New Realestate laws

[Topaz]

Today, its law that if you buy or sell a house you have to fill out a personal information form stating your name, occupation, bank, bank accounts and numbers etc. which the relator has to keep for 7 years. The gov't are searching for terrorists, perhaps drug houses, just bad guys. I think this is alittle too much and I wondering when are they going to hit Bay Street, and want investor's name and worth of every investment??

[scribblet]

It 's an effort to track money laundering. I don't have a problem with it, as long as the Realtor keeps the info. secure and safe - too much identity theft these days.

[fellowtraveller]

It 's an effort to track money laundering. I don't have a problem with it, as long as the Realtor keeps the info. secure and safe - too much identity theft these days.

Realtors are already required to report cash transactions over $10K, and the reality is that virtually no tranactions involve cash because virtually no real estae brokers will accept cash under any circumstances. If the client insists on a deposit in cash, most companies reqwuire the agent to issue a personal receipt, deposit the money in their own account, and issue a personal cheque.

There will be many clients who rightfully refuse to provide the info to a realtor, in acknowledgement that real estate offices simply do not and will not have the level of security required to make sure that info is never compromised.

This is a pure Big Brother play, and completely unnecessary. Drug dealers don't usually have anything in their names anyway, and it seems highly unlikely that 'terrorists ' would invest in Candian residential real estate.

[Fain]

More burecracey involved. They should be simplifying things instead of adding more difficulties. Too much info too i think. Some kid doing the filing for a Real Estate office will know personal information,

[peter_puck]

Realtors are already required to report cash transactions over $10K, and the reality is that virtually no tranactions involve cash because virtually no real estae brokers will accept cash under any circumstances. If the client insists on a deposit in cash, most companies reqwuire the agent to issue a personal receipt, deposit the money in their own account, and issue a personal cheque.

There will be many clients who rightfully refuse to provide the info to a realtor, in acknowledgement that real estate offices simply do not and will not have the level of security required to make sure that info is never compromised.

This is a pure Big Brother play, and completely unnecessary. Drug dealers don't usually have anything in their names anyway, and it seems highly unlikely that 'terrorists ' would invest in Candian residential real estate.

I don't think cash transactions are really what they are looking for. It may be something more like this senario.

My name is Brian Mulroney and I have $300 000 that I need to launder. I buy a house for $200 000, wait a few years and then have Karl Schreiber buy the house from me for $500 000. (Karl would then sell the house to get the missing $200 000 back).

Voila!, the money is now laundered (of course, attempts to trace the "buyer" would lead to a dead end because nobody took id).

[Wilber]

Today, its law that if you buy or sell a house you have to fill out a personal information form stating your name, occupation, bank, bank accounts and numbers etc. which the relator has to keep for 7 years. The gov't are searching for terrorists, perhaps drug houses, just bad guys. I think this is alittle too much and I wondering when are they going to hit Bay Street, and want investor's name and worth of every investment??

Hate to break it to you but if you invest in the market and use a financial adviser or broker they already have at least most of that information. I don't have a problem with it in principle but share the concern over a realtor's ability to keep the information secure.

[Topaz]

I don't think cash transactions are really what they are looking for. It may be something more like this senario.

My name is Brian Mulroney and I have $300 000 that I need to launder. I buy a house for $200 000, wait a few years and then have Karl Schreiber buy the house from me for $500 000. (Karl would then sell the house to get the missing $200 000 back).

Voila!, the money is now laundered (of course, attempts to trace the "buyer" would lead to a dead end because nobody took id).

You are on the right track, there's "dirty money" and then there's "black money" which I think these two guys did. It 's when someone brings in money from outside the country and gives to someone else they in turn keep in a "safety deposit box" for a year then brings it out and spends it or invests to void paying any tax on the money.

[fellowtraveller]

I don't think cash transactions are really what they are looking for. It may be something more like this senario.

My name is Brian Mulroney and I have $300 000 that I need to launder. I buy a house for $200 000, wait a few years and then have Karl Schreiber buy the house from me for $500 000. (Karl would then sell the house to get the missing $200 000 back).

Voila!, the money is now laundered (of course, attempts to trace the "buyer" would lead to a dead end because nobody took id).

Not true.

Effective this year, lawyers involved are required to procure picture ID from both sides, and nearly all lawyers have done this as a matter of course for many years now. It has nothing to do with money laundering or terrorism, but tr4ather people falsely impersonating the owner and selling a property they do not own.

There is not now and never has been anything illegal about the transaction you describe. There is n fraud in a proweprty increasing in value, and the courts have no opinion on somebody paying too much or little, unless some sort of mortgage fraud is involved. You have to prove that somebody did something illegal for the profit, and neither you or the baying hounds of the kangaroo court investigating Mulroney have done so.

If you choose to bypass lawyers and register the sale directly with Land Titles, they have required photo ID for years. You are also required to provide photo ID when you open the bank account whre the cheques are drawn to make the transaction , so the funds are certainly not untraceable.

Big Brother, pure and simple.