Professor Michael Pratt wrote a new book, “Termination and Rescission of Agreements for the Purchase and Sale of Land” (LexisNexis), as a resource for real estate lawyers judges, and students.
Professor Michael Pratt wrote a new book, “Termination and Rescission of Agreements for the Purchase and Sale of Land” (LexisNexis), as a resource for real estate lawyers judges, and students.

When Professor Michael Pratt was looking for some literature to assign to his students to deepen their appreciation of land transactions, he was struck by the lack of scholarly work in the area. “Most of the work on real estate law in Canada is written by practitioners,” he says. “Much of it is quite good, but it is not particularly rigorous or penetrating.”

As a scholar, he notes that “the contemporary law of real estate is an intricate weaving-together of the common law of contract and property, and of equity. The result is a body of law that is different than the sum of these parts, a fascinating amalgam of principles and rules from several legal domains that have over the centuries been refashioned or refined to govern the purchase and sale of land. This intricate weaving-together, and the deep common law roots of land transactions, are ignored by most treatments of real estate law in Canada. 

“So,” he continues, “I decided to write the book I could not find. It is, I like to think, a book that brings together rigorous scholarly analysis and practical insight.”

That book, Termination and Rescission of Agreements for the Purchase and Sale of Land (LexisNexis), is a resource for thoughtful real estate lawyers, for judges, and for students of real estate law.

This new resource provides comprehensive answers to questions about when a party is permitted to terminate an agreement for the purchase and sale of land before closing and the circumstances in which a party can rescind such an agreement before the deal closes.

While the great majority of land sales usually close without difficulty, sometimes things do not go smoothly. “Sometimes disputes arise, and when they do one of the parties may want out of the deal. The discontented party may refuse to complete the sale, or take steps to reverse the completed transaction,” Pratt explains. “My book is about the law that governs in these situations. It considers when the law will permit a party to terminate an agreement for the purchase and sale of land before it closes, and when it will order rescission of such an agreement after completion.”

(Professor Pratt won second place in the 2023 Walter Owen Book Prize. The prize, awarded by the Canadian Foundation for Legal Research, recognizes his book's outstanding contribution to Canadian legal literature on an essential practice topic of high value to law practitioners, judges, and academics.)