The Property

Contractually speaking, in this section the parties identify the subject that they are buying/selling. i.e. the land, the building on the land and the items (attached or unattached) that are included.

1.1 (a) – Property Description

In this clause, you would write both the municipal address (e.g. 123 somestreet NW, Calgary, AB A1A 2B2) and the legal description (e.g. Plan 11111, Block 123, Lot 1). Including both information is recommended for the added certainty. The person writing the contract needs to ensure that the Seller’s name(s) matches that of the title holder(s).

1.1 (b) – Unattached Goods

Legally speaking, unattached goods (also known as personal property or chattels) do NOT form part of the land. As a result, if you like the seller to leave certain unattached goods, you would need to list them in this clause. The concept of unattached goods is self-explanatory. However, in practice, making this distinction may not be as easy. Is a chandelier unattached good, or attached? If you are the seller, you may answer this question differently than you would if you were a buyer. As a result, we always recommend our clients to write down all the major goods that they want the seller to leave for them in this clause. It is also a good practice to take photos from the items or write down details of the goods on the Contract. Simply writing a “white fridge” may not be descriptive enough to help resolve any future disputes.

1.1 (c) – Attached Goods

By law, attached goods form part of the land. Therefore, they are transferred to the buyer with the sale of the land (attached goods are generally goods that are affixed to the land/building or are not easily removed). Clause c helps identify attached goods that the seller is intending to take with him even though they are attached to the land/building. An example of such item could be the alarm system or some shelves. Again, if ever in doubt, error on the side of caution and do list the item that you are NOT going to leave for your buyer even if the item may not be considered an attached good.