From firm deal to keys in hand — the lawyer, the Real Property Report, Land Titles, cash to close, and how possession day actually works.
Once your conditions are removed you have a firm, unconditional deal, and the transaction shifts from your REALTOR® to your lawyer. In Alberta, conveyancing is done by real estate lawyers — not notaries as in British Columbia, and not title companies as in much of the United States. If you are moving here from elsewhere, this is the first thing that will feel unfamiliar.
The second is a genuinely good surprise: Alberta has no land transfer tax. Buyers in Toronto or Vancouver routinely budget tens of thousands of dollars for it. Here you pay modest Land Titles registration fees based on property value and mortgage amount — usually a few hundred dollars in total.
The third is that the paperwork and the money move on a schedule that puts everything in place before possession day. By the time you are standing outside with a moving truck, the work is already done — or it is not, and you are not getting in. That is why the weeks between firm and possession matter.
Who does what, week by week, and the survey question every Alberta buyer has to answer.
Have a real estate lawyer selected before conditions come off. As soon as you are firm, we send the contract to them and your lender sends mortgage instructions. A lawyer retained late is a lawyer working against your possession date.
Your lawyer searches title to confirm the seller can convey it and to find registered encumbrances — mortgages, liens, caveats, easements, utility rights of way. They review the Real Property Report against the title and the municipality's compliance. They prepare the transfer documents and your mortgage documents, calculate the statement of adjustments, receive and hold your funds in trust, and handle registration.
Legal fees for a straightforward Calgary purchase generally run $1,200–$2,000 plus disbursements — title searches, registration fees, and courier costs. Ask for a quote that includes disbursements, because the headline fee alone is not the number you will pay. A purchase with a mortgage costs more than a cash purchase, and a condo slightly more than a detached home.
Not a family friend who practises family law. Conveyancing is procedural, deadline-driven work with its own conventions, and an experienced real estate firm closes hundreds of these a year. We are happy to recommend firms our clients have had good experiences with.
The contract goes to your lawyer and to your lender. Your lender prepares mortgage instructions and sends them to your lawyer — a step entirely outside your control and a common source of delay. This is also when you should book movers, arrange home insurance effective possession day, and start utility transfers.
Your lawyer completes title searches and reviews the Real Property Report. If there is a problem with the RPR or compliance, this is when it surfaces — and when there is still time to resolve it. Your insurance binder needs to be with your lender by now; lenders will not release funds without proof of insurance.
Your signing appointment. You sit down with your lawyer, sign the transfer and mortgage documents, and review the statement of adjustments. Bring government-issued photo ID. Ask questions here — this is the meeting where the numbers are explained and it is far better to query an adjustment now than after possession.
You deliver the balance of funds to your lawyer's trust account. Your lender advances the mortgage to your lawyer. Your lawyer registers the transfer and mortgage at Land Titles, and funds are released to the seller's lawyer under trust conditions. Then, and only then, keys are released.
An RPR is a legal survey drawing showing the property boundaries and the location of all structures — house, garage, deck, shed, fence. With a municipal compliance stamp, the City confirms those structures comply with bylaws and setbacks. In Alberta it is customarily the seller's obligation to provide a current RPR with compliance.
A garage built over the property line. A deck encroaching on a utility right of way. A fence two feet into the neighbour's yard. An addition without a permit. These matter: an encroachment can require removal, and non-compliance can be expensive to remedy after you own it.
Where an RPR is missing or outdated, the common alternative is title insurance — a policy protecting you and your lender against certain title defects and survey problems. It is cheaper and faster, which is why it is often preferred.
But understand the difference. Title insurance compensates you for certain losses; it does not tell you where your property line is. If you plan to build a fence, add a garage, or develop the yard, an accurate RPR is genuinely useful information that a policy does not give you.
They will advise on which is appropriate for your specific property. On an older home with structures that may pre-date current setbacks, or where you have plans for the yard, push for the RPR.
Chapter one said retain early. This is how to choose, because the lawyer is the only professional in the deal whose timing you cannot work around.
Conveyancing is routine when it is done every day and risky when it is done occasionally. Ask how many residential closings the office handles in a month and who in the office will actually run your file; often it is an experienced conveyancer with the lawyer reviewing, and that is a good sign, not a bad one.
