Legal Office Procedures-Conveyancing

Curriculum guideline

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Course
OADM 1328
Discontinued
No
Course code
OADM 1328
Descriptive
Legal Office Procedures-Conveyancing
Department
Office Administration
Faculty
Commerce & Business Administration
Credits
3.00
Start date
End term
201520
PLAR
Yes
Semester length
15 Weeks X 4 Hours per Week = 60 Hours
Max class size
30
Contact hours
Lecture: 2 Hours per Week Seminar: 2 Hours per Week Total: 4 Hours per Week
Method(s) of instruction
Lecture
Seminar
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.

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
  1. Employment as a conveyancer
  2. 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
  3. 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
  4. Information Gathering
    • Municipal and other third party information
    • Interpreting a Contract of Purchase and Sale
  5. Preparing documents required for completion
    • Land Title Electronic Forms
    • Form A – Freehold Transfer
    • Property Transfer Tax Form
    • Legal Account
  6. 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
  7. 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  
  8. 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
  9. 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
  10. 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
  11. 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
  12. Acting for two parties
    • Conflict of interest
    • Procedures for a financed purchase when acting for the purchaser and mortgagee
  13. 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 outcomes

The learner has reliably demonstrated the ability to:

  1. describe duties, employment conditions and employment forecasts in conveyancing
  2. identify what tangible and intangible elements are included in the concept of “land”
  3. identify what interests must be protected when acting for the purchaser client
  4. analyze transactions based on the transfers; encumbrances requiring discharges; encumbrances not requiring discharges; and new encumbrances involved
  5. use the concepts and theories of conveyancing to analyze and solve problems independently and collaboratively
  6. interpret a Contract of Purchase and Sale
  7. describe the stages of a sales completion model
  8. translate an understanding of the information required in a transaction by creating correspondence and documentation relating to the gathering of information by the purchaser
  9. translate an understanding of transferring title by creating electronic Land Title Office documents relating to registration
  10. calculate the amounts involved to create Statements of Adjustments, Trust Reconciliation, and Statements of Account
  11. create correspondence and documentation relating to the exchange and execution of documents and funds, and the registration of executed documents
  12. observe professional standards in the maintenance and use of checklists
  13. calculate Authority to Pay for vendors and mortgagors
  14. describe issues, rules and procedures involved when acting for both a purchaser and a mortgagee in the same transaction
  15. keyboard with speed and accuracy from five-minute timed writings
  16. demonstrate the ability to meet deadlines in a manner required to meet legal industry standards.
Means of assessment
Assignments   5 - 10%
Simulations 35 - 40%
Midterm and/or Test(s)    25 - 30%
Final Exam  20 - 25%
Keyboarding Speed (average of best three 5-minute timings)     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)

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.

A department approved keyboarding timed writing textbook (used in OADM 1303).

Course packs as determined by the instructor.

Prerequisites

OADM 1218 AND OADM 1256 AND (45 NWPM OR OADM 1103 with a grade of A- or better OR
OADM 1303 with a grade of C+ or better)

Which prerequisite

OADM 1401