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In this issue…
HST Self-Supply on Rental Apartments
Over the past five years Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has aggressively challenged the valuations placed by developers on their recently completed rental apartment buildings for HST self supply purposes. What can you do to reduce the risk of a dispute with CRA’s appraisers? We have some bad news. Back of the envelope calculations no longer cut it, even if they are blessed by your accountant. It is unwise to underestimate CRA’s Halifax based professional appraisal staff. We trained most of them.
The 2020 BOMA Retail Standard
Space measurement standards are going international. BOMA, the standard setter in North America, has taken the opportunity to upgrade its Retail Standard by bearing down on the finer details. The result? Much greater clarity for landlords and tenants. The upgraded Standard also codifies the methodology for calculating tenant charge backs for property taxes, CAM charges and other maintenance related expenses. We are quite excited about it.
A Warming World
It’s a warming world, climate change is here, now! The outlook is grim with some irreversible effects now baked into our future and an ever-diminishing window of opportunity to take action and head off the worst. UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, describes it as “code red for humanity”. You are not going to be able to insure away all of the risk. Some property values are going to fall too.
Commercial Real Estate: Financing the Acquisition
Many of the commercial real estate markets in Atlantic Canada are “hot”; listings often attract multiple offers. To stand any chance of being the successful purchaser, you need to get your financing ducks in a row before your target property comes onto the market.
Property Tax: Musing on a Twenty-Eight Year Career
Giselle Kakamousias, the Vice President of our Property Tax Division reflects on her career and has some surprising insights on the people property owners love to hate; provincial assessors. One client proposed consigning one such individual to his wood planer. Giselle advocates a gentler approach.
Title Insurance
At first blush Title Insurance and Expropriation do not appear to have much in common but when it comes to assessing the loss suffered by the aggrieved party they are joined at the hip.
To learn more, click on the button below and view this PDF document using an Acrobat Reader Plug-in (available as free download from the Adobe Website, www.adobe.com).
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