Reproduced from the March 21, 2003, issue of The Lawyers Weekly with the permission of LexisNexis Canada Inc., 75 Clegg Road, Markham, ON L6G 1A1
Are we closed yet?" This question is posed with more impatience to real estate lawyers than it is to our colleagues practising law in other areas. Such is life when the time of closing is dependent less upon the resolution of outstanding issues than upon the speed with which registration numbers are issued by government bureaucracies.
As real estate transactions increasingly move into the area of capital markets, the question "are we closed yet?" raises new challenges.
When units of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) or shares of other publicly traded entities (of which real estate assets comprise a material part) commence trading, the public relies on the issuer’s title disclosure. Since most units or shares commence trading at the opening of the stock exchange on which they are traded (typically 9:30 a.m. ET when the Toronto Stock
