What Kind of Fees Come With Buying a Home?

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The following information is intended to give a purchaser a greater understanding of costs included in the purchase of a home. 

The purchaser can anticipate a legal fee of $1,130.00 for a standard purchase of a residential house, which includes the preparation of new mortgage documents. An additional fee may be charged to draft or review the Offer to Purchase.

Legal fees may vary depending on the complexity or issues arising out of the transaction in question.

Disbursements are out-of-pocket expenses that the lawyer typically pays on the purchaser’s behalf and then recovers from the purchaser later.

This is a government tax on the transfer of property, paid to the Land Titles Offices. It is a percentage of your purchase price. The Province of Manitoba imposes a land transfer tax calculated as a percentage of the transferred property as follows:

First $30,000 – 0.0%
$30,001 to $90,000 – 0.5%
$90,001 to $150,000 – 1.0%
$150,001 to $200,000 – 1.5%
Over $200,000 – 2.0%

The cost of registering a mortgage is $137.00. The cost of registering a Transfer of Land is $137.00.

We will contact the Vendor’s lawyer to determine if an existing updated original survey certificate is available. If, however, no such survey is available, or if other structures have been added to the property since the preparation of the existing survey, a new survey may be required.

This certificate is required to verify whether the structure shown on the Survey Certificate complies with city zoning regulations as to yards and alignments. The City of Winnipeg currently charges approximately $64.00 for a Zoning Memorandum for a single-family and two-family dwelling.

Instead of a survey and zoning memorandum, some lenders may accept Title Insurance. The cost of Title Insurance is approximately $695.00 (lender/owner policy).

This certificate indicates whether or not there are any unpaid realty taxes. The City of Winnipeg currently charges $54.00 for a Tax Certificate.

This cost refers to searching the title and ordering copies of encumbrances registered against the title. The current fee for a title search is $33.00.

For those who want to pay yearly, the due date is June 30 for Winnipeg properties. For those who want to enrol in the monthly Tax Installment Payment Plan (T.I.P.P.), the due date is the first of each month.

If the mortgage proceeds are released after the possession date, the Buyer will have to pay the Seller the interest at the mortgage interest rate until the full balance is paid to the Seller. This shouldn’t be longer than 7 days.

GST and PST are payable on legal fees. GST is payable on most disbursements, but not on Land Titles Office fees or land transfer tax.

These costs include courier fees, clerk fees, file materials, file opening and document production fees, postage, and photocopying and printing charges, which may range from $137.50 upward, depending on the transaction.