August 2, 2023, for our Residential Contracts Line-By-Line course. Register now to learn everything you need to know about drafting effective residential purchase contracts to protect you and your clients.