CHBA names winners of 2020 National Awards for Housing Excellence
The Canadian Home Builders’ Association (CHBA) has announced the winners of the 2020 CHBA National Awards for Housing Excellence, celebrating the best of the best from across Canada.
Rosehaven Homes of Oakville, Ont. won the Marketing Excellence Award for overall success in marketing categories. Rosehaven also took home the marketing awards for Digital Media Campaign – Mid- to Highrise, and Print Ad, for The Randall Residences in Oakville. Rosehaven’s marketing was created with McOuat Partnership of Markham, Ont.
Minto Communities, another GTA builder, won the Net Zero Home Award, Mid- to Highrise Condo or Apartment Project (planned) for its Toronto development The Saint, Brochure/ Kit for 123 Portland, also in Toronto, and the Net Zero Home Award for the 2019 Minto Dream Home in support of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario.
Located at Church and Adelaide, The Saint is designed to honour the preserved historic buildings of the neighbourhood, including the nearby St. James Cathedral. Inside, Japanese minimalism inspired design with biophilic elements combine to create a serene environment, and 10,000 sq. ft. of amenity space focused on health and wellness provides residents with a home where they can “find their centre.”
For a complete list of winners, visit chba.ca.
Geranium is the first homebuilder in Canada to parcel this feature into the construction of an entire community. For Edgewood homeowners, this will mean reducing their annual water bill by approximately 20 per cent and, for a family of four, saving up to 30,000 litres of water in one year – an amount of water that could fill a 16-by-32-ft. rectangular swimming pool.
"Water is a precious resource and Canadians are one of the highest users per capita worldwide," says Boaz Feiner, president of Geranium. "At home, we use hundreds of litres of water daily by showering, bathing, flushing toilets, running dishwashers and washing machines. In 2013, we learned about Greyter's initiatives for the commercial market. Although there wasn't a residential system available in Canada, they were working towards changing that. Going forward, we decided to include the rough-in for a greywater system in our lowrise homes, something that would be much more costly to do if possible at all, once the house was built. By providing the rough-in, we are giving the owners of our homes the opportunity to buy and install a system when they became available for houses."
Greyter's Home system captures and treats shower and bathwater so it can be reused for flushing toilets. The entire compact system is installed inside the home, requires only five standard plumbing connections and is easy for a professional plumber to install. Additional features are its superior, proprietary filtration and treatment process; low maintenance; low energy requirements; and comes with a touchpad controller that handles all aspects of the system operation and provides the homeowner with performance data, maintenance reminders and tutorials.
Geranium and Greyter will share data collected from the Edgewood homes, with the City of Pickering and Durham Region. Geranium has been selected as the winner of the City of Pickering's 2019 Sustainability Award for its Edgewood community.
COVID-19 clauses in Agreements of Purchase and Sale are meant to protect the parties from delays and interruptions to their deal caused by issues relating to COVID-19, including illness, self-isolation or delays with third parties. However, a COVID-19 clause, which is not carefully drafted and reviewed, may cause unnecessary confusion or delay.
Consider, for example, a common clause which contemplates an extension of a real estate transaction where either party is subject to a mandatory COVID-19 quarantine and the agreement is automatically extended, at the request of either party, for a period of 14 days.
This clause doesn't consider a situation where a party is still sick after 14 days or where a party has to stay in isolation as other members of their household remain COVID positive. In addition, most people self-isolate voluntarily, rather than it being mandatory. Would this put a party, who is self-isolating to mitigate the risk of exposure or transmission to others, in breach of the agreement? And what if the party was able to close the deal remotely, using audiovideo technology? Would they be able to delay the transaction due to a quarantine despite their ability to close?
So, what if your real estate agent includes a COVID-19 clause in an offer, or you receive one from a potential buyer? Discuss the clause carefully with your agent and seek the advice of your real estate lawyer before signing the agreement. It's important to disclose what you are hoping to achieve should an unexpected situation arise.
Certainly, there are ways to protect both the buyer and the seller from complications which may arise as a result of COVID-19. But it's important that buyers and sellers are aware of the potential pitfalls with these clauses before including them in any contract or Agreement of Purchase and Sale.
The world as we know it has changed, and we must change with it. Protect yourself and your family by speaking to an experienced real estate lawyer, and they will guide you properly and protect you to the exclusion of all others from the dangers brought forward by COVID-19.
A good real estate lawyer should also ensure you have a will or Power of Attorney. The minute any real estate deal is firm, ensure that at a minimum you have a Power of Attorney in place in the event that you are physically or mentally unable to complete the transaction.
You must protect your family and yourself.
Jayson Schwarz LLM and Jacqueline Moneta are with Schwarz Law LLP. To suggest topics for future columns or ask questions, visit 
