Closing Challenges & Rising Fees with Shane Parker, KC PDS Law Real Estate

In this episode, host Len welcomes Shane Parker, partner at PDS Law—Parker Dubrule Szaskiewicz LLP—to discuss the rising land title registration fees in Alberta and the challenges facing real estate lawyers today. Shane explains how these fee increases and evolving document requirements impact homebuyers, emphasizing the importance of clear communication with lenders to prevent unexpected delays.

Len and Shane also delve into shifting real estate regulations, including stricter anti-money laundering (AML) identification rules and the continued requirement for original ink signatures on land title registrations. They highlight common closing challenges and underscore the need for collaboration between realtors, mortgage brokers, and lawyers to ensure seamless transactions. Tune in for expert insights on how buyers can better prepare, stay flexible, and navigate the complexities of the closing process.

About Shane Parker

Shane Parker, King’s Council, is a partner at Parker Dubrule Szaskiewicz LLP. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts (1988) and Law Degree (1991) from the University of Alberta and has over 25 years of experience, primarily in Real Estate and Corporate law. Shane is an active member of his community with various board involvements over the years and coaching kids in minor league soccer and hockey. His interests include gardening, golf, yoga, and Scotch.

Resources discussed in this episode:

—

Contact Len Lane | Brokers for Life:

Contact Shane Parker | PDS Law:

Website: pdslaw.ca
Email: [email protected]

—

Transit
Len 0:02

Welcome. My name is Len Lane, and I am the founder and president of Brokers for Life Inc., and we are Dominion Lending Centers in Western Canada. The topic of our podcast will be about what we consider to be Real Life Mortgage Solutions.

Len Lane 0:19

Welcome back. We’re already into January of 2025 it’s hard to imagine how fast this year is going by already. My guest today is Shane Parker King’s Council. King’s Council is new for him, as well as the rest of us. He is a partner at Parker Dubrule Szaszkiewicz, for which our PDS Law, whichever one you want to use. So Shane, now welcome to the show.

Shane 0:41

Yeah, I appreciate that, Len and sometimes we joke with our name Parkerborough Saskawich, which is hard to you, enunciated that very well, but we have a registered trading PDS Law, which is usually easier for people to remember, but but happy to be here and to review mortgages in real estate.

Len 0:58

Yeah, totally. That was easier one with just Parker Dubrule, but now you throw in the third one there. So, you know, lots of changes you and I have seen. We were discussing how long we’ve been at this, and it’s going on 30 years for both of us, between real estate mortgages and in my side and straight real estate law on your side. You know, probably one of the biggest conversations we’re having with clients lately is that the change in the cost of registering mortgage title in Alberta had a considerable change, actually, and one we haven’t seen for quite a while. Maybe address what change you’re seeing on your end.

Shane 1:36

Yeah, and I think that’s it’s a good practical issue, and, you know, we’ve both been around a long time, and land titles fees, of the you know, they’ve gone up, and there was a period where they actually went down, which was kind of welcomed, you know, as part of the industry, I think there’s a good argument that, you know, Land Titles should certainly pay for itself, but doesn’t need to charge enough to make a bunch of profit. And I think that’s debatable, and I leave that for others to argue, but fees have gone up and down over my 30 years. Recently, they’ve gone up. And I respect on the political side that we we apparently still have some of the lowest registration cross costs across Canada. So I appreciate that. Our provincial budget that came out in February of 2024 announced land title increases that came into force on October 20, 2024 so that means documents that were submitted on or after October 20 had the new fee structure. So what does that mean for, I mean, typically on the mortgage broker side, you’re acting for purchasers. Generally in real estate, it’s a purchaser who incurs the cost of registration at land title, so registering the transfer in the mortgage. So pre October 20, if I use it as an example, a $500,000 property and a $450,000 mortgage, those land title registration fees would be approximately $330 and it’s always a function of the value of the property and the amount of the mortgage. So that’s still what it is, but except the numbers are increased. So today, registering a $500,000 property would be $550 registering a $450,000 mortgage would be $500 so a total of $1050 so comparing where we were $330 to today, $1050, so 3 times the cost. And again, that would vary size of the transaction, but a pretty significant increase, and it affects purchasers. It’s a closing cost that it is what it is now. What we try to do, like, like other lawyers, we really try and be careful explaining all about cost. And in my mind, cost has three components, legal fees, disbursements, GST. Legal fees, you know, that should be broken down separately. Disbursements should be true third Party costs paid to third parties, like land titles in real estate, the biggest disbursement is land titles. Other disbursements include things like couriers. And couriers too have gone up over the years, $45 for a courier, typically on the purchaser side, we have to courier out the closing funds on the closing day to the seller’s lawyer, who then coordinates with the realtors to release keys. So all costs going up. I’ll try and explain that effectively to people, so there’s no surprises. And then GST of about $200 and so we do that on our side, we have it posted on our website, which, which a lot of law firms do. It’s going to be transparent about cost, but to your narrow point, have they gone up? Yes,

Len 5:05

yeah. And it’s interesting two things there in that to actually they’ll have to courier money to other lawyers in 2025 but that part hasn’t changed, I guess so sometimes over the years. But it’s a cost that we’re seeing some of our lenders, one of the big red bank does a cash back to the client, and they’ve actually increased it to cover some of that. We’re also seeing it in the title insurance companies, where they’ve had, obviously, everybody has had to increase it, and they’ve changed their numbers quite a bit as well. So you’ve seen 10s of 1000s of files, I’m sure, probably lost track a long time ago. So what are some of the biggest issues you see at closing that could have possibly been avoided?

Shane 5:46

And I think that the challenge in, you know…