I thought I would do a brief post today on the differences between a couple of American and Canadian terms.
Let’s start with the big one: attorney. In the U.S., an attorney is a lawyer. In Canada, an attorney is an agent. Here, we call ourselves simply lawyers. You ask an attorney to manage your affairs while you are on vacation; you hire a lawyer to close your real estate sale.
The other one that is fairly common is escrow. In the U.S., it is common to have escrow closings, where you bring your money in as much as a month before closing. In Ontario, it is very rare to have escrow closings. Generally, you will sign your documents ahead of time, but the money doesn’t go to the seller’s lawyer until the day of closing, almost at the moment that it is closed.
Any other terms you are curious about? Let me know!
