Law360 Canada ( July 25, 2022, 9:29 AM EDT) -- Appeal by the defendant law firm and lawyer from an order requiring them to pay $74,000 in damages to the plaintiff client. After the plaintiff, a foreign national, separated from her common law husband in 2016, he agreed to transfer his 50 per cent interest in a residential strata lot to her. The defendants advised the plaintiff she would have to pay foreign national tax if the transfer occurred before she became a permanent resident. The plaintiff’s mortgage commitment expired in March 2017. The transfer was filed in January 2017, based on the 2016 valuation of the property, and the plaintiff paid both the property transfer tax and the foreign buyer’s tax. In March 2017, a retroactive exemption to the foreign buyer’s tax was enacted, effective August 2017. In January 2018, the property was reassessed, based on the 2017 valuation, resulting in a further foreign buyer’s tax liability of $23,492, which the plaintiff paid. The plaintiff became a Canadian permanent resident in February 2018. She applied for a refund of the foreign buyer’s tax but was denied as the transfer was not within one year of her becoming a permanent resident....