I was going to do a nice long post with various photographs but apparently my camera does not want to upload any pictures to this computer today. I have tried for quite awhile and still nothing. I will have to upload them to my mom's laptop later and then just add them in. So if you are reading this and there are photos, you have got the updated version!
Work is going by rather smoothly now! I am making far less mistakes on both purchases and sales. Sales are far easier to do but because one of my co-workers pretty much exclusively does sales, I tend to do more purchases. Which means I still make too many mistakes on sales. That and the one girl who does mostly sales is pretty ridiculously meticulous and comes down on me for every little thing that goes wrong on any file that I work on... Crazy lady!
I did my first Transfer file today! Yay! It's not done yet since the client will not be coming in to sign the documents until next Wednesday, but I have all of the documents prepared! A Transfer file is a lot easier than any of the other files but I had never done one before. Usually when we do one it's between husband and wife. Say, for instance, there is just the husband on title. He may want his wife to now take title to the property or he may want for both he and his wife to take title to the property jointly. This can be for many reasons but mostly to avoid making a Will they can take title together so that if something were to happen to one of them, their share of the property would go directly to the other person without having to go through probate or worry about any other people claiming they have rights to the property. Anyways, that is exactly what is going on with this file. The Husband owned the property prior to being married and now he is married and wants his wife to be on title too. There are far less documents that need to be signed and there is no other lawyer involved. I prepare the Transfer by myself. Both people come in and Acknowledge that this transfer is occuring. And when everything is signed, the Transfer gets registered in Teraview and is available at the Land Registry Office. I still do not do the registereing part but I think come September, I will be able to get cracking on that aspect of it. The bossman said that I will soon get to review my own Status Certificate also, as well as sit in on a few sign ups that either he or the other lawyer do. Yay!
We have had our fair share of crazies lately. One client told me that the bank/mortgage company paid her property taxes. She was mistaken. Really, she was on a pre-authorized payment and her taxes were taken out of her bank account by the City automatically. Once I found this out, I told her that we would need the proof that these taxes have in fact been paid. She kept telling me over and over and over again that the bank paid them. She refused to listen to me. She refused to even acknowledge that I was speaking at one point and said that I kept asking the same questions. I proceeded to tell her that there was no need for her to yell at me - three times I said this. I then hung up the phone and gave the file to the lawyer to deal with. That's one thing I like about this place - whenever there is trouble, I can always pass the file on to a higher up! This lady was a real piece of work though. Before all of this went down, she had called to ask our receptionist which suite we were in. The receptionist was telling her the whole address but was cut off by the crazy lady and told that she obviously knew where we were located! So the receptionist hung up. A couple of days later, the Receptionist is following up with this lady since she is supposed to have dropped off our Sale Questionnaire by that point. The lady said she dropped it off! However, she dropped it off at the wrong building. At a building that our law firm has not acted out of for over three years. At a building and in a suite where she didn't even look at the name on the door. She just left the questionnaire on the desk and left without saying anything or asking any questions. WHAT A NUT!! So instead of filling out another questionnaire, she makes the Receptionist do it over the phone with her. Then I of course have to call her ten different times to clarify everytthing that is on the questionnaire because a lot of it isn't filled out properly. Oy. And to top the whole thing off, she had a line of credit on her property. When we pay off a line of credit, we holdback quite a bit of money - usually the difference between the amount we need to pay to the bank (the amount the client owes) and the amount that the bank registered on title as a charge/mortgage. Sometimes this can be a really really large amount. So we are holding back this money and she calls today to see if the cheque is ready yet. It's not ready until we hear back from the bank that the line of credit has been closed. We have not yet heard. I tell her this and she then tells me what I am doing is illegal and her bank says that I am not allowed to do that. The banks are always fucking with me. With all of us! But I tell her it's not illegal and all they need to do is sign the fax that I sent to them to say that the line of credit has been closed. Not a hard thing to do but the banks never want to accommodate us and then the clients go off their rockers. It makes sense to hold back this money. If the line of credit is not closed, the client can still draw on their account and then we would be on the hook to pay the difference because we undertook to pay out that mortgage/line. And if we don't holdback, then we would have to pay out of our own pockets. I do not think bossman would be too pleased about that.
Another crazy is actually a legal secretary acting for the purchaser on one of the sale files that I was working on. She had ordered a tax certificate to see if my client had any taxes on the property that he had yet to pay. Understandable. She then calls to tell me this is the case. Fine. He owes however much money. She then calls me EVERY SINGLE DAY, sometimes two or three times, to let me know that the client still has not made this payment. I then call the tax department who is not supposed to talk to me because I wasn't the one who ordered the tax certificate. They are very funny that way. Very secretive about people's taxes and the amount that they have paid. The lady there tells me she's not supposed to talk to me but she is going to becasue she has spoken with this crazy legal secretary and can understand why I am so damn confused. So she gives me the exact number that we will need to pay to the tax department on closing so that our client is paid up to date. Perfect. The crazo calls again and I entered a number in wrong. I admit to it. (I know - that's usually really hard for me to do!) But instead of just saying thank you and send me the amended copy, she needs to go on for like ten minutes about how I'm wrong and why it's wrong and yadda yadda yadda. I nearly got out of my chair and walked over to the damn lady's office down on Don Mills to punch her in the face. Instead, one of ladies in my office told me just to hang up on her. So I said Buh Bye. On the day of closing, which was yesterday, I pass off the file to another girl in the office. She was having such a hard time with this lady too. She would call and then fax two seconds later exactly what she just called about! So damn annoying. And then call to see if we got the fax. At one point, the girl who handled the closing was trying to explain to her why we hadn't received the payout statement yet for the mortgage that we had to payout and discharge that was on the property. But this crazo kept interupting her and wouldn't let her get her whole explaination in. This girl rarely gets mad and she was fuming. She told her several times to be quiet because she was still talking! That was great. She pissed everyone off at the office. I finally faxed her and told her to only communicate by fax from then on as we were no longer going to accept her phone calls. At least I was not the only one who couldn't get along with this crazo!
I was going to go into the fun times that have been had lately but since my photos still won't work and it's time for my bedtime, that update will have to be next week. I will be able to add this weekend of fun in Brantford where I am attending a wedding to the list of excitement I've had over the past few weeks. I can't believe how busy I have been. Especially since the cash flow isn't all that great! haha I'm not sure how many other articling students have so much free time (well not exactly free but at least time away from the office). I'm glad I lucked out by working here. I can leave my work at work and still enjoy my evenings and weekends how they should be enjoyed!
