Asbestos and the Cost of Selling Your Home

Captain John’s was a landmark on Toronto’s waterfront, sitting at the base of Yonge Street – albeit a slightly cheesy one that many locals avoided. The old ship acted as a seafood restaurant for years before the city shut it down three years ago and the owner moved south. Nowadays, it’s looking for a buyer…

Read More

Home Inspection Standards & Asbestos

The province of Ontario is looking to follow the example of Alberta and British Columbia in creating a universal set of standards for home inspectors to follow. As pointed out in a recent column by Mike Holmes, the current non-system results in a situation where home buyers may not really know what it is they’re getting even after they’ve paid for a home inspection. Unfortunately, it can result in house buyers who get an unpleasant surprise when it comes to the presence of asbestos in their homes.

Read More

Asbestos in Luxury Properties

Much of the time, when a news story concerns asbestos found in a building, it’s dealing with an industrial or government property or an apartment complex. When we see luxury properties, we’re shown how fabulous the rooms and décor look after a renovation. It’s not often we get a glimpse into the ‘before’ side of the picture when it comes to the haunts of the rich and famous.

Read More

Asbestos Can Add to the Real Cost of Resale Property

A land deal in Western Ontario looks like an incredible bargain until you understand the details. A Windsor area man recently got what sounds like the deal of a lifetime – 240 acres of prime farmland in southwestern Ontario for a mere $150,000. But of course, there’s a catch, and it comes in the form of what he’s going to have to do before he can get it ready for redevelopment.

Read More

Court Proceedings Remind of Lingering Asbestos Threat

The court proceedings into the infamous Sunrise Propane explosion of 2008 in north Toronto continues to wind its way through the system. Its current phase involves the issue of responsibility; officials are blaming a procedure that they say the Environment Ministry had informed the company to stop – i.e. truck to truck transfer of the propane, which they see as the cause of the accident which left one dead and a Toronto neighbourhood showered with asbestos.

Read More