Collapsing Real Estate Transactions: "Specific Performance" Revisited

Frequent readers of Lawson Lundell's blogs may recall a post from October 2012, in which we wrote about a Supreme Court of Canada decision that some believed, at the time, would result in the "death knell" for the remedy of specific performance in Canada at least in respect of commercial real estate transactions.  Since then, many courts have indeed grappled with whether that particular remedy, which permits a purchaser to conclude a transaction and buy the property in question by way of a court order as opposed to obtaining an award of damages as compensation, is still part of the arsenal of remedies potentially available to aggrieved purchasers.

In a decision which was released this past Friday, the B.C. Court of Appeal, in practical terms, has confirmed that reports of the demise of the remedy of specific performance have been greatly exaggerated.