Sumner5

Dear All

Fully acknowledging all risks associated with this route we are about to arrive in Nova Scotia to purchase a property BEFORE we have secured PR through the FSW route (we anticipate securing PR in Oct/Nov - docs have been in London since May).

We have prepared a B4 Goods to Follow form and ticked the seasonal resident box but are a little nervous that immigration may question our intentions...

Does anyone have experience of this or any helpful guidance to share with us?

With thanks.

airbornesapper

Plenty of folks own property in countries in which they will never have PR status particularly Canada.

Buy what you want, if you never get PR (hope you do) then you will be a seasonal resident until you flog it.

I think you are worrying too much....about nothing....

Sumner5

Thanks for the helpful perspective airbornesapper.

Northernlass1

We bought ours in March before we got med requests. As part of the deal we asked for a closing date nearer to the time we reckoned we'd land which for us was July 4 and the vendor agreed to this. Once offer is accepted the house is yours so much quicker than UK. Happy house hunting!

Almost Canadian

Not so, once the offer is accepting in England and Wales the house is your`s as well. What most don`t realise is that the offer and acceptance only occur in England and Wales once written contracts have been exchanged, exactly the same as in Canada

fledermaus

Yep, but the British system means your lawyer has time to do the searches and ask a few questions rather than the Canadian system of a realtor scribbling some notes on a document and relying on their local knowledge.

Or am I wrong????

iaink

There is still plenty of scope for lawyers to run searches etc, the basic contract has stipulations/waivers to cover all that, and lawyers still get to do all that.

The main difference here I think is once an offer is accepted it hard to get gazzumped, you can be pretty sure that as long as the waiver conditions are met on both sides (financing, water quality,home inspection yadda yadda yadda) then the deal will go through.

Aviator

The only difference I guess is timing. An offer to purchase in the UK takes place long before contracts are exchanged and the buyer or seller can pull out anytime before that without redress, even after expending money on the legal process. Here the offer to purchase is a contract once accepted and occurs at the beginning of the process before any legal expenses have been incurred.

Steve_

Er... I think your house has to be your pimary residence to qualify for the GST rebate (if it's a new or improved house, otherwise there is no GST). Have a read of page 7 of this under "primary place of residence": http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/gp/rc4028/rc4028-10e.pdf

I seem to recall I had to sign something when I bought my house saying it would be my principal residence.

Worth bearing in mind.

BC15

The only problems you may have are the following:

1. A mortgage might be hard to come by until you are a PR.
2. If you fail to become a PR your non-PR status will mean that when you sell the property you will have to pay GST on the sale (I'm not sure if this now means HST in Ontario). As far as the taxman goes you have become a property-owning alien.

In Canada you make an offer in writing on a form called Agreement of Purchase and Sale. You can include as many conditions as you like with your offer. Once the conditions are waived and accepted you are legally bound to purchase the property, in fact the written offer itself becomes a legally binding document. You can only change any of the details of the agreement by mutual consent with the Seller. I have known this to happen with the 'closing date' (the date the property changes ownership). Please feel free to pm me for me info.

JonboyE

There is no GST/HST on the sale of a second hand residential unit (single or multi-family). There could be a taxable capital gain. This maybe what you meant.

The tax rules if the seller is a non-resident for tax purposes (not necessarily the same as non-resident for immigration purposes) are in section 4.2 here ...

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Tax_an...e_Sales-Canada

flipance

I can see one problem, to be a seasonal resident you must already own or lease a property in Nova Scotia, so the goods to follow may not be accepted? If that happens you could flagpole in Halifax to get them in, or they may accept them if they arrive after you have bought a place? Interesting.....

Sumner5

Hi Flipance That is a VERY interesting point you've raised. Forgive me but I am not familiar with the term 'flagpole' - what do you mean?

Steve_

Important point to remember here is that CGT is assessed the whole time it's not your primary residence, so even if it becomes your primary residence, the CGT is assessed for the period while it's not.

The CRA told me once that if you claim the tax deduction for a home office that means it's no longer part of your residence so that becomes subject to CGT too, which basically makes the deduction worthless, imo. Been told this several different ways by different people, never seem to be able to get a straight answer about it.

Steve_

That's not a problem, goods enter duty-free even as a seasonal resident. You just put them down on the B4. You only get into hot water if you dispose of them within 12 months of importing them.

I actually had a chat with them about this years ago, I got the impression it's sort of a reciprocal agreement with the US that pre-dates NAFTA because so many Canadians and Americans have vacation homes in the other country. Nowadays it wouldn't be that much of an issue as the majority of your goods would be duty-free under NAFTA anyway. (The US requires that you have possessed the goods for at least six months prior to entry, iirc.) Canada has a "gotcha" clause on cars, if the car is valued over $10,000, you must pay duty unless it's exempt under NAFTA.