Legal Office Procedures-Conveyancing

Overview

Course Description

This course introduces the student to the role and responsibilities of a Legal Administrative Assistant employed in the field of conveyancing in British Columbia. Students will gain knowledge and practical experience in topics such as systems of land registration, land title searches, offers to purchase, methods to convey interests in land, registering and discharging mortgages and other interests in land, statements of adjustments, and the execution and registration of documents filed in Land Title Offices.

Course Content

Employment as a conveyancer
Understanding land and sale of land
- The tangible and intangible elements of land
- Determining ownership of land
- Land registration systems and land tenure
- Reading a title search and determining charges and encumbrances on title
- Analyzing a land purchase transaction
Sales Completion Model
- Entering a Contract of Purchase and Sale
- Four stages of the sales completion model for purchaser and vendor:
  - Information Gathering
  - Completion Preparations
  - Statement of Adjustments
  - Completion Procedures
Information Gathering
- Municipal and other third party information
- Interpreting a Contract of Purchase and Sale
Preparing documents required for completion
- Land Title Electronic Forms
- Form A – Freehold Transfer
- Property Transfer Tax Form
- Legal Account
Statement of Adjustments and Trust Reconciliation for a cash only purchase
- Definition and purpose of adjustments
- Purchaser adjustments
- Vendor adjustments
- Calculating property taxes, utilities and the Home Owner’s Grant
- Preparing Purchaser and Vendor Statement of Adjustments
- Definition and purpose of Trust Reconciliation
- Preparing Trust Reconciliation
Procedures on Completion date
- Pre-registration procedures
  - Execution of Vendor’s documents and undertakings involved
  - Execution of Purchaser’s documents and undertakings involved
  - Pre-registration requirements and preparation
- Registration procedures
- Post-registration procedures
- Law Society Rule 3-89
Concepts for a financed purchase of new strata property
- strata property
  - Strata corporation
  - Unit entitlement
  - Maintenance fees
- Net proceeds of mortgage loan
- GST and GST Rebates
- Builder’s Liens
Procedures for a financed purchase of new strata property
- Information gathering
  - Mortgagee particulars
  - Strata information
- Completion preparations
  - Preparing LTO electronic Declaration
  - Confirming net mortgage funds
  - Additional information for Property Transfer Form
  - GST Rebate calculations
- Statement of Adjustments and Trust Reconciliation
  - GST and rebate adjustment
  - Strata maintenance fee adjustments
  - Builder’s lien and holdbacks
  - Mortgage adjustments
  - New Trust Reconciliation items
- Completion procedures
  - Undertakings for mortgagee
  - Sequence for registering LTO documents
Concepts and procedures for vendor in sale of property
- Receiving documents from purchaser
- Authority to Pay
- Discharging existing encumbrances on title
- Preparing Land Title Office electronic Form C – Release
Mortgages
- Mortgagee expectations
- Acting for the mortgagee
- Mortgage Terms
- Mortgage Definitions
- Preparing Land Title Office electronic Form B – Mortgage
- Authority to Pay for mortgages
- Procedures for registering a mortgage
Acting for two parties
- Conflict of interest
- Procedures for a financed purchase when acting for the purchaser and mortgagee
Situational Adjustments
- Adjustment for property tax when amount is unknown
- Adjustment for property tax when lawyer or notary will pay the amount on completion
- Adjustment for assumption of mortgage
- Adjustment for mortgage back to vendor

Learning Activities

A combination of lectures, guided practices, assignments and case studies will be used. Active learning is an integral part of this course, and emphasis will be placed on a “hands-on” environment to allow students to work both independently and collaboratively to learn and apply procedures and tasks carried on in a legal office. Both learning activities and evaluations will be structured to stress problem solving, accuracy, and working within time constraints.

Means of Assessment

Assignments	5 - 11%
Simulations	35 - 40%
Midterm and/or Test(s)	25 - 30%
Final Exam	20 - 25%
Keyboarding Speed	4 - 5%
Total	100%

A maximum of two evaluations worth up to 20% may be assigned and due in the last 14 days of
class. (Some class time is provided to work on any evaluation due in the last
14 days of class)

THERE ARE NO ORAL PRESENTATIONS IN THIS COURSE.

Students may conduct research as part of their coursework in this class. Instructors for the course are responsible for ensuring that student research projects comply with College policies on ethical conduct for research involving humans, which can require obtaining Informed Consent from participants and getting the approval of the Douglas College Research Ethics Board prior to conducting the research.

Learning Outcomes

The learner has reliably demonstrated the ability to:

describe duties, employment conditions and employment forecasts in conveyancing;
identify what tangible and intangible elements are included in the concept of “land”;
identify what interests must be protected when acting for the purchaser client;
analyze the parties and responsibilities of each party involved in conveyancing transactions;
analyze and solve problems using conveyancing concepts and theories;
interpret a Contract of Purchase and Sale;
describe the stages of a sales completion model;
create electronic Land Title Office documents relating to registration;
calculate the amounts involved to create Statements of Adjustments, Trust Reconciliation, and Statements of Account;
observe professional standards in the maintenance and use of checklists;
calculate Authority to Pay for sellers and mortgagors;
prepare correspondence and documents for a simple cash purchase file acting on behalf of the purchaser;
prepare correspondence and documents for a financed purchase file acting on behalf of the purchaser;
prepare correspondence and documents for a sale file acting on behalf of the seller;
prepare correspondence and documents for a mortgage file acting on behalf of the mortgagee;
prepare correspondence and documents for a financed purchase file acting on behalf of both purchaser and mortgagee;
describe issues, rules and procedures involved when acting for both a purchaser and a mortgagee in the same transaction;
keyboard with accuracy; and
demonstrate the ability to meet deadlines in a manner required to meet legal industry standards.

Textbook Materials

Textbooks and Materials to be Purchased by Students

Introduction to Residential Conveyancing. DFC Publications. (Current Edition) or other conveyancing textbook as determined by the department.

Department approved keyboarding material and software.

Course packs as determined by the instructor.

Requisites

Prerequisites

(OADM 1218 AND (OADM 1103 with a grade of B+ or better or OADM 1206 or OADM 1303 or 45 NWPM)) OR (OADM 1246 with a grade of B+ or better AND (OADM 1103 with a grade of B+ or better or OADM 1206 or OADM 1303 or 45 NWPM))

Corequisites

No corequisite courses.

Equivalencies

No equivalent courses.

Course Guidelines

Course Guidelines for previous years are viewable by selecting the version desired. If you took this course and do not see a listing for the starting semester / year of the course, consider the previous version as the applicable version.

January 2021 (Current)