The week before closing, questions need answers the same day. Ask how the office communicates, whether you will have a direct line to the person on your file, and what happens if your lawyer is away on possession day.
Ask for a written quote that separates the legal fee from disbursements: Land Titles registration, title searches, couriers, title insurance if used. The fee is the smaller part of what you pay; the disbursements are set by others and should be shown as estimates.
In Alberta, buyer and seller are generally represented separately in a purchase and sale. If one office acts for both, it will explain the conditions under which that is permitted and when you would need independent advice. When in doubt, choose your own.
Your lawyer cannot close until the lender sends its instructions and its money. Understanding that sequence explains most of the waiting in the last two weeks.
Your lender approving the mortgage is step one. Step two is the lender sending formal instructions to your lawyer: the loan details, the conditions the lawyer must confirm, and the documents to be signed. Those instructions often arrive days after approval, and nothing can be signed until they do.
That title is clear, that the property matches the lender's security, that insurance is in place from possession, that your identity has been verified, and that any conditions in the commitment, like a paid-out debt or a verified down payment source, are met. Each one is a document you may be asked for.
The lender advances the mortgage money to the lawyer's trust account on or just before the closing date, after the signed documents are returned. Late paperwork on your side delays the advance, and a late advance delays the keys.
Lenders instruct close to closing by design. The practical answer is to have everything on your side done early, so the only thing your lawyer waits for is the lender.
What you actually need in cash, how registration works, and what happens on the day.
On top of your down payment, plan for roughly 1.5% of the purchase price in closing costs. On an $600,000 Calgary home that is around $9,000 — and it is money that must be available in cash, not rolled into the mortgage.
Legal fees and disbursements. Land Titles registration fees for the transfer and mortgage. Property tax and condo fee adjustments reimbursing the seller. Home insurance first payment. Your appraisal and inspection, if not already paid. If your down payment is under 20%, GST on your CMHC or Sagen mortgage default insurance premium — the premium itself is added to the mortgage, but the GST on it is payable in cash at closing and surprises many first-time buyers.
Worth repeating because it materially changes the arithmetic against other Canadian markets. Alberta charges Land Titles registration fees calculated on property value and mortgage amount — typically a few hundred dollars, not tens of thousands.
Your lawyer will require certified funds — a bank draft or wire transfer — usually one to two business days before possession. E-transfer limits will not cover a down payment, and this trips people up constantly. Confirm the exact amount and deadline at your signing appointment, and arrange the draft with your bank in advance.
Your lender does not hand money to the seller. It advances to your lawyer's trust account. Your lawyer then submits the transfer and mortgage for registration at Alberta Land Titles and releases funds to the seller's lawyer under trust conditions — binding professional undertakings about what may happen to the money and when.
Alberta Land Titles registration is not instantaneous, and processing times have at points stretched to weeks. Lawyers bridge this gap with trust conditions and, where appropriate, title insurance, so that possession is not held hostage to a queue at the registry. This is normal and well established — but it is why your lawyer's trust conditions matter and why funds sometimes appear to sit briefly in limbo.
Practically: your possession does not usually wait for the registry, but it absolutely waits for your funds and your lender's advance. The most common reason a buyer does not get keys at noon is not the registry — it is money that arrived late.
Once registration completes, your lawyer sends you a reporting letter with a copy of the registered title and the final statement of account. Read it and file it. It confirms what is registered against your property, including your mortgage and any easements or restrictive covenants.
Alberta possession is commonly set for 12:00 pm on the possession date, though the contract governs. Keys are released once your lawyer confirms funds have flowed to the seller's side. Do not book movers for 9:00 am — and do not book a mover who charges you to wait.
In most Calgary transactions your right to view the property before possession is already written into the purchase contract — it is a term of the deal rather than a favour you are asking for. We arrange the timing, typically the day before possession. You are confirming that the home is in substantially the condition it was in when you wrote the offer, that everything included in the contract is present and working, and that nothing was damaged during the seller's move.
Tell us immediately, before funds are released if at all possible. Once the transaction closes, your remedies narrow considerably and you are pursuing the seller rather than adjusting a deal. Common issues are goods left behind, damage from moving, or included appliances that have been swapped for older ones.
