Buying a home in Alberta, four questions about the paperwork

Dog-ears

Alberta's purchase paperwork uses instruments that exist here and do not exist in every province. Four questions below. Each one is answered from the document it comes from, and the document is named.

Does Alberta have a land transfer tax?

No. Alberta charges a Land Titles registration levy instead. The current levy took effect on October 20 2024, and it applies as a flat charge on each registration plus a variable charge scaled to value. Alberta Land Titles publishes the schedule under the Tariff of Fees Regulation, and that schedule carries the current number.

Two registrations happen on a financed purchase. The transfer of land moves title into your name. The mortgage registration puts your lender on it. Each carries its own charge, a purchase made without a mortgage carries only the first, and both sit alongside the other one-time amounts due at closing that are set out on our closing costs page.

The name is why the question keeps arriving. National material budgets for a line Alberta does not have, and the charge that does exist is calculated on a different basis.

Do I need a lawyer to buy a house in Alberta?

Changing ownership means registering a Transfer of Land, and transfers of land are regulated under the Land Titles Act. The Government of Alberta's own information sheet on that form closes by saying that Land Titles and Surveys staff cannot assist with completing the documents, and it directs anyone unsure of the forms to seek legal assistance.

The form asks for more than a name and an address. It wants the full legal land description of the property. The civic address will not do. It wants the consideration, the current value of the land including everything built on it, the type of tenancy the new owners will hold, the name and address of the person witnessing the seller's signature, and a Commissioner for Oaths.

Dower requirements attach where a married owner holds title alone to a homestead. They resolve through a Consent and Acknowledgement by Spouse, a Dower Affidavit, a Release of Dower Rights with its supporting affidavit, or a court order dispensing with dower. More of the vocabulary is in our financial terms glossary.

One choice on that form outlives the transaction. Two or more buyers who do not specify joint tenancy become tenants in common by default, and a tenant in common's share passes to their estate. The co-owner does not inherit it, and the will has to be probated.

Who provides the Real Property Report?

The seller, under the standard contract. Clause 10.2 of the Alberta Real Estate Association's residential purchase contract requires the closing documents to include an RPR showing the current improvements on the property according to the Alberta Land Surveyors' Association Manual of Standard Practice, with evidence of municipal compliance or non-conformance. Clause 10.8 puts the cost of preparing it on the seller.

An RPR is drawn by an Alberta Land Surveyor. It carries the legal description and the municipal address, the certificate of title number and the registered owners, the location and dimensions of the visible improvements measured against the boundaries, anything crossing into a neighbouring lot or onto public land, and the easements and rights-of-way registered on title.

The compliance stamp is a separate document from a separate office. In Calgary a Certificate of Compliance is the City confirming that the locations of structures on a property comply with the Land Use Bylaw. The City describes it on its own page as a service the City provides, and says plainly that it is not a legislative requirement. A lender or a lawyer is usually the one asking for it.

The stamp reaches less far than the name suggests. The City excludes building code requirements and permit history from it, and the review does not look at fences, retaining walls, driveway width, patios, parcel coverage, building height, or accessory buildings under ten square metres.

Clause 10.2 also gives the buyer or the buyer's lawyer a reasonable time to review the report before the transfer documents go to Land Titles, and the rest of the offer sequence is on our page about making an offer.

The obligation drops away entirely where there are no structures on the land.

Is the deposit the same as the down payment?

No. They are two numbers in two different clauses. Clause 4.3 of the residential purchase contract has the buyer pay a deposit to a trustee, and it says the deposit forms part of the purchase price. Clause 8.2(a), the financing condition, separately names an intended down payment as a percentage of that same purchase price.

The deposit goes to a trustee appointed at clause 4.2, and clause 4.1 makes clauses 4.2 through 4.8 the terms of trust for it. Clause 4.6 gives the trustee three business days from receipt to place the money in a trust account. The Real Estate Act Rules require a brokerage to reconcile its trust accounts at least monthly and to file an independent trust audit each year.

Because the deposit forms part of the purchase price, it is credited to you at closing. It is early money against the same total, and it arrives long before a lender advances anything. The financing condition assumes the lender is already in the picture, which is what a mortgage pre-approval is for.

The amount is negotiated with the offer, and the timing is set on the same clause.

For your numbers, talk to a mortgage professional.