Michael is a real estate lawyer whose practice focuses upon commercial real estate transactions and real estate disputes. Michael’s cross disciplinary practice gives him a unique appreciation for the risk and rewards of real estate which informs the legal services he provides to his clients.
Michael is a member of our Business and Real Estate Law Groups. He is also co-chair of the firm’s Real Estate Practice Group.
Michael’s practice primarily serves owners and operators of commercial real estate investments and real estate professionals. His law practice is cross disciplinary in that he is both transaction and litigation counsel, allowing for the delivery of consistent and cost-effective legal advice and advocacy to his clients in a dynamic business environment.
Michael’s real estate transaction practice is focused on the purchase, sale, leasing and financing of commercial real estate, and includes extensive experience with multi-family and manufactured home park transactions. His dispute resolution practice is balanced between real estate disputes, construction, landlord and tenant, and for-profit residential housing regulation and administrative law. He also advises real estate brokers about their professional responsibilities under the Real Estate Services Act.
Michael’s significant and diverse connection to the real estate industry ranges from an academic background in real estate, a previous career as a real estate broker and property manager, and board membership in the largest trade association of residential landlords in British Columbia. He has also written extensively on the subject of real estate, including a Canadian best-selling book, “Landlording in Canada”, part of the Sauder School of Business pre-licensing course materials for real estate brokers, and a treatise on the subject of manufactured housing law in British Columbia.
Michael’s representative real estate legal services includes the following:
- Acting for an institutional client for its purchase of a multimillion dollar apartment building portfolio located in the Lower Mainland.
- Negotiating the terms of the lease of two floors of a premier office building in downtown Vancouver on behalf of a tenant.
- Acting for a publicly traded mortgage investment corporation with respect to its financing of a multimillion dollar commercial real estate portfolio.
- Representing a developer alleged to have misrepresented a material fact in contravention of the Real Estate Development Marketing Act in a disclosure statement prepared for a strata pre-sale development
- Obtaining an order from the Residential Tenancy Branch of British Columbia permitting a manufactured home park landlord to increase the rents of all of its tenants above the maximum ordinarily permitted by statute because of an extraordinary capital expense
- Representing a purchaser of residential real estate before the Supreme Court of British Columbia for the purpose of obtaining a court order compelling a vendor to complete the sale of the property
Michael is also one of the few lawyers in British Columbia who routinely advises manufactured home park owners about various matters involving the Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Act.
Education
- Thompson Rivers University Open Learning Division, Bachelor of General Studies, 2013
- University of Victoria, J.D., 2011
- Thompson Rivers University Open Learning Division, Diploma in General Studies, 2009
- Sauder School of Business UBC, Letter of Recognition, Advanced Studies in Real Estate, 2007
- Sauder School of Business UBC, Diploma in Urban Land Economics, 2005
Bar Admission
- British Columbia, 2012
Leadership
- Co-Chair, Harper Grey Real Estate Group
- Director – LandlordBC
- Executive Member, Canadian Bar Association, Real Property Section
- Author, 4th Edition of Landlording in Canada, 2016, Self-Counsel Press Legal Series
Membership
- Professional Member, Real Estate Institute of British Columbia
- Associate Member, Manufactured Home Park Owners Alliance of BC
- Member, The Law Society of British Columbia
- Member, Canadian Bar Association, BC Branch