Change the locks — you have no idea how many keys exist. Locate the main water shut-off and the electrical panel. Confirm utilities are in your name and running. Photograph the meters. Then stop, and enjoy it.
A few days before closing you sit down with your lawyer for an hour. Knowing what is in the pile makes the hour useful rather than a blur.
The mortgage and its supporting documents, the transfer of land, a statutory declaration about your residency and the use of the home, direction regarding title, the statement of adjustments, and your instructions on funds. Bring two pieces of identification and the balance of your funds by certified cheque or bank draft, or have the wire confirmed.
The transfer of land, a declaration confirming you are the owner and a resident, the payout direction for your mortgage, the statement of adjustments, the RPR and compliance, and the direction for where your proceeds go. Bring identification and the keys, or confirm how they will be delivered.
The statement of adjustments is the document to read line by line; the rest are largely standard. Ask about any figure that does not match your contract or your lender's commitment. Corrections are easy at the table and awkward afterwards.
Sign at least two business days before possession. Lawyers need the signed documents back from the lender's review and the funds cleared before they can release anything on the day.
On closing day, documents and money cross between two law offices before Land Titles has registered anything. Trust conditions are what make that safe.
The buyer will not pay without title, and the seller will not sign title away without payment. Registration at Land Titles takes time after closing. So the lawyers exchange documents and funds under conditions each is professionally bound to honour, and the registration follows.
The seller's lawyer sends the signed transfer to the buyer's lawyer on trust that it will not be used until the funds are paid. The buyer's lawyer sends the funds on trust that title will be clear and the seller's mortgage discharged. Each lawyer's undertaking is enforceable against them personally, which is why the system works.
The seller's lawyer uses the sale proceeds to pay out the seller's lender and undertakes to register the discharge. The buyer's new mortgage registers in the meantime. The discharge can take weeks to appear on title; your lawyer tracks it.
Keys can be released once funds have been received and the trust conditions are met, usually around noon on possession day, even though the title will not show your name for some days. That gap is normal and protected.
Most closings happen on the day, around the time expected. When one does not, the contract and the lawyers have a routine for it, and knowing it takes the panic out.
A lender's funds arriving late in the day, a document that needed re-signing, a wire held at a bank for verification, a discharge statement from the seller's lender that came late, or a seller not out of the home on time. Few are anyone's fault; all push the clock.
The usual outcome. Keys are released when funds land, even if that is late afternoon. Movers with a flexible window, and a plan for where the truck waits, keep a late key release from becoming a crisis.
If funds cannot be completed on the day, the lawyers agree a short extension in writing. The standard contract provides for interest payable by the party whose funds were late, and the lawyers calculate it. Insurance and utility start dates need a call.
In rare cases a buyer is allowed into the home before funds complete, under a written agreement with a daily rate and conditions. It is a lawyer's decision, not an agent's, and it carries risk for the seller, so it is granted sparingly.
The keys are not the end. A handful of things complete in the weeks after, and a few are yours to do.
Your lawyer reports when the transfer and the mortgage have registered at Land Titles and sends you a copy of the new title. Check that the names and the legal description are right, and keep it with the closing documents.
A final letter from your lawyer summarising what was done, enclosing the statement of adjustments, the registered documents and the trust accounting. This is the file you will need when you sell, refinance or deal with the tax authority.
Confirm the property tax account has moved to your name and decide whether to pay by monthly instalment. Utilities should already be in your name from possession; check the first bills start at the right reading.
Your policy should be in force from possession day; confirm the premium was paid and the policy issued, not just bound. Register any appliance or new-home warranties in your name, and keep the inspection report with them for the first-year review.
We keep your lawyer, your lender and the seller's side moving in the same direction, arrange the pre-possession walk-through, and make sure nobody discovers a problem on the morning the moving truck arrives.
Signing appointment, funds deadline, possession time, and the walk-through — we will put the whole sequence on one page so you know exactly what is expected and when.
Book a CallThis guide is for general information only and is not legal, financial, insurance, inspection, tax, or condo document review advice.
Buyers and homeowners should seek advice from appropriate professionals — including their lawyer, mortgage professional, home inspector, insurance provider, qualified condo document reviewer, accountant where applicable, and REALTOR® — before making decisions or removing conditions.
Calgary Listings Group — Calgary buyers and sellers since 1997.
