Alberta Dower Act Consultation Summary

This document summarizes the results of consultations ALRI conducted for the it’s law reform project on the Alberta Dower Act. ALRI ran two online surveys. Both surveys were open from 3 December 2021 to 7 March 2022. One survey was aimed at the general public – the general survey. Another survey was aimed at professionals who use the Dower Act in their work, including lawyers, real estate brokers and agents, landmen, and estate planners or administrators […]

September 9, 2022

Dower Act: Life Estate, Report for Discussion 37

The Dower Act protects a spouse if the couple’s home is owned by the other spouse. It applies to a “homestead” which is a parcel of land where the owner lives or has lived. The Dower Act became law in Alberta over one hundred years ago. The last substantial reforms were in 1948. The Alberta Law Reform Institute’s (ALRI) research and consultation shows that the Dower Act functions largely as intended, but it is outdated […]

November 24, 2021

Dower Act: Consent to Disposition, Report for Discussion 36

The Dower Act protects a spouse if the couple’s home is owned by the other spouse. It applies to a “homestead” which is a parcel of land where the owner lives or has lived. The Dower Act became law in Alberta over one hundred years ago. The last substantial reforms were in 1948. The Alberta Law Reform Institute’s (ALRI) research and consultation shows that the Dower Act functions largely as intended, but it is outdated […]

November 23, 2021

Cost of Credit Disclosure, Final Report 82

There is an inherent tension in cost of credit disclosure legislation. The legislative objective is to assist consumers in getting the information they need at the time they need it to make informed choices about whether to get credit and where to get it. Increasing the disclosure burden on credit grantors increases their costs, and credit grantors will naturally attempt to pass these costs on to consumers and the requirements will exceed the incremental benefit […]

February 29, 2000

Partition and Sale, Final Report 23

This report is a study of the law of partition and alternative methods of termination of co-ownership and contains a draft Act. The matrimonial home is the most common, but not the only, example of property which is the subject of co-ownership in Alberta. Alberta and Saskatchewan are the only two provinces in Canada that do not have revised legislation providing for termination of co-ownership. The current law in Alberta is contained in three English […]

March 1, 1977

Residential Tenancies, Final Report 22

This extensive report is the product of research the Institute undertook regarding the law relating to tenancies of residential premises, which is the part of the law of landlord and tenant. It includes a proposed Act that balances the interests of landlords and tenants with the hope that it will provide a satisfactory legal framework for their activities. A plan for a security of tenure is discussed and included to assist in making an informed […]

February 1, 1977

Contract or Property Law; Form and Delivery of Lease; Right to Assign and Sublet, Research Paper 7

The laws of contract and property are fundamentally different, with different common law, equitable, and statutory guarantees coming into play when dealing respectively with property and with a contract. The first part of this paper considers whether the relationship between landlord and tenant, as determined by the Residential Tenancies Act at the time of publication, should be regulated by the law of property or the law of contract, and how this regulation should work. The second part […]

November 4, 1975

Resolution of Disputes; Landlord and Tenant (Advisory) Boards; Distress, Research Paper 6

This paper addresses several issues related to the resolution of disputes between landlords and tenants, and is broken into three sections. The first section is a broad overview of extra-judicial processes for resolving disputes between landlords and tenants, and includes and overview of the process as conducted in Alberta at the time of publication, as well as a listing of issues relevant to any similar dispute resolution process. The second section is a survey of […]

Termination Procedures; Failure of Tenants to Pay Rent; Overholding Tenants, Research Paper 4

This paper deals generally with issues that arise at the ending of the legal relationship between a landlord and a tenant. Each section of the paper includes an informative introduction, a survey of legal rules throughout jurisdictions in Canada (at the time of publication), and issues raised around the topic of the section. The first section of this paper deals generally with the termination of the landlord and tenant relationship, and specifically with three aspects […]

Rent Control: Security of Tenure, Research Paper 1

This paper, which is in two parts, addresses questions of governmental action to ensure the availability of affordable and secure housing. The first section of the paper addresses rent control, i.e. statutory control over how much a landlord may charge in rent. The paper discusses: different systems of rent control, arguments for and against rent control, alternatives to rent control, and, issues that must be addressed when considering rent control. The first section also includes […